Ministry in the red-blue divide is fraught with risks, but also offers opportunities for proclaiming the gospel and building community in profound and contextual ways.  Informed by insights from her longitudinal research of nearly 4000 clergy and 1000 laity from 2017-2025, the Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade will help clergy and laity focus on insights from Scripture that can offer us wisdom in the midst of our fractured society.  Based on her book Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), Dr. Schade will introduce a “dialogical lens” for reading the Bible. Participants will examine biblical texts using this dialogical lens which will provide sermon ideas for preachers and study opportunities for laity.

Resources from this webinar:
Dialogical Lens Worksheet
Slide Deck – Can We Talk – Dialogical Lens for Scripture Resources for Churches

The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade is the Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship at Lexington Theological Seminary in Lexington, Kentucky, and served as the President of the Academy of Homiletics in 2024.  An ordained Lutheran minister (ELCA) for nearly twenty-five years, Leah earned both her MDiv and PhD degrees from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (now United Lutheran Seminary).  She has pastored congregations in suburban, urban, and rural contexts. She is the author of Preaching and Social Issues: Tools and Tactics for Empowering Your Prophetic Voice (Rowman & Littlefield, 2025), Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) and Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology, and the Pulpit (Chalice Press, 2015). She is the co-editor of Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). Her book, Introduction to Preaching: Scripture, Theology, and Sermon Preparation, was co-authored with Jerry L. Sumney and Emily Askew (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023).