Rev. Abigail Visco Rusert

Rev. Abigail Visco Rusert (she/her), Research Advisory Board

Abigail is the Director of the Institute for Youth Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary, where her work bridges theological discourse with the practice of youth ministry: creating programs, resources, and classes for Christian ministry leaders. She is the Principal Investigator on the Log College Project grant, funded by the Lilly Endowment to research and establish a process for helping churches to design new forms of youth ministry.

A Presbyterian minister, frequent speaker, and author, Abigail has worked as an associate pastor, researcher, youth director, chaplain, and camp counselor. She lives with her spouse, Thomas, and children Dorothy, Solveig, and Frank in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

Her life mission and goals dovetail well with her involvement with Springtide: “I strive to cultivate generous and welcoming spaces of joy, laughter, love, exploration, and collaboration among unlikely groupings of people so that they grow in their love of God, their communities, and themselves, and lean into their God-given gifts to change the world. I also strive to lift up the stories of innovation that are creatively reshaping the work of the church. One of the questions I’m asking in my day-to-day work is: How is the church called to redesign and rebuild the bridges between young people, Christian faith, and congregational ministry? I think that the research conducted by Springtide will inform these questions through bridges built across the lines of religious dialogue, instigating innovation and creative collaboration.