Stanley Grenz Lecture Series with Reverend Dr. Soong-Chan Rah
The Dean’s Office and The Forum at The Seattle School are excited to partner in offering the 5th annual Stanley Grenz Lecture Series, featuring Reverend Dr. Soong-Chan Rah, a professor, pastor, and prolific author whose life work has revolved around theology, lament, and racial reconciliation.
The Necessity of Lament in a Broken World
Morning Session, 10:00am-Noon in the Large Classroom
Our nation is deeply divided. Our society is profoundly broken. Within the reality of this context, how can God’s people offer a narrative of hope and healing?
The lost spiritual discipline of lament offers an ecclesial practice that is essential to the way forward for the American Church. In this session, we will explore how the American social and political narrative of exceptionalism and triumphalism needs to be countered with the humility and honesty of lament as exemplified by the book of Lamentations. We will begin to wonder: How might lament offer healing to our broken world?
White Supremacy, Racialized Trauma, and the Need for a Redemptive Mediating Narrative
Evening Session, 6:30-8:00pm in the Commons
Racial division runs deep in the soul of American society. It is easy to see how the dysfunctional mediating narrative of white supremacy has created a profound racialized trauma in the United States as well as the American Church. But how might we move forward as we recognize this reality?
Though no clear answers immediately appear, this session will call us to begin by examining vocabulary and practices that lead to meaningful conversations around this crucial topic in our times.
About the Stanley Grenz Lecture Series
The Stanley Grenz Lecture Series is offered in honor of former Professor Stanley Grenz, a prolific Christian scholar with a pastoral heart and deep intellectual presence. Stan engaged the challenging theological questions of his generation with a profound sensitivity to the complexities of a Christian community embedded within a cultural context. In honor of him, this series is designed to invite scholarly theological discourse into the public forum, as an expression of Christian faith and service.
Reverend Dr. Soong-Chan Rah is the Milton B. Engebretson Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL. He has authored several books, including The Next Evangelicalism, Many Colors, and Prophetic Lament.
Prior to joining North Park, Dr. Rah was the founding Senior Pastor of Cambridge Community Fellowship Church (CCFC), a multi-ethnic church living out the values of racial reconciliation and social justice in the urban context. He has served on the board of Sojourners and the Christian Community Development Association and currently serves on the board of World Vision and Evangelicals 4 Justice.
With extensive experience in cross-cultural speaking, Dr. Rah has been a main stage speaker at many events, including the Congress on Urban Ministry, the CCDA National Conference, the Justice Conference, Verge, and Catalyst.
A lover of learning, he received his B.A. from Columbia University, his M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, his Th.M. from Harvard University, his D.Min. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and his Th.D. from Duke University.
He lives with his wife, Sue, and their two children, Annah and Elijah, in Chicago.