Compelling Preaching in a Climate Changed World

The Compelling Preaching for a Climate-Changed World initiative builds on a pilot project in 2022-23 called the EcoPreacher Cohort which engaged more than 100 participants in a year-long program of monthly gatherings equipping preachers for spiritual leadership during this time of climate and environmental crisis. The grant will allow for building and expanding this program over the next five years through sermon coaching groups, peer networks, workshops and webinars, and an online digital resource hub with text studies, preaching helps, and model sermons. The project will also include a research component studying clergy and congregations to better understand how preachers are responding to the challenges of a climate-changed world and how the skills and resources provided by the program can be utilized throughout the church

What is EcoPreacher?

As our climate-changed and changing world continues to demand courage, imagination, and resourcefulness, congregations and their leaders have a unique opportunity to offer prophetic voices of possibility. With their skills and community connections, preachers are in a special position to offer spiritual guidance in the quest for understanding, connection, and resilience in a world in need of environmental healing and wholeness.

Following on from a successful EcoPreacher Cohort in 2022-2023, and with the desire to support, educate, and engage preachers in the integration of climate consciousness into their preaching, Creation Justice Ministries has partnered with The BTS Center and Lexington Theological Seminary to offer this ten-month cohort of learning, companionship, and exploration that will begin in September 2024.

This cohort will offer monthly sessions to help preachers understand climate change and other environmental justice issues more deeply as spiritual crises that require creative, faith-rooted action. Our intentions for this cohort are:

To help preachers develop and hone the skill of eco-preaching so that they might proclaim the gospel more effectively and faithfully in a climate-changed world
To help preachers learn and experiment with forms of communication that convey the Christian message and speak to the climate crisis in both traditional and non-traditional venues and platforms
To equip pastors to be able to address issues of environmental justice and environmental racism from their particular pulpit, regardless of context
To nurture pastoral awareness of climate anxiety and dread, as well as ecological grief, so that preachers may speak with compassion and insight, acknowledging the ever-growing mental health implications of the climate crisis
To enable preachers and their congregations to increasingly understand climate change as a justice issue and a spiritual crisis that requires creative, faith-rooted action informed by their Christian vocation
To create a covenanted space for preachers to learn and reflect together as they regularly preach in a climate-changed world
To create diverse, respectful, identity-forming ecumenical groups that welcome preachers from many ministry settings
To increase engagement with the EcoPreacher 1-2-3 resources being offered through the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, the Green Lectionary Podcast, and other eco-preaching and eco-liturgical resources made available through a dynamic resource hub
To assess and communicate the impacts of eco-preaching and develop detailed descriptions of the congregational contexts of eco-preachers by engaging in quantitative and qualitative research.

Facilitated by Rev. Nicole Diroff of The BTS Center and Derrick Weston of Creation Justice Ministries, this cohort will offer an expansive opportunity for connection, creativity, and grounded responses to climate change through the art of preaching.

Research note: EcoPreacher Cohort members will take part in periodic individual and congregational surveys. Select members will also be invited to take part in research-focused interviews and focus group conversations. These surveys and conversations will assess the ways in which participation in the EcoPreacher Cohort is making a tangible difference in the work and lives of its participants and will inform future cohorts as well as influence developments in homiletics and theological education more broadly.

Questions about the EcoPreacher Cohort? Contact Creation Justice Ministries’ Theological Education and Training Coordinator Derrick Weston at derrick@creationjustice.org.

Application, Dates, and Cost

Application Process:

Beginning June 1, 2024, applications for the 2024-2025 cohort will be accepted.
Application deadline: August 12, 2024
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
By August 19, 2024, commitment forms will be due with a $200 program fee or request for financial assistance.

Program Fee: $200

Payment plan options and need-based financial assistance will be available.
With thanks to AAAS, seminary students will be eligible to participate for free.

2.0 CEU Tracks Offered For: