God has a Dream

Alton B. Pollard III

President
Professor of Religion and Culture

September 6, 2018
Fall Convocation
Psalm 126
1 Peter 3:15

Will you accept the challenge to plan your vocation and live your life in God’s grace with the unique gifts you bring to the table of ministry, justice and service?

Listen to the sermon.

To Arrive Where We Started

Morgan Roberts
Honorably Retired Pastor Emeritus, Presbyterian Church, USA

These are thoughts gathered together at the time when the library computer at Louisville Seminary was named “Morgan” in honor of my ministry.  This is s sermon in which I look back with gratitude over many years, remembering those who have helped me along the way.  I hope that I will always hold fast to Harry Truman’s resolve, ”I tried never to forget who I was and where I’d come from and where I was going back to.”  Listen to the sermon.

Navigating the Changing Landscape of World Christianity

Wesley Granberg-Michaelson
Retired Secretary of the Reformed Church in America

April 13, 2015
Festival of Theology
Greenhoe Lecture

Christian witness, ministry, mission and evangelism today take place within the radically changing landscapes of world Christianity.  And these changing landscapes should change the paradigms, theological perspectives, partners, and the sharing of power as we all seek today to join in God’s ongoing mission in the world. Listen to the lecture.  Read the lecture in PDF.

Here I am, Lord! Now What?

Michael Jinkins
President and Professor of Theology

March 6, 2015
Exploratory Weekend
Isaiah 6:1-13
2 Timothy 4:1-5

Isaiah also reminds us that it is possible to be both prophet and priest at the same time. But we must never forget who is king. We can bear the people in our hearts, only if we bear also God’s full and redemptive purposes for them in our hearts as well.  Listen to the sermon.  Read the sermon in PDF.

Choose Life!

Clifton Kirkpatrick

Visiting Professor of Ecumenical Studies and Global Ministries

Feb. 10, 2012
Deuteronomy 30:15-20

John 10:7-10

In place where we have so much and where we are part of the “empire” that shapes for good or ill so much of the world, our religious life so often seems to be captured by a survival mentality; by an uncertainty about our future; and by a genuine anxiety about the role of our mainline churches.

Our partners around the world would urge us to take a risk, to “choose life” – to put our lives on the line for a world where justice, peace, respect for creation, and community with God can be a reality in our time.  In doing so, we – like them – will find life, the life that God intends for all humanity. Listen to the sermon.  Read the sermon outline in PDF.

The Search for Meaning

Michael Jinkins
President and Professor of Theology

October 14, 2011

Ephesians 2:1-10

What is our chief end? What is our highest and best end? To glorify God and enjoy God forever.  This is surely one of the high points of Christian theology. But what does it mean, really? President Michael Jinkins addresses this deepest of big questions in his chapel sermon for the Seminary community and campus guests exploring a call to ministry. Listen to the sermon.  Read the sermon in PDF.

A Letter to My Son about Beginning Seminary

Michael Jinkins

President and Professor of Theology

March 3, 2011

Exploratory Weekend

Job 28:28

Micah 6:6-8

1 Corinthians 13:12-13

James 2:24-26

Leviticus 19:1,17-18

President Jinkin’s sermon is a letter he wrote his son, Jeremy, not long after Jeremy discerned a call to ordained ministry. The letter explores what it means to begin seminary. This sermon addresses us wherever we are as we seek to follow Christ in trust and obedience, in the name of the Creator, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.

What’s Pastoral About Pastoral Counseling?

Loren L. Townsend

Henry Morris Edmonds Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling

February 5, 2009

Dr. Townsend’s address for the Convocation of the spring semester looks at how pastoral counselors and pastoral counseling have changed since 1990; what pastoral counselors “look like now; what continues to be pastoral about pastoral counselors; and theological questions that arise as a result of changes in pastoral counselors and their identity. Read the address in PDF.

Staying on Track through the Desert

Sheldon W. Sorge
Associate Director, The Louisville Institute

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11
February 8, 2008

The opening Chapel of a new semester coincided this year with the beginning of Lent. The Gospel reading assigned for the beginning of Lent is the story of Jesus’ wilderness temptation. In his sermon, Dr. Sorge draws parallels between Jesus’ time of preparation for ministry in the wilderness, and our own practices of preparation for ministry. He suggests that the ministry Jesus inaugurated by his resistance to the devil in the wilderness is one of reconciliation, reversing the reign of human separation from God and each other that constitutes the story of the Fall. This is the Gospel ministry into which we too are called, and for which we too are being prepared. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.