Martin Thielen

Martin Thielen is the author of the best-selling What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian? and The Answer to Bad Religion Is Not No Religion. He writes columns for Ministry Matters.com, Circuit Rider, and Net Results and is Senior Pastor of Cookeville United Methodist Church in Cookeville, Tennessee.

Before coming to Cookeville, Martin served three other Middle Tennessee churches, including First United Methodist Church of Lebanon, Tennessee. During his decade-long tenure at Lebanon, the church experienced significant revitalization and growth.

Before transferring to the United Methodist Church, Martin served as a pastor and denominational worker for the Southern Baptist Convention. He worked for four years as a national worship and preaching consultant and editor of Proclaim for the SBC. He has led more than one hundred church leadership workshops for ministers across the country. He also served as an adjunct professor of worship and preaching at a seminary.

Martin has a bachelor of arts, a master of divinity, and a doctor of ministry degree, along with a year of PhD coursework at Vanderbilt University. Writing for publication has long been an important part of Martin's ministry. He has written five books, four of them on the subject of worship and preaching, and more than one hundred articles. His doctor of ministry project was "Ministering to Ministers through Writing." You can visit Martin's preaching and worship Web site at www.GettingReadyForSunday.com.

Martin and his wife Paula are the parents of two adult children and the proud grandparents a new granddaughter.