Prophetic Care: Embracing the Difficult Work of Following Jesus

Fri 11 AM | Bridge

Derek Penwell

The current political climate has prompted people to get involved in activism and advocacy. Unfortunately, inexperienced people often don’t know where to begin to get engaged on issues they care about. To the extent this is true, the church has failed a crucial part of its mission. Historically, the church has focused on pastoral care and evangelism—how we take care of church people and how we make non-church people into church people. But what it has failed to devote much thought to is “prophetic care”—how we amplify the voice of Jesus for justice in an often hostile world. This workshop will explore practical ways to embrace our calling to live like Jesus in public.

Derek Penwell

Derek Penwell is an author, speaker, pastor, and activist. He is the senior pastor of Douglass Boulevard Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky and a former lecturer at the University of Louisville in Religious Studies and Humanities.

Derek has a Ph.D. in humanities from the University of Louisville and has authored articles ranging from church history to aesthetic theory and the tragic emotions. He is also the author of The Mainliner’s Survival Guide to the Post-Denominational World, about how mainline denominations can avoid despair in an uncertain world. His newest book, Political Subversive: Why Jesus Was a Lousy Messiah, focuses on understanding the political nature of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as a model for forming communities of resistance capable of challenging oppression in the pursuit of peace and justice.

He is an activist and advocate on local, state, and national levels on issues of racial justice, LGBTQ fairness, interfaith engagement, and immigrant rights.
derekpenwell.net

Sessions:
96 Prophetic Care

Session #96