Compelling Preach Initiative
Building New Tables: Queering Womanist and Feminist Preaching
At Chicago Theological Seminary, Building New Tables: Queering Womanist and Feminist Preaching reimagines the future of proclamation. Funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Compelling Preaching Initiative, this multi-year effort cultivates bold, justice-centered preaching by centering womanist and feminist voices and queering traditional homiletical frameworks. Rooted in CTS’s legacy of prophetic scholarship and social transformation, the initiative gathers preachers, scholars, and faith leaders around new “tables” of interpretation—spaces of collaboration, critical reflection, and embodied practice. Through partnerships, mentorship, and public engagement, the program equips leaders to proclaim sacred texts with theological depth, cultural awareness, and liberative imagination for congregations and communities across traditions.
Programming
In partnership with The Gathering, Building New Tables comes to life through national cohorts, preaching residencies, and innovative course offerings that form practitioners in community. Participants engage a Queering Womanist Preaching framework that integrates spiritual formation, theological rigor, embodied practice, and public witness. Together, these pathways nurture preachers who are not simply adapting inherited models but courageously constructing new spaces of proclamation shaped by justice, inclusion, and transformative imagination.
Learn more about the program and upcoming opportunities
2024-2025 Events/Activities
November 12th–February 25th – Phase I Design Team – Develop QWP Framework
Jan 24th-25th Grant Managers Retreat
February 26th – Communal Exegesis with Dr. Renita J. Weems
March 24th-26th – Compelling Preaching Lilly Endowment Meeting
April 9th-24th – Webinar Preaching Series: That’s Not What That Means: Re-Storying Harmful Theological Perspectives and Biblical Interpretations About HIV and LGBTQIA+ Communities
April 18th – Queering Good Friday – Queering Womanist Preaching of The Seven Last Sayings of Jesus on the Cross
April 22nd–July 22nd – Phase II – Curriculum Design and Course Development Cohort
May 24th – Dialogical Preaching with the Congregation (In Person and Online)
June 18th-19th – Budget Retreat
July 25th-26th – Womanist Preaching & Leadership Institute – “Building New Tables”
October 8th – Building New Tables: A Womanist-Feminist Preaching Dialogue Colloquy, exploring Preaching as Public Address at Chicago Theological Seminary.
September 25th-30th – Design Team Members review QWP Cohort applications and sermons
October 3rd – Acceptance emails sent to 15 2026 Queering Womanist Preaching Cohort Members
2026 Events/Activities
January 5th – Website updated with names and photos of 2026 cohort members.
January 15th – Cohort Architect Planning Meeting
Learn more about the program and upcoming opportunities