About the author

Deborah Adams Phelps, Ph.D. is an award-winning professional educator with over 28 years of classroom experience in public and private secondary schools. Her experience includes curriculum development, teacher education, leadership training, and assessment. Her classroom experience includes years of working with high risk and emotionally disturbed teenagers.

She earned a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Georgia State University, specializing in real-life applications of curriculum: helping students connect the curriculum they learn to their everyday lives. Dr. Phelps has lifelong experience in Christian education on every level, having taught, directed, and written curriculum in youth programs, Sunday School, Bible study, camps and conferences, and Vacation Bible School.

One of five children, Phelps was born at Wright-Patterson AFB hospital near Dayton, Ohio. She spent her childhood in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. After a family move, Deborah attended high school and college in Georgia, where she was active in church offices and activities, camps and conferences, and high school and college sports.

She is married to Dean Phelps, a Kentucky native, musician, and ordained minister on the regional staff of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Indiana. Dean previously served in Georgia, but his call to Indiana allowed Debbie to answer a call to devote herself to full time Christian ministry. She is currently working on a Master’s degree in Specialized Ministry at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis.

Dr. Phelps is a lifelong member of Disciples of Christ churches, as were her mother and grandmother. She sees her husband, mother and grandmother as her special inspiration for this work. Her grandmother, Lillie Rosebery, was active in both Disciples and Independent Christian Churches in Oklahoma, "depending on where she lived.” "She was an exceptional teacher, both in word and deed, who rubbed off on all around her—and the most true Christian I have ever known," Phelps explains. "She lived Christ’s Word in a way that I have tried to capture and share with readers through many of the lessons of this study."