Preaching in an Election Year: What the Bible Can Teach Us about Dialogue in a Divisive Time
An online workshop for preachers led by the Rev. Dr. Leah Schade, Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship at Lexington Theological Seminary
Tuesday, February 13
12:00-2:00 ET / 9:00-11:00 PT
How can preachers guide their congregations through the polarizing politics of an election year so that they are true to the gospel and attentive to their contexts?
Program:
Welcome and Introductions
Small Group Connections
Session One: Ministry in a House Divided: Finding the Purple Zone
Red state/blue state politics threaten the foundations of our democracy and tear the fabric of our churches. Congregations and church leaders need new perspectives and insights for navigating this difficult time. Rev. Dr. Leah Schade will offer an overview of “the purple zone” based her longitudinal research of nearly 3000 clergy and 1000 laity from 2017-2023. She will then introduce a method for engaging issues of public concern called the “sermon-dialogue-sermon” process which enables congregations to find the values that bind them together and respond faithfully to God’s Word.
Session Two: Can We Talk? Preaching Lenten Texts with a Dialogical Lens
Ministry in the red-blue divide is fraught with risks, but also offers opportunities for proclaiming the gospel and building community in profound and contextual ways. Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade will help clergy focus on insights from Scripture that can offer us wisdom in the midst of our fractured society. Based on her book Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), Dr. Schade will introduce a “dialogical lens” for reading the Bible. Participants will examine biblical texts for Lent using this dialogical lens which will provide sermon ideas for preachers and study opportunities with laity.
Small Group Working Session
Q&A and Closing Moments
The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade is the Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship at Lexington Theological Seminary in Lexington, Kentucky. An ordained Lutheran minister (ELCA) for more than twenty years, Leah earned both her MDiv and PhD degrees from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (now United Lutheran Seminary). She has pastored three Pennsylvania congregations in suburban, urban, and rural contexts. Her book, Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), explores how clergy and congregations can address controversial social issues using nonpartisan, biblically-centered approaches and deliberative dialogue. She is also the author of Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology, and the Pulpit (Chalice Press, 2015), and co-editor with Margaret Bullitt-Jonas of Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019).
Dr. Schade received a grant from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion to study deliberative dialogue in classrooms and congregations and also served as a consultant with the United Methodist Church Great Plains Conference training pastors in the sermon-dialogue-sermon method. She has conducted longitudinal research on ministry, preaching, and social issues that has surveyed nearly 3,000 clergy and 1,000 laity since 2017. Dr. Schade received the Kentucky Council of Churches award in 2019 and is the EcoPreacher blogger for Patheos. She is currently serving as the President of the Academy of Homiletics.