Lammers (she/her) is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and a third-generation clergy after her mother and grandfather – a fact that still surprises her more than anyone else! She has been a local church pastor, a divinity school administrator and adjunct faculty member, a hospital chaplain specializing in trauma and palliative medicine, and a student affairs administrator at several colleges and universities. Her professional and theological interests include the practice of public theology, social justice and radical inclusion, and encouraging individuals to use their theological imaginations to better connect with God. She has a passion for making church relevant and fun!

Tisby is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the Church’s Complicity in Racism, How to Fight Racism, and How to Fight Racism: Young Reader’s Edition. He is also a history professor at Simmons College of Kentucky in Louisville. Tisby has co-hosted the “Pass the Mic” podcast since its inception seven years ago. His writing has been featured in the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and the New York Times. He is a frequent commentator on outlets such as NPR and CNN’s New Day program. He speaks nationwide on racial justice, U.S. history, and Christianity. Tisby earned his PhD in history and studies race, religion, and social movements in the 20th century.

Tisby is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the Church’s Complicity in Racism, How to Fight Racism, and How to Fight Racism: Young Reader’s Edition. He is also a history professor at Simmons College of Kentucky in Louisville. Tisby has co-hosted the “Pass the Mic” podcast since its inception seven years ago. His writing has been featured in the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and the New York Times. He is a frequent commentator on outlets such as NPR and CNN’s New Day program. He speaks nationwide on racial justice, U.S. history, and Christianity. Tisby earned his PhD in history and studies race, religion, and social movements in the 20th century.

This is a God who looks upon us and sees that we aren’t yet what we could be, we are not at full blossom, and so this God shows up not with an axe but with a shovel and a wheelbarrow full of mulch, patience, and hope.

Kat Gordon: March 21, 2025 by Calvary Episcopal Church

Kim-Kort, (she/they) is a doctoral candidate in Religious Studies at Indiana University. She juggles various jobs, including speaking, writing, and trying to maintain some semblance of sanity raising three athletic children who have games all over the DMV. She believes: “In all times, the Church, and especially the local church, gives me hope. Most days, I don’t understand this hope, how it comes from something that seems so fallible, but I know in my cells that it is because God is present in the places I least expect and always the most human. These places and people teach me to keep looking and showing up—that always stays with me.”

Kim-Kort, (she/they) is a doctoral candidate in Religious Studies at Indiana University. She juggles various jobs, including speaking, writing, and trying to maintain some semblance of sanity raising three athletic children who have games all over the DMV. She believes: “In all times, the Church, and especially the local church, gives me hope. Most days, I don’t understand this hope, how it comes from something that seems so fallible, but I know in my cells that it is because God is present in the places I least expect and always the most human. These places and people teach me to keep looking and showing up—that always stays with me.”

We have Abram in a world in which things die and bleed and nourish one another. A world in which one being is sacrificed for the life of another all the time and everywhere. That world, not one cleaned up of its wildness and its gore, is where God is met. This Earth, not the heavens, is what God gives to all of us as a sacred gift.

The Rev. Dr. Craig is a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, community development nerd, wannabe poet, and personal photographer for her two-year-old identical twin girls. Growing up in rural Alabama as the only Asian kid other than her brother shaped her curiosity about marginalized places, community, and belonging. She’s most at home in borderland spaces, whether that be leading an arts and literacy youth organization in North Philadelphia, participating in university civic engagement in Camden, New Jersey, or pastoring a Germantown church dedicated to serving their immigrant and Latinx neighbors. With the help of her church, she’s practicing deep loving with folks in the midst of violence, homelessness, and hunger.

Brown is author of the The Tradition (Copper Canyon 2019), for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and the National Endowment for the Arts, and he is the winner of the Whiting Award. Brown’s first book, Please (New Issues 2008), won the American Book Award. His second book, The New Testament (Copper Canyon 2014), won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. His third collection, The Tradition, won the Paterson Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His poems have appeared in The Bennington Review, Buzzfeed, Fence, jubilat, The New Republic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, TIME magazine, and several volumes of The Best American Poetry.