For Black History Month, we are going back through the archives and listening to the voices of some of the incredible Black Women who have been on the show.

Prolific author and speaker, Lisa Sharon Harper, joins us this week, speaking about how we are all made in God’s image and called good, and how often we forget that - about ourselves and about each other. She shares her journey of discovering what the “very good Gospel” is and offers that good news to us, inviting us into the vision God has for the world, and a profound belief that God’s peace is possible.

About Lisa

From Ferguson to New York, and from Germany to South Africa to Australia, Lisa Sharon Harper leads trainings that increase clergy and community leaders’ capacity to organize people of faith toward a just world. A prolific speaker, writer and activist, Ms. Harper is the founder and president of FreedomRoad.us, a consulting group dedicated to shrinking the narrative gap in our nation by designing forums and experiences that bring common understanding, common commitment and common action. She hosts the podcast Freedom Road which features guests who are leaders in the faith and justice movement.

Ms. Harper is the author of several books, including Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican…or Democrat (The New Press, 2008); Left Right and Christ: Evangelical Faith in Politics (Elevate, 2011); Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith (Zondervan, 2014); and the critically acclaimed, The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong can be Made Right (Waterbrook, a division of Penguin Random House, 2016). The Very Good Gospel, recognized as the “2016 Book of the Year” by Englewood Review of Books, explores God’s intent for the wholeness of all relationships in light of today’s headlines. Her most recent book, Fortune: How Race Broke My Family and the World--and How to Repair It All, draws on her lifelong journey to know her family’s history, exposes the brokenness that race has wrought in America, and casts a vision for collective repair.

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Today Pastor Kelsey turns 33, and to celebrate, she's reflecting on seven things that are saving her faith and her life. 

1. Community & letting people in
2. Writing in my prayer journal again
3. One small thing for myself (special shout out to Kendra Adachi aka The Lazy Genius and her book The Lazy Genius Way)
4. Rachel Held Evans’ book Wholehearted Faith
5. Gratitude
6. “The most helpful thing you can do for us…”
7. The Marco Polo app

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For Black History Month, we are going back through the archives and listening to the voices of some of the incredible Black Women who have been on the show.

Essence Ellis: Reproductive Justice in the Wake of Overturning Roe v Wade 

NOTE: This episode was recorded and published BEFORE the final Supreme Court decision was released, effectively overturning Roe v. Wade and stripping folks with a uterus of their rights.

For many folks, it felt like the earth shook when Politico published the leaked draft of the Supreme Court's case on Roe v. Wade. Reproductive Justice activists turned up their microphones and voices for louder advocating for reproductive rights.

There are a lot of questions we ask have about what the work of Reproductive Justice will look like if the leaked draft is accurate. There's a great deal of fear and concern, and rightly so. Thankfully, we have the wisdom of folks like Essence Ellis, a recent graduate of Yale Divinity School, whose ministry is centered at the intersection of theology, public health, and women's rights. She's on the podcast today to talk about the impending Supreme Court decision, what it means, how the work will continue, and where we can find hope.

About Essence
Essence Ellis is a recent graduate of Yale Divinity School where she received her Master of Divinity. During her time at seminary, Essence participated in various extracurricular activities and worked with CHHSM as the Rev. Jerry Paul Scholar. A native of Charlottesville, Virginia, Essence works at the intersection of theology, public health, and women’s rights. She is excited to be serving the UCC as the CHHSM/JLCM Fellow, working remotely from Chicago, IL.

Resources and Organizations
Sister Song
Planned Parenthood
SPARK Reproductive Justice Now
A more extensive, comprehensive list of national and local reproductive justice organizations can be found here

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For Black History Month, we are going back through the archives and listening to the voices of some of the incredible Black Women who have been on the show.

Rev. Mahogany Thomas: A New Love Ethic

“To know God in this moment is to be grounded in a love that surpasses us and that truly shifts how we interact with the world, and that then brings us hope and healing.”

Transforming what she calls the “spiritual malpractice” of harmful theologies of sin, Rev. Mahogany redefines sin as the absence of love. Too often, the theology of sin has been used to abuse and oppress people - telling them they are inherently bad, inherently unlovable. Ultimately, it has been used by people in power to keep them in power. But by redefining sin as the absence of love, Rev. Mahogany invites us into a theology that leads us towards freedom, equity, and grace.

About Rev. Mahogany

Rev. Mahogany S. Thomas is a native of Columbia, Missouri and an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ. She has served churches around the country, from Connecticut to Chicago to San Francisco, and she has even preached in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem.

Rev. Thomas is a graduate of Yale Divinity School (YDS), where she received her Master of Divinity. Her scholarship at YDS included Homiletics, Womanist Theology, and Practical Theology at the intersections of the Black Church. She was the recipient of both the Andover Newton Seminary Diploma Program and Black Church Studies Certificate. Rev. Thomas received her Bachelor of Arts from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri and graduated summa cum laude. Her undergraduate studies focused on Religious Studies with an emphasis on sex and gender in the Christian tradition.

In both her teaching and radical proclamation, Rev. Thomas is passionate about serving God and God’s church. She brings gifts of administration, wisdom, and passion to her work. Ministry for Rev. Thomas is defined far beyond the pulpit as she believes in radiating the love of Jesus through both her joy and witness.

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For Black History Month, we are going back through the archives and listening to the voices of some of the incredible Black Women who have been on the show.

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The Year of Dismantling: Eliminating Systems that Marginalize & Oppress with Deidra Riggs first aired in January 2021.

In December 2020, Deidra Riggs posted a video on her instagram saying we are going to start 2021 strong: "This is the year we eliminate systems, theologies, practices, and traditions in the church that marginalize and disqualify people who are different from us."

It was at that moment that I knew we needed to have her on the Lady Preacher podcast. Deidra is preaching a message we all need to hear, and you can hear her passion seeping through her voice.

The church, which is supposed to be a place where all become one has for far too long been a place that has left people out - that has pushed them to the margins and closed the door. It has invalidated, humiliated, and disqualified anyone who doesn't fit the norm. But, as Deidra reminds us, that's not who God calls us to be. The "church" as an institution is far different than the "Church" that Christ envisioned. This is the year, Deidra says, that we eliminate all those ways that the institution has choked out the Gospel.

Join us. Then after you listen, share this episode with everyone you know because it's a message everyone needs to hear.

About Deidra (she/her)
Deidra Riggs is an author, speaker, and unashamed disco-lover. She and her husband are the happy inhabitants of an empty nest in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Deidra has authored two books: One: Unity in a Divided Worldand Every Little Thing: Making a World of Difference Right Where You Are. 

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Join Kelsey for an update on where we've been AND where we're planning to go! We've been hosting the Lady Preacher Podcast for 4.5 years now, and we are excited to be moving into the 2.0 version! Listen for more info!

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• Donate today and support our work!
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This week we are re-releasing an old favorite: this beautiful conversation with Rev. Jes Kast - a powerhouse preacher, teacher, and leader. She talks about what it's like to get a taste of heaven here on earth while we are in service of and in worship with others: once you get a taste - just like getting a taste of mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving - a taste just isn't enough and you end up wanting more. As Rev. Jes Kast tells us - that is exactly what the Gospel is all about. "Hey, you've tasted this, now go and share that with others."

About Jes
Rev. Jes Kast (she/her) is the pastor at Faith UCC in State College, Pennsylvania - a vibrantly progressive and deeply faithful community. As she talks about in this interview, Rev. Jes’ ministry was deeply formed by a Christian and Muslim peacemaking trip to Oman where she found a deeper understanding of Jesus’ commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Since that trip, she has served on President Obama’s Interfaith Education Initiative; she has led interfaith dialogues and prayer gatherings in New York City, and most recently served on the Governor of New York’s Interfaith Advisory Council.

Prior to moving to Pennsylvania, Rev. Kast served at West End Collegiate Church in New York City where she helped revitalize a soup kitchen ministry, which transformed into a worshipping community they named A Taste of Heaven. You can read more about that ministry here.

You can find Rev. Jes Kast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and on her website, which has links to work featured in The Atlantic, Washington Post, Sojourners, Huffington Post, NPR, and CNN.

Rev. Miriam Diephouse-McMillan (she/her) is a board certified chaplain serving in a psychiatric hospital where she sees first-hand the ways that mental health and spiritual care collide. In this powerful episode, Miriam shares stories about the ways caring for people’s spiritual wellbeing can come alongside the medical care folks receive, and can transform lives, offering space for healing and hope.

About Miriam
Miriam works and writes at the intersection of Spirituality and Mental Health.  She loves exploring big questions of meaning, hope, and connection that shape our faith and well-being.  Miriam has been a chaplain at an inpatient psychiatric hospital for over 12 years.  She provides spiritual care and counseling to people with a wide variety of mental health concerns and helps them explore how spirituality can enhance their well-being.  She is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), and a Board Certified Chaplain.  Her additional certificate in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy allows her to teach skills for managing difficult emotions and maintaining a fulfilling life.

Be sure to check out Miriam’s new book, Sacred Balance, coming May 2025 and visit her website for even more resources and webinars.

Connect with us!

• Donate today and support our work!
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