Preaching intensives

Chloe’s Circle is designed to gather women from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and focus on a specific justice theme. During this intensive, we deliberately seek to foster conversations concerning disparity and injustice that affect us all. These conversations help us sharpen our preaching and speaking skills to reflect our commitments to justice based in God’s call through Jesus. We believe that women from every walk of life, working together, can not only amplify the message but also help build a movement that includes as many justice lovers as possible.

Themes for Chloe’s Circle are selected with collaborating partners and feature a Wisdom Partner that can offer their expertise on the chosen topic.

Championed by Dr. Bridgeman, Dr. emilie townes, the late Dr. Dale Andrews, and the late Dr. James Cone, Sophie’s Table is a result of earnest conversations with several preaching men. They saw the deep value in a forum where preaching men could learn together about issues confronting the women they pastor. The title, “Sophie’s Table: A Conversation Among Siblings,” is a nod toward strong wisdom traditions, which people have been called to as far back as Proverbs. We chose siblings to signify persons of all genders are welcome in the conversation.

Themes for Sophie’s Table focus on amplifying the voices of people of marginalized genders, women, and children and dealing radically with the perpetuation of patriarchy, misogyny, and toxic masculinity in the church.

The goal of Women’s Work is to challenge and inspire participants to approach the Biblical text differently. This intensive gives participants a practical way to get into the text and find a prophetic message and voice while proclaiming The Gospel. Using Womanist praxis and group interrogation, each person can learn, practice, and hone new sermon preparation and preaching skills.

Texts selected for Women’s Work focus on overlooked texts and Biblical characters: the unnamed, the missing, women, children, marginalized groups, voiceless persons in the text, etc.