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Douglas W. Oldenburg (February 22, 1935 to July 21, 2020) was a Christian pastor and President Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary in the US. He served as the moderator of the 210th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1998.
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Douglas W. Oldenburg (February 22, 1935 to July 21, 2020) was a Christian pastor and President Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary in the US. He served as the moderator of the 210th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1998.
Douglas Oldenburg was born on February 22, 1935, in Muskegon, Michigan and grew up in Signal Mountain, Tennessee and Charlotte, North Carolina. His parents were Frederika Nordoff and Theodore Oldenburg; his father had immigrated from Amsterdam as a small child. [1]
He attended college at Davidson College, where he earned a B.S. in 1956. In 1960, he continued to Union Theological Seminary in Virginia where he received a B.D. in 1960, and went on to study at Yale Divinity School where he earned his S.T.M. in 1961.
He was also awarded four honorary Doctorate of Divinity degrees (Rhodes College, Budapest Reformed Theological Academy, St. Andrews Presbyterian College, and Davis and Elkins College) and two honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (Hastings College and Davidson College).
During his time at Davidson College, he was an officer in the ROTC, a Lieutenant in the US Army and served as part of the Chaplaincy as a Captain in the Army Reserve. [2]
Following his graduation from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, he served as pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. After seven years he served as a pastor at Davis Memorial Church in Elkins, West Virginia. He then served as pastor in the city where he grew up, Charlotte, North Carolina.
Oldenburg also served on local committees in several communities. In Lynchburg, Virginia he helped to organize the Kum Ba Ya House ministry for disadvantaged children. In Elkins, West Virginia he led a successful vote on a bond levy to raise teacher salaries. In Charlotte, North Carolina he was on the Board of United Community Services and was a co-founder and board member of Crisis Assistance Ministry. He received the Martin Luther King, Jr. award and The Order of the Hornet of Mecklenburg County. In Atlanta, Georgia he served on the board of Global Health Action and the University Center of Georgia and worked to co-ordinate relationships between the presidents of all the seminaries of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
After serving a total of 26 years as pastor, he then became the seventh president of Columbia Theological Seminary in 1987, which he held until his retirement in 2000. [3]
He served many institutions and churches including the Presbyterian Church (USA). He served on a variety of committees for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and became the moderator of the 210th General Assembly in 1998. [4] His platform largely centered on theological education and social justice. He called for support of the ordination of educators and for unity among the nation's church related colleges and universities. As Moderator, he called for every congregation and presbytery to engage in a program of study about what Presbyterians believe about the Bible and how they read the Bible. [5]
For many years, he served on the board of Focused Community Strategies (FCS Urban Ministries) and the Protestant Radio and Television Center (now called Day1). [6]
In 2018, Oldenburg was recognized as a distinguished leader in theological education by the Committee on Theological Education and the Theological Education Fund at the General Assembly for the Presbyterian Church (USA) for his commitment and contribution to theological education and the Presbyterian Church. [7]
He contributed several articles to different publications. These include:
Oldenburg was married to Claudia and they had three sons.
The Presbyterian Church (USA), abbreviated PC (USA), is a mainline Protestant denomination in the United States. It is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the country, known for its liberal stance on doctrine and its ordaining of women and members of the LGBT community as elders and ministers. The Presbyterian Church (USA) was established with the 1983 merger of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, whose churches were located in the Southern and border states, with the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, whose congregations could be found in every state.
Union Presbyterian Seminary is a Presbyterian seminary in Richmond, Virginia, and Charlotte, North Carolina, offering graduate theological education in multiple modalities: in-person, hybrid, and online.
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (UTS) is a private ecumenical Christian liberal seminary in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, affiliated in Columbia University. Since 1928, the seminary has served as Columbia's constituent faculty of theology. In 1964, UTS also established an affiliation with the neighboring Jewish Theological Seminary of America. UTS confers the following degrees: Master of Divinity (MDiv), Master of Divinity & Social Work dual degree (MDSW), Master of Arts in religion (MAR), Master of Arts in Social Justice (MASJ), Master of Sacred Theology (STM), and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).
Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) is a theological seminary in the Reformed theological tradition with campuses in multiple locations in the United States. Founded by conservatives in the Southern Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian Church in the United States, in 1966, it serves primarily students from more conservative branches of the Presbyterian and Reformed traditions.
Columbia Theological Seminary is a Presbyterian seminary in Decatur, Georgia. It is one of ten theological institutions affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Joan S. Gray was elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA) at the 217th General Assembly on June 15, 2006. As moderator, she served as the presiding officer of the week-long General Assembly meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, followed by a two-year term as the ambassador-at-large for the denomination. She has also spent many years working in various churches and is currently serving as part of the faculty at Columbia Theological Seminary.
Syngman Rhee was a Presbyterian minister who served as the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 2000.
Bryan Chapell is an American pastor and theologian who currently serves as the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in America. He was previously the senior pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois. Prior to that he was president and chancellor of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri for twenty years. Chapell is also an author, lecturer, and conference speaker specializing in homiletics. He served as Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in America in 2014.
The San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS) is a seminary in San Anselmo, California with historic ties to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). SFTS became embedded in a new Graduate School of Theology of the University of Redlands in 2019. It was founded by the Synod of California in 1871.
Elmer Leon Towns is an American Christian academic, pastor and writer who co-founded Liberty University alongside Jerry Falwell in 1971. Towns is also a prominent Christian leader and speaker on the principles of church growth, church leadership, Christian education, Sunday school, and prayer and fasting. He has written over 170 books, eight of which are listed on the Christian Booksellers Association Best Selling List. In 1995, his book The Names of the Holy Spirit received the Gold Medallion Award from the Evangelical Christian Booksellers Association for Book of the Year in Biblical Study. Most recently Towns has served as Dean of the B. R. Lakin School of Religion, Dean of Liberty University Baptist Theological Seminary, and Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Liberty University. In fall 2013, Towns announced he would be taking a sabbatical from his teaching and administrative duties to focus on speaking and writing.
Bruce Reyes-Chow is a teaching elder (minister) of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
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Edward V. Ramage was a minister of the Presbyterian Church in the United States in Alabama.
Laura S. Mendenhall is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church USA and was previously the president of Columbia Theological Seminary. She is now the Senior Philanthropy Advisor for the Texas Presbyterian Foundation.
Stephen A. Hayner was an American Presbyterian minister who was the president of Columbia Theological Seminary, a professor, an author, and the former president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
Edward Porter Humphrey (1809–1886) was an American Presbyterian minister, orator, writer, and moderator of the national Presbyterian General Assembly. He was a planner and co-founder of Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.
Rachel Henderlite was an American religious leader who was the first woman to be ordained a pastor of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS), which later merged with the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (1983) to become the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. She held professorships at several American colleges and seminaries, wrote six books, and was active in various ecumenical efforts.
Shannon Johnson Kershner is the current pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago. Succeeding John Buchanan as Fourth's pastor, Kershner was voted to lead the congregation on March 2, 2014. She began serving the community on May 1 of that year, and gave her first sermon to the congregation on May 18. Kershner has previously worked as pastor at Black Mountain Presbyterian Church in Black Mountain, North Carolina and Woodhaven Presbyterian Church in Irving, Texas. She graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas with a Bachelor of Arts degree before going on to receive a Master of Divinity from Columbia Theological Seminary. While studying at Columbia, Kershner served as a Pastoral Intern in Texas and Georgia, most prominently at Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. Shannon has a husband named Greg Kershner, and two children, Hannah Kershner and Ryan Kershner. Greg is a Financial Advisor at Raymond James Financial and went to Baylor University before he attended Columbia Theological Seminary.
Joseph Obiri Yeboah Mante also known as J.O.Y. Mante is a Ghanaian theologian and Presbyterian minister who currently serves as the 18th Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG), equivalent to the chief executive officer or managing director of the national church organisation. Prior to his appointment as moderator he served as the President of the Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon for 7 years. In August 2018, Joseph Obiri Yeboah Mante was elected the new Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG) to succeed Cephas Narh Omenyo, the then incumbent, who had been ill for over a year and the General Assembly had to take a decision to declare the moderator seat vacant to allow new leadership.