2010 Annual Meeting

The Call to Preach

The “Call to Preach” is riddled by Scripture, riddled with theology, and to be sure riddles our preaching.  One’s theology of preaching is often expressed through a theology of call.  Divine inspiration and divine sanction raise critical questions about call narratives in Scripture. The voice of the pulpit claims authority in the Church for devotional lives of personal faith and public lives of moral action or social justice.  At times, distorted notions of call mark tragic theological and social barriers to pulpit access. Who is allowed to preach?  What is allowed in preaching?  How? Homiletic methodology and pedagogy wrestle no less with these same dynamics from The Call to Preach. Both our students’ embrace and passive resistance to the tasks of learning homiletics in our classrooms revolve often around sacred appeals to call. The anguish over sermon critique consistently reveals distress to call narratives and divine activity. And yet the in-breaking mystery of revelation in preaching, even with all of our inadequacies, abuses, or frailty, is somehow illumined by the mystery of call. This year’s conference theme and “call” for papers offer no fewer challenges and opportunities to learn, explore, and press our scholarship. We welcome your paper submission to one of the nine available workgroups.

Registration

 All registration for the Annual Meeting is online.  Academy Members can register for both the Academy of Homiletics Meeting and SBL.  Everyone attending the Academy Meeting will have to register for SBL also and will be able to pay annual member dues when registering for the Meeting.  Register by June 1 to receive the early bird discount.  CLICK HERE to register for the Annual Meeting. 

Those not attending the annual meeting can renew their membership to the Academy of Homiletics and pay member dues.  CLICK HERE to renew membership and pay member dues if not attending the Annual Meeting.

Papers

In order to make it possible for the Academy papers to be posted with SBL papers this year, the Executive Committee has moved the deadline for the submission of papers to August 15.

Information regarding papers for the Working Groups of the Academy of Homiletics can be found on the Paper Archive page. 

The Homiletics and Biblical Studies section of the Society of Biblical Literature issues an invitation to all the members of the Academy of Homiletics to submit paper proposals for the annual meeting of SBL in Atlanta.  The Academy will be an affiliate member with the SBL this year and part of this standing is the opportunity to present at SBL.
To submit a paper proposal for the open call of the Homiletics and Biblical Studies section, or if you have any questions, you can e-mail Dwayne Howell, Chair, Homiletics and Biblical Studies Section.

2010 Conference Program Highlights 

Thursday

4:00 – 6:00 pm     Registration

6:00 pm     Opening Worship.  Dr. Bent Flemming Nielsen, Associate Professor, Copenhagen University, Denmark, will preach. 

7:00 pm     Welcome Reception

7:30 – 9:00 pm     Featured Event: "Fireside Chat with the Elders" on the Annual Meeting’s theme.  Participants will be: Christine King Farris, Professor Emerita, Spelman College, sister of Rev., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; David Buttrick, Professor Emeritus, Vanderbilt University; Henry Mitchell, Professor Emeritus, Interdenominational Theological Center; Joan Delaplane, Professor Emerita, Aquinas Institute of Theology. 

Friday

9:00 am     Morning Worship.  Rev. Seung-Nam Kim will preach in the Korean "Chang" folk opera preaching tradition. 

10:00 am     Keynote Address by Rev. James Lawson, civil rights activist, non-violence workshop trainer, and pastor.

11:30 am     Keynote Address by Dr. Diana Hayes, Womanist theologian in the Roman Catholic tradition, Professor at Georgetown University. 

1:45 – 4:30 pm     Workgroups – Papers

6:30 – 7:30 pm     Featured Tour: The historic civil rights church, Ebenezer Baptist Church

7:30 – 8:30 pm     African American Caucus Worship:  The Academy of Homiletics and Ebenezer.  Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor at Ebenezer Church, will preach.

Saturday

9:00 am     Morning Worship.  Dr. Jana Childers of San Francisco Theological Seminary and First Vice President of the Academy of Homiletics will preach. 

10:00 am     Keynote Address by Dr. Jacquelyn Grant, Womanist theologian, Director of the Center for Black Women in Church and Society, Professor at Interdenominational Theological Center. 

11:30 am     Business Meeting

6:00 – 9:30 pm     Reception and Banquet.  Ambassador, Rev. Andrew Young, civil rights activist, politician, and minister, will address banquet attendees.

 Back to top

2009 Annual Meeting Summary

"Preaching and the News"

Speakers addressed in a unique way the program theme, "Preaching and the News."
Mike McCurry, On Saturday night, the banquet speaker was Mike McCurry, who served as White House Press Secretary to former President Bill Clinton. 
Julia C. Duin, A featured lecturers was Julia Duin, the award-winning religion editor and senior writer for The Washington Times in Washington D.C. 
William F. Fore, The other featured lecturer for this years Academy of Homiletics meeting was William Fore, one of the true pioneers of mainstream Christianity and American journalism and mass media. 

As has been the tradition of the Academy, the annual meeting was marked by services of worship and preaching. 

Barry C. Black, the 62nd Chaplain of the United States Senate, was the preacher at the Academy’s Saturday morning worship service.
Karyn Wiseman, Academy Member and Associate Professor of Ministerial Studies at Hood Theological Seminary, was the preacher for the Friday morning worship service.  She preached in the absence of Kay Northcutt who was unable to attend. 
Michael Quicke was the preacher for the Thursday evening worship service.  Michael is an Academy Member and holds the Charles W. Koller Chair in Preaching and Communication at the Northern Seminary in Chicago. 

The 2009 Meeting also featured a Thursday evening panel discussion of the topic "Publishing in Difficult Economic Times."  Editors from three Publishing Houses (Abingdon, John Knox, Fortress) were joined by four Academy Members with expemplary publishing records. 

 Back to top