Tim & Paula Castner
Paula is married to Tim, and she is the mother to Emily, Hannah, and Jonathan. Since graduating from Amherst College in 1994, she has filled her time with raising the children and volunteering in their schools and with their extracurricular groups; working at Lexington Christian Academy for a year and with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship for seven years; and volunteering with children's ministries and leading Bible studies and Adult Sunday School classes at Grace.
Paula is the Chief Operating Officer for Seven Bridge Writers, a writing collaborative she helped to found, as well as a freelance writer, playwright, drama director, writing workshop facilitator, baking coach, and professional administrator. Though she received her certification for writing children's literature, she writes in multiple genres. Her pieces have been published in a variety of venues, from parenting magazines, to newspapers, to online magazines, and have claimed first prize in several writing contests. Her play, A Fairy Tale Life? A Musical, with music by Canadian folk artist Nancy Beaudette, was performed recently in Lancaster, Massachusetts. Her long-term writing project is a fictionalized account of a historical court case about a slave girl from Holden, MA.
Though she has led classes on numerous topics at Grace, her heart is for helping others to love Scripture study as much as she does. She most enjoys spending time with Tim and the children, cooking, writing, acting, teaching, and creating Bible studies.
Tim has a BA in History and Russian from Middlebury College in Vermont and a MAT (Master of Arts in Teaching) in History from Boston University. He teaches US history at the Nashoba Regional High School in Bolton.
Tim’s professional work has included leading sessions for local Teaching American History Grants where he has presented on the separation of church and state in Massachusetts, the role of religion in the Civil Rights Movement, and the role of race and religion in American political history. Recently, Tim contributed two chapters to Conflicts in American History, a documentary encyclopedia of American history on The Great Awakening and the Constitutional Convention.
Tim is an active member of Grace Chapel and serves as a regular teacher in the discipleship ministry. In addition to leading inductive manuscript Bible Study classes, and co-teaching in God and Caesar, he has helped to spearhead recent classes including Turning Points in World Christian History and Timeless Truths, a survey of Christian doctrine. Tim and his wife Paula lead a Life Community in their home and are currently serving on the Life Community Support Team.