November 2025

Dear preachers,

It was a delight to be with many of you at the Disciples Preaching Retreat earlier this month. We're working on editing the videos of all the sermons and keynotes and will share those soon, but I'll include a few pictures below. Also, mark your calendars for next year's retreat: November 9-11, 2026!

In this issue, Leah Jackson shares her story of falling in love with preaching. I bet it will resonate with you. (And I bet you have a story to share as well. I'd love to hear from you.)

Also below, you'll find some other resources that might be helpful, including a new sermon series from Global Ministries and a keynote video from Dr. Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder on asking the questions of Advent. That would be worth watching again as we head into this season.

I hope you have a chance to gather around a table with friends or family this week. I'm particularly grateful for the ways you are proclaiming the good news in a world that needs to hear it.

Blessings on your preaching this week,

Rev. Lee Hull Moses

Executive Director, The Proclamation Project

Office of the General Minister and President

Rev. Dr. Leah D. Jackson, Esq. is a preacher, pastor, educator, writer, and dancer. She serves as the Grant Program Director at McAfee School of Theology, Adjunct Professor at Spelman College and Lexington Theological Seminary, and Associate Minister at Ray of Hope Christian Church.

Featured Story:

When I Fell in Love with Preaching

One of my favorite movies is Brown Sugar. Sanaa Lathan plays Sidney Shaw, editor-in-chief of a hip-hop magazine, who begins every interview the same, “When did you fall in love with hip hop?”

As the movie goes on, viewers discover that this question isn’t random, but instead is the central theme of the movie. The question frames a narrative about the role of hip-hop in culture and a metaphor for Sidney’s relationship with her childhood friend Dre. Sidney writes about the complexity of her relationship in her memoir. She’s had her ups and downs with it. It has caused her to feel seen, heard, and free, while also leading her to moments of frustration and confusion. Some days she knows exactly where the genre is headed and others, questions its future. She has been protective of hip hop, particularly when the gaze of outsiders has tried to misinterpret it, redefine it, appropriate it, and squeeze it into a mold that is ill fitting. She has fought for it when people have tried to diminish its worth, power, and impact or even tried to confine it by a common attribute or characteristics.

I have developed the same relationship with preaching in the Black church tradition.

I am not just a preacher. I am an expository, word-centered, justice-oriented preacher of justice and truth deeply anchored in the Black church tradition, who originally said yes to a call to any ministerial vocation but preaching.

Photos by Adam Frieberg

From the Resource Library

Preaching in Advent

Advent Resources

Revisit this conversation wtih Dr. Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder on Preaching in Advent.

Watch the video

Also in the resource library, you'll find an article by Dr. Crowder on asking questions through Advent, as well as a piece on Blue Christmas services by Rev. Dr. Sarah Griffith Lund.

From the Resource Library

A Global Table: Sharing in God's Abundant Life

A new Sermon Series

Produced in collaboration with Global Ministries, A Global Table is designed to introduce your congregation to the core values of Global Ministries: community, mutuality, justice, peace, presence. This is a five-week, undated series, which includes sermon starters and liturgy suggestions, could be used any time that fits your schedule.

Check it Out

Got a Recommendation?

Help us build our resource library by recommending a resource you've found helpful or sharing something you've created.

Submit a Resource

Call for Disciples Materials

We are working on a congregational resource designed to help churches grow in their identity as part of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). If you have created your own materials on this topic, would you be willing to share? (Note that at this point, we're just looking for materials for internal review; if we see something we want to incorporate into our materials, we'll reach back out to ask permission.) If you have sermons, sermon series, or other resources on Disciples identity you're willing to share, please send them to preaching@disciples.org. Thank you!

What's Your Story?

We want to hear what preaching is like for you these days. We’re looking for first-person true stories and reflections about the preaching life.

Some examples of what we’re looking for:

Tell us about a time when you were really stumped by the text but the Holy Spirit showed up anyway.
Tell us about a conversation with a parishioner that was inspired by a sermon you preached.
Tell us something funny/scary/heart-warming that happened during one of your sermons.
Tell us how you fell in love with preaching. Or tell us why you fell out of love with preaching.
Tell us a lesson you learned through a sermon that didn’t go the way you planned.
Tell us how your preaching has changed over the years.

Submissions can be written (400-600 words) or video (3-5 minutes). Submissions chosen for publication will receive a $75 honorarium.

Read the full submission guidelines