About David Schell

Hi! My name is David. I’m a huge theology nerd, which is part of how I ended up with a Master’s in Divinity from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and ended up an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

I’m a progressive Christian blogger and storyteller, and I realize that just the words “progressive Christian” mean a lot of things to a lot of people. If you like that sort of thing, you might automatically assume I’m on your side. If you don’t like that sort of thing, you might automatically assume that I hate the Bible, don’t believe in the trinity, or uncritically accepted all sorts of things. If you want my opinion about something, search the site. It’s probably here – or at least what I believed about that thing when I wrote it. Faith evolves.

I am currently PC(USA) Presbyterian, but I’m a bit of an ecclesiastical mutt. The first church I remember was Evangelical Methodist, followed by Southern Baptist, followed by a Charismatic, Pentecostal non-denominational church in Pittsburgh where people spoke in tongues and got slain in the Spirit and had healing services and the whole nine yards. Then my family attended an Independent Fundamental Bible-Believing Baptist church, after which I moved out and got connected with a non-denominational church and another church whose pastor was (I think) ordained in Assemblies of God.

Then I served at a United Methodist camp called Jumonville, attended a United Brethren in Christ college (whose faculty came from across dozens of Christian denominations). Along the way I read some stuff by Shane Claiborne and got some Anabaptist (historic peace churches) mixed in there. When I graduated and married my lovely wife Kristen, we found that a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation was a good fit for us as a couple, though I flirted for a while with the United Church of Christ, Church of the Brethren, and have a number of friends I deeply respect who are Mennonite (MCUSA) (no, not the semi-Amish Mennonites). Then I went to Pittsburgh Theological Seminary for my M. Div., which is officially a PC(USA) school but has influences from lots of other traditions.

In college I majored in Film Production, but also took classes on Christianity. They relieved me of my impression that I knew everything there was to know about it. I also took classes on sociology, psychology, western civilization, the Old Testament, and philosophy. These classes relieved me of my impression that I knew jack about anything. Then I went to seminary and graduated knowing more facts and also less. And yet, here I blog.

I’m happily married to my lovely wife Kristen, and as of 2018, am a dad.

If you want to talk, comment on a post, tweet me @davidmschell, find me at facebook.com/davidmschell, leave a comment after the contact form, or send me a message with the form below.

If you want to read my fundamentalist friends would call a testimony, click here.

If you’re not on facebook and want to send me a message, my address is my first name at my website URL.