Sign up today for next week’s HOMEGROWN: North Carolina Women’s Preaching Festival. Guided by our theme of “Repair, Release, Renew,” we will collectively explore the call to speak and act in places of torn hearts, fractured communities, and broken systems. When ought we repair? What ought we release? How do we renew? As we highlight excellent preaching, hone our homiletic skills, and build community through workshops, meals, sermons, and worship, we will celebrate both student and seasoned preachers and their sacred callings.

This year’s preachers and presenters include Melva Sampson, Melinda Wiggins, Donna Banks, Jereann King Johnson, Christine Parton Burkett, Lindsey Ardrey, Bridgette Gloster, Kimberly McCrae, Angie Wright, and Sarah Solís.

Still on the fence? Take a sneak peek at the schedule:

Thursday, October 5, 2023

Welcome, Opening Words with Christine Parton Burkett

Communal Art Project with Jereann King Johnson

Opening Worship with Melva Sampson, Wake Forest Assistant Teaching Professor of Preaching and Practical Theology, and Gwen Bagley, musician

Friday, October 6, 2023

Opening Gathering & Worship with Donna Banks

Morning Workshops

Melinda Wiggins: The Human Cost of Food

Angie Wright and Donna Banks: Staying Whole and Healthy for Ministry Over the Long Haul

Bluestem Community: How Devotion to Land and People Restores and Builds Community

Kimberly Gaubault McCrae: The Ministry of Black Women’s Self Care

Preaching with Lindsey Ardrey, Sarah Solis, and Bridgette Gloster

Closing Worship

For full schedule, click here.

We are also excited to introduce you to some inspiring wares and community organizations. Magdalene Clergy Dresses will have on display some of their gorgeous “shimmer” stoles. We can learn about Rafi-USA, which challenges the root causes of unjust food systems, supporting and advocating for economically, racially, and ecologically just farm communities. Bluestem Conservation Cemetery, too, will share resources about their nature preserve and conservation burial cemetery in Cedar Grove, NC.