Festival of Homiletics

Preaching a New Earth: Climate and Creation

Be inspired by God’s Word proclaimed by some of the nation’s finest ministers and teachers. Experience the fellowship of hundreds of preachers. Learn and worship in an atmosphere that is dynamic, friendly, nurturing, and prophetic. Come renew, refresh, and recharge your spirit.

Scripture’s first description of God is as creator. God brought the world into existence and all that makes up the world as we know it. But God realized that caring for creation could never be a sole endeavor. We are charged with that co-tending, and preachers are challenged with imagining and preaching about an ecological God. Our God is committed to, dependent on, and immersed in all the Earth provides, sustains, and yet, needs our help to bring the fullness of God’s creative work to bear. Our God needs our help to speak the truth about where and how God’s Earth groans for renewal, even resurrection, how our very climate changes are God’s cries for help. The 2020 Festival of Homiletics theme invites preachers to imagine their own role in God’s creative work, to be courageous in preaching about God’s creative activity, and to claim boldly our role in caring for God’s creation, when God’s very creation is at stake.