Meeting via Zoom on May 27, 2025, Mid-South Presbytery endorsed the Rev. Dr. Michael Qualls for GA Moderator
Raised in a rural setting with working-class parents Rev. Dr. Michael Qualls was the second of four Qualls boys. He and his brothers spent a lot of time in the woods, creeks, and fields near their childhood home, engendering a love of the great outdoors. The small Rose Hill Cumberland Presbyterian Church nearby was a central family focus. It was an active rural church served by “the last of the circuit-riding preachers,” a bi-vocational minister who served multiple congregations simultaneously. Preaching services were only available on the 2nd and 4th Sundays. So Dr. Qualls has always had admiration for the dedicated men and women in every church he has served who commit themselves to making sure the congregation’s spiritual needs are met, the facility is maintained, and children and youth are nurtured in the faith. Ice cream socials under the giant Oak tree shade on hot summer days, the excitement of Christmas programs, Sunday School and VBS classes using flannel board characters to tell a Jesus story are all part of the precious memories from his childhood growing up “in church.”
His firm commitment to Christ has always been shaped in this Cumberland Presbyterian family. In that Cumberland Presbyterian Church, eight-year-old Michael embraced Jesus and began a lifelong journey of learning and following him. At a Cumberland Presbyterian youth rally twelve-year-old Michael surrendered to a clarion call from God to a vocation of ministry. Fifteen-year-old Michael preached his first sermon in a Cumberland Presbyterian congregation sitting on a hillside above Cherokee, AL. By the time he graduated high school and started to college eighteen-year-old Michael was doing pulpit supply in Cumberland Presbyterian pulpits across south Arkansas while taking a full load of college courses, and, in his spare time, working an evening shift at a textile factory eight hours a day, six days a week. In 1976 he became stated supply pastor for Grace Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville where he completed his undergraduate degree with a major in speech from the University of Arkansas. In May of 1978 this degree was conferred. Later the same day Michael was ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament by Porter Presbytery now a part of Arkansas Presbytery.
Dr. Qualls continued to pursue education not to gain credentials but to enhance the gifts God has given him to be a better pastoral leader and emissary of the good news of Jesus. This is still the center of his desire. He went on to get an MDiv. from Memphis Theological Seminary in 1983, did doctoral studies with Fuller Seminary in the area of Evangelism and Church Growth and, later, earned a DMin. degree from Columbia Theological Seminary with a focus on Church Planting. His students affectionately call him “Dr. Q” but what the late Dr. Joe Ben Irby called him is still his favorite. Dr. Irby always called Michael, simply, “pastor.” Even with his other ministry Michael continues to serve regularly in congregational ministry and pulpit supply.
Dr. Qualls came to serve as Director of the Program of Alternate Studies in 2011 and the Director of the Cumberland Presbyterian House of Studies since its inception in 2019. In 2024 he was also named Vice President for Cumberland Presbyterian Church Relations. In all these capacities he continues to focus on developing pastoral leaders and helping congregations with practical ministry. Michael has accumulated a lifetime of positive relationships which translate into stories. He is good communicator and telling stories is an important part of his persona. He has a deep love for his church and uniquely maintains rapport, even close personal friendships, with persons across diverse theological perspectives. That is only possible by patient listening and genuine respect, hallmarks of Dr. Qualls’ life and ministry in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Michael treasures the experience of parenting two daughters. Grandparenting, even better! He is thankful to live quietly with his loving wife, Rhonda, in their peaceful home in Horn Lake, MS. Following the English tradition they have given their home a name: “Still Waters” from the twenty-third Psalm, a reminder of the blessing offered by the Good Shepherd. He and Rhonda cared lovingly for his mother in their home for more than sixteen years. She passed away in 2024, at the age of 98, while Michael was away at the annual Summer Extension School. He maintains that she was the best mother anyone could have.
HIGHLIGHTS IN A LIFE OF MINISTRY
- A lifelong history of positive congregational relationships.
- Forty-seven years pastoral experience in rural, small town, urban and suburban congregations. This includes seven years as the first full-time pastor of his home church, fifteen years as planter and organizing pastor of an innovative congregation reaching unchurched people, and six years as Senior Pastor of a multi-staff suburban church.
- Conducted numerous revival meetings in AR, TN, MO, TX, KY, IL.
- Served in children and youth camping programs including leading worship for CPYC.
- Participant in numerous forums aimed at maximizing local congregations for outreach.
- Judicatory experience: Moderator of Arkansas Presbytery, and Arkansas Synod. Chair of Arkansas Presbytery Board of Missions and Arkansas Synod Board of Missions, Bartholomew Presbytery Committee on Ministry, Chair of the Synod of Great Rivers Judiciary Committee, Stated Clerk of the Synod of Great Rivers.
- Served nine years on the Board of Trustees of Memphis Theological Seminary.
- Original member of West Tennessee Presbytery New Church Development Task Force.
- Member Unified Committee on Theology and Social Concerns.
