Dr. Bidwell is a pastor, scholar, pastoral counselor and spiritual director whose current research focuses on the nurture of hope in children. He teaches, writes, and practices in the communal-contextual and intercultural traditions of pastoral theology, advocating a turn to the academic discipline of spirituality as a source, norm, and criterion for the field. His courses include “Care in the Christian Community,” “Short-term Pastoral Counseling,” “Theology of the Cross and Pastoral Care,” “Pastoral Responses to Suicide,” “Practicum in Listening for Ministry,” and a D.Min. seminar in “Liberation Theology and Narrative Therapy.” He joined the PTS faculty in 2007.
Prior to teaching at PTS, Dr. Bidwell directed the Pastoral Care and Training Center, an accredited pastoral counseling center in Fort Worth, Texas. A clinical Fellow of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, Dr. Bidwell has also served as a chaplain, parish pastor, and director of a community AIDS agency. He integrates these experiences of rural, urban, and community ministry into the activities of teaching, research and writing.
Dr. Bidwell is author of Short-Term Spiritual Guidance (2004), a widely used text in theological education, and co-editor with Joretta Marshall of The Formation of Pastoral Counselors: Opportunities and Challenges (2007). Chapters and journal articles since 2007 include “Practicing the Religious Self: Buddhist-Christian Identity as Social Artifact,” in the Journal of Buddhist-Christian Studies (2008); “The Embedded Psychology of Contemporary Spiritual Direction,” in the Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health (2008); "Miraculous Knowing: Epistemology and Solution-Focused Therapy," in Handbook of Solution-focused Brief Therapy: Clinical Applications (2007); and "Formation Through Parallel Charting: Clinician Narratives and Group Supervision," in The Formation of Pastoral Counselors (2007). Upcoming projects include the articulation of a biblical spirituality for pastoral care and counseling, the empowerment of couples through narrative approaches to spiritual care, the training of pastors to prevent childhood suicide, and a critique of the literature and theological anthropology of contemporary spiritual direction.
An ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Dr. Bidwell serves on the national board of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors. He is managing editor of The Journal of Pastoral Theology and a member of the Society for Pastoral Theology, the American Academy of Religion, the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality, the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies, and Spiritual Directors International. He also serves PTS as Director of Presbyterian Ministerial Formation and as specialization coordinator for the Doctor of Ministry degree in spiritual formation.
Since 1989, Dr. Bidwell has been married to editor and publisher Karee Galloway. They have one son. The family enjoys traveling, hiking, and backpacking in Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico, and cycling along the Arkansas River.