The Midwest Gospel Preaching Summit returns for its fifth year, bringing pastors and religious leaders from across the region to Madison for theological training and professional development.
The annual summit is organized by Mt. Zion Baptist Church and Upper House and provides local pastors with an opportunity to learn from professors and scholars in theology.
The summit was founded after the COVID-19 pandemic, when Upper House approached Mt. Zion Baptist Church Rev. Allen Marcus about creating an event in Madison focused on strengthening pastors’ theological knowledge and preaching skills.
The two organizations developed a lower-cost summit designed to make theological training more accessible to churches that may not have the resources to send pastors to larger conferences, which can include high costs for registration, travel and lodging.
“My goal was to help local pastors and preachers to receive some theological training from learned professors,” Rev. Allen said. “I go to conferences throughout the nation, but I know the cost of it. Many African American pastors are bi-vocational, so I know it costs more for their churches to be able to afford to send them on the flights, meals and then conference registration.”
The two-day summit features events that cover topics such as preaching in a changing world, building healthy churches, leadership, finances, the intersection of faith and mental health and many more.
Keynote speakers this year include Rev. Dr. Janiece Williams, a practitioner-scholar who recently obtained her PhD in homiletics and linguistics with a focus on African American preaching and ethics from Vanderbilt; Bishop John Guns, dean of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University; and Rev. Dr. William Curtis, professor at the United Theological Seminary and senior pastor at Mount Ararat Baptist Church in Pittsburgh.
“One of the key aspects of the conference — I know I love the preaching and teaching and the worship, people coming together — but I think the fellowship is also important. It’s about people being around each other, talking about different strategies and things they’re doing to help their communities and to become better proclaimers to the community and the church,” Rev. Allen said.
That fellowship and the environment can help pastors deepen their understanding of the Bible. While all have the ability to interpret the text of the Bible, not everyone has the tools and techniques — which is necessary for proper understanding of what’s going on in the biblical text, Rev. Allen said.
“The goal is to interpret what happened back then. The Bible was written thousands of years ago,” Rev. Allen said. “What happened back then, and how does it connect to right now? That theological training helps us understand who God is, what certain scriptures meant at that particular time, and how they relate to today so that we can provide hope, purpose, direction and motivation to the people who attend our services.”
The summit isn’t only for pastors, though each year Rev. Allen has heard about how classes and sermons have helped them and given them a spark to bring back with them to their church.
Community leaders have also attended the summit in the past and found its resources helpful in communicating with and mobilizing their communities, he said.
The Midwest Gospel Preaching Summit will be held Oct. 7-9. Tickets are still on sale right now for $65-80, with a virtual option as the cheapest tier. It will be held at Upper House, 365 E. Campus Mall, Ste. 200. A full schedule can be found on its website.
Free worship service will also be held tonight at 6:30 p.m. and tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Mt. Zion, 2019 Fisher St., that will feature a service led by some of the guest speakers.
