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Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship and Director of the Pause/Play Center for Preachers

Phone: 913-253-5017
Email:
Curriculum Vitae

Education

PhD in Homiletics and Liturgics, Vanderbilt University
M.Div., McCormick Theological Seminary
BA in Theater and Film, University of Kansas

Denomination

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Discipline or Specialty

Preaching, Worship, & Practical Theology

Disciplinary/Research Interests

Technoculture, new media, social media and its impact on preaching and worship; Process theology and preaching and worship; Liturgy in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); Emerging Church Worship; Lament and Preaching/Worship

What do you hope your students come away with when they leave your classroom?

I hope that students in my classroom will always walk away with certain habits that will carry over into other classes, and especially into a career of leading the worship of God's people:

• The habit of asking what sort of person/s our religious practices are forming for the world.
• The habit of discerning one's embedded theological lenses so that each student can engage in religious practices with integrity as they deliberatively come to voice.
• The habit of listening across a range of voices and contexts of religious practice to appreciate the wisdom organic to various times, places, and traditions while also appreciating one's local wisdom borne of context, and, finally,
• The habit of curiosity and appreciative inquiry when encountering novelty and mystery rather than defensiveness and dismissiveness.

What is your teaching style?

I teach with a lot of enthusiasm for the subject, and I always explain the “why” behind this enthusiasm in the hopes that students will also be enthusiastic about their careful study and practices of preaching and worship in the church. I lecture but not exclusively. I love to steer into organic discussions based on situations in ministry that bring theoretical concepts about the practice into embodiment. Students will also practice in my classroom, be it a baptism or a sermon. They are active learners!

Representative Courses Taught:

PRE 401, Introduction to Preaching

PRE 444, The Ministry of Preaching in a Digital Age

WOR 301, Worship: Choreographing the Movement of God’s Kindom Come

WOR 415, Designing and Leading Worship

PCM 312, Dinner Church Movement

PCM 316, Preaching and Technology

Recent Publications

"Hard to See Them Happy: Queering Christian Music as Liturgical Justice and Radical Love.” Liturgy 41, no. 2–3 (2026). .

Engaging the Gadfly: How to Move from Reactionary to Reflective Hybrid, online, and In Person Preaching in the Digital Age.��Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock; Cascade Books, Summer 2025.

“How to Start Designing Worship from a Process Perspective.” In��Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God, edited by Jeffry Wells, Nichole Torbitzsky, Vikki Randall, and Thomas Jay Oord. Grasmere, ID: SacraSage Press, 2024.

“The Courage to Preach in the Digital Age.” For the special issue of��Religions. Preaching in the Revolutionary Era of Digital Technology and Social Media: Homiletical-Theological Assessment and Strategic Suggestions. 14 (551) (2023).

“Failure to Discern the Online/Hybrid Body: A Captivity of the Eucharist.” For the special issue��of Currents in Theology and Mission: Eucharist and Online Worship: Toward Extended Theological Reflection, vol. 50, no. 1 (2023).

��“Blessed is the One Whose Bowels Can Move: An Essay in Praise of Lament.” For the special issue of��Religions. Contemporary Christian Worship and Praise: Liturgy, Preaching, and Music in Today’s Church, 13 (12) (2022).

“Reaching Out for Community in a Digital World: Problems & Possibilities.”��Word & World: Solitude and Community,��Vol. 42, No. 2, Spring 2022.

“Preaching from the Perspective of Process Theology.” In��Preaching the Manifold Grace of God: Theologies of Preaching in the Early Twenty-First Century��Vol. 2, edited by Ronald J. Allen. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2022.