Nancy guthrie
Executive summary
Nancy Guthrie is a prominent evangelical Bible teacher, author and grief ministry leader who teaches at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church and leads Biblical Theology Workshops for women while hosting the Help Me Teach the Bible podcast [1] [2]. Her ministry is shaped by personal tragedy—two children born with Zellweger syndrome who each lived about six months—and by a longstanding focus on helping people apply Scripture to real suffering and church life [3] [4] [5].
1. Career and ministry in brief: a Bible teacher with a pastoral bent
Guthrie’s public identity centers on teaching Scripture in churches and conferences both in the U.S. and internationally; she runs Biblical Theology Workshops for women and is a regular conference speaker, presenting a mix of academic study and pastoral application that has become her hallmark [1] [6]. Her formal theological training includes a degree in theological studies from Reformed Theological Seminary and other graduate coursework noted in profiles and bios, which she leverages in curricula designed to “infiltrate” women’s Bible study in local churches with biblical theology [3] [7] [1].
2. Personal story that informs her message: grief, family, and resilience
A defining element of Guthrie’s platform is her personal story of loss: two of her children, Hope and Gabriel, were born with the fatal metabolic disorder Zellweger syndrome and each lived approximately six months, an experience she wrote about in Holding On to Hope and that now shapes her teaching on suffering and pastoral care [3] [4] [5]. That lived experience is presented consistently across her profiles as the wellspring for her compassion-focused writing and for resources aimed at grieving families, including hosting Respite Retreats and co‑hosting the GriefShare video series [8] [4].
3. Books, podcasts and workshops: what she produces and why it matters
Guthrie is a prolific author of devotional and theological resources—titles include Holding On to Hope and The One Year Book of Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament—and she hosts the Help Me Teach the Bible podcast for The Gospel Coalition, which extends her voice into pastoral training and lay education [3] [2]. During the pandemic she adapted her Biblical Theology Workshops for women to online delivery, reflecting both demand for her teaching and a strategic embrace of digital ministry formats [6].
4. Networks and influence: where Guthrie’s work is amplified
Her work appears on platforms associated with conservative evangelical networks—The Gospel Coalition, Crossway, Desiring God—and she frequently collaborates with well-known figures in that ecosystem, which both amplifies her reach and situates her within a particular theological and denominational milieu that values expository and biblical-theological approaches [2] [9] [10]. Those affiliations broaden her audience but also align her with editorial and doctrinal commitments that readers should recognize when assessing her perspective.
5. Practical ministry impact and reported programs
Beyond books, Guthrie and her husband run grief-focused initiatives—Respite Retreats and involvement with GriefShare used in thousands of churches—demonstrating an organizational commitment to sustained support for bereaved families rather than only authorial sympathy [8]. Her emphasis on concrete guidance for interacting with grieving people culminated in What Grieving People Wish You Knew, a resource she developed from interviews and pastoral experience to specify helpful and harmful responses [9].
6. Caveats, critique and unanswered questions
Available profiles are consistently positive and draw heavily on Guthrie’s own account of events and ministry; independent journalistic scrutiny of program outcomes, attendee diversity, or long-term effectiveness of her workshops is not present in the provided sources, so assertions about measurable impact or critique beyond theological alignment cannot be responsibly made from these documents [3] [8] [6]. Likewise, while her network of conservative evangelical publishers and ministries bolsters reach, readers should note the possible editorial and theological priorities shaping how her work is promoted [2] [10].