Preaching Builds Bridges is the theme I’ve chosen as president of the Academy of Homiletics in 2024.
At the 2023 annual meeting of the Academy of Homiletics (AOH) in December, I stepped into my new role as the President of the guild.
What is the Academy of Homiletics?
The Academy was founded in 1965 and now has nearly 300 members spanning every corner of the globe. Homiletics is the study of writing and preaching sermons, and membership in the AOH is open to teachers and doctoral graduate students of homiletics.
I’ve been involved with the Academy since 2010, starting when I was a Ph.D. student at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (now United Lutheran Seminary), where I also earned my MDiv. I now serve as Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship at Lexington Theological Seminary. I was elected to the Executive Committee of the AOH in 2021, served as second vice president in 2022, and first vice president in 2023.
The theme I’ve chosen for 2024 is “Preaching Builds Bridges.”
Since 2019, when the AOH theme was “Unmasking Homiletical Whiteness,” our guild has made a concerted effort to critically look at the ways in which white hegemony has dictated how preaching is taught and research is conducted among homileticians. As evidenced by our 2022 Wabash-funded self-study of diversity, equity, and inclusion, AOH members have made considerable efforts to be more expansive and inclusive in the teaching of preaching. At the same time, there are several ways in which we can expand and deepen our efforts toward justice.
This year’s theme, “Preaching Builds Bridges,” takes up that mantle.
In 2024, we will consider the many and various ways we build bridges, especially to historically underrepresented groups, as we move from the margins to the mainstream and welcome the questions, observations, and recommendations they have for crossing divides and interrogating the structures that undermine inclusivity, access, and representation of different perspectives.
Meeting online to build bridges of access and equity
The 2024 Annual Meeting, December 5-7, will be held online in the spirit of building bridges of access and equity. In-person meetings make attendance difficult for our international members, those who have disabilities, and those who do not have institutional support for the cost of travel and lodging. While many will miss the benefits of meeting in person, the Executive Committee will be taking several steps to foster collegiality, connections, and continuing education throughout the year.
First, we will be introducing an online platform to help the AOH build bridges within our organization. Currently, our guild has no official online site to meet and connect as a professional group (though we do have a website which you can visit here). However, this new online hub will allow for an innovative way to maintain relationships, improve communications, create affinity groups, arrange for mentoring, provide continuing education and resource opportunities, and livestream webinars.
AOH Webinars in 2024
Second, we will be hosting three webinars this year supporting the theme, “Preaching Builds Bridges.”
One will be “Building Bridges within the Multilingual Preaching Classroom.”
From our self-study, we learned that many homileticians have students for whom English is not their primary language. Yet we don’t always know how best to create a pedagogical setting where they feel their gifts are welcome. This webinar will equip our members with ideas, strategies, and practical tips for creating an inclusive classroom for multilingual learners.
A second webinar will be “Building Homiletical Bridges Alongside Those with Disabilities.”
According to our self-study, this is an area that has not received as much attention in the AOH. Yet almost everyone will temporarily or permanently experience disability at some point in their lives, including our students, colleagues, and ourselves. So, this panel discussion will help us think about how our pedagogy, research, and preaching itself is impacted by different aspects of disability.
A third webinar will be “Building Homiletical Bridges for Preaching in a Climate-Changed World.”
This event will be sponsored in part by the American Association for the Advancement of Science Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion through their Climate Science in Theological Education grant. This panel discussion will connect faith and science in order to cultivate biblical, theological, and ecological imagination in our classrooms and pulpits as we face the environmental crises that are affecting our students, communities, and Creation.
Preaching builds bridges in a divisive time
As we get closer to the annual meeting, we will share more details about the other topics we will address, particularly around building bridges with the LGBTQIA+ community and with preachers in emerging and non-traditional settings (e.g., itinerant preachers, chaplains, lay preachers, etc.)
In the meantime, if you are a preacher or a teacher of preachers, I invite you to think about the many ways in which preaching builds bridges. Especially as we are heading into another presidential election year that portends to be divisive, building bridges is essential. Sermons already link the biblical text, theology, and context in organic ways. As we expand and deepen our work toward diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, we welcome the multiple ways that our members and practicing preachers will build bridges through their ministries of pastoring, preaching, teaching, and research.
Read also:
Using a “Dialogical Lens” for Scripture and Preaching
What is “Good Preaching”? A Sermon about Sermons
8 Ways to Prepare Your Congregation for Sermons about Social Issues
The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade is the Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship at Lexington Theological Seminary in Kentucky and ordained in the ELCA. Dr. Schade does not speak for LTS or the ELCA; her opinions are her own. She is the author of Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) and Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology, and the Pulpit (Chalice Press, 2015). She is the co-editor of Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). Her newest book is Introduction to Preaching: Scripture, Theology, and Sermon Preparation, co-authored with Jerry L. Sumney and Emily Askew (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023). Leah is serving as the President of the Academy of Homiletics in 2024.
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