As culture rapidly changes, preachers find themselves confronted with new challenges. While pastors once held de facto moral and intellectual positions in their communities, they now must contend with a crisis of authority. While they once could assume their hearers possessed basic biblical knowledge, they now must reckon with widespread biblical illiteracy. While preachers once could rely on cultural institutions to cast a net of plausibility for their message, they now must preach amidst the confusion of a society that lacks a sacred canopy.
It is time for practitioners and academics to come together to ask important questions: What does persuasive preaching look like in the 21st century? How might preaching and apologetics be integrated for the sake of edification and evangelization?
Join us for the 2025 Beeson Preaching Conference, July 15-17, as we explore the theme, “Persuasive Preaching: Story, Imagination and Apologetics.” The keynote speaker will be one of Christianity’s preeminent theologians and apologists, Dr. Alister McGrath. Other contributors include Justin Bailey, Josh Chatraw, Karen Swallow Prior, Robert Smith Jr., Maurice Watson, Trevin Wax, and Douglas Webster. Together, we will seek to integrate new developments in apologetics into the pulpit so that we might more faithfully open the imaginations and move the hearts of our listeners for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Beeson Preaching Conference is sponsored by The Spirit and Power Project at Samford University, a work made possible by a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc., as part of its Compelling Preaching Initiative. The aim of the conference is to exhibit and celebrate exemplary preaching and preachers of God’s word and to learn from them how we might communicate the Gospel in more compelling ways.
Registration Details
Registration opens February 17. Early bird rates of $50 end May 1, while regular rates of $60 end July 8.
Beeson has reserved a block of 30 rooms at the Courtyard by Marriott for June 15 and 16. The cutoff date for reserving these rooms is June 24, 2025. For more hotels near campus, visit Samford’s hotels page.
Keynote Speaker
Alister McGrath
Alister McGrath is an Anglo-Irish intellectual historian, theologian and Christian apologist with a particular interest in the relation of science and faith and a longstanding relationship with Oxford University. He recently retired from the Andreas Idreos Professorship of Science and Religion at Oxford.McGrath is best known for his theological textbooks, but his books include both academic monographs and more popular works. He is in demand worldwide as a speaker.
Preachers
Justin Bailey
Justin Bailey serves as a professor of theology at Dordt University in Sioux City, Iowa, where he also chairs the theology department. His work focuses on the intersection of Christian theology, culture and ministry, exploring how culture shapes Christian faith and how Christian faith can shape and care for culture. He is the host of the “In All Things” podcast and contributes to the blog of the same name. His writing has appeared in prominent publications such as Christianity Today, The Banner and the Reformed Journal, and he has written for academic journals like Christian Scholars Review and the International Journal of Public Theology.
Douglas Webster
Douglas Webster joined the Beeson faculty in 2007 as professor of pastoral theology and Christian preaching. Webster is the author of several books, including More than a Sermon: The Purpose and Practice of Christian Preaching, The Psalms: Jesus’ Prayer Book, A Passion for Christ: An Evangelical Christology and more. Webster is ordained in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and is a teaching pastor at the Church of the Cross in Birmingham, Alabama. He is researching and writing in three main areas: Christ and culture, pastoral identity and preaching the whole counsel of God.
Trevin Wax
Trevin Wax is vice president of research and resource development at the North American Mission Board and a visiting professor at Cedarville University. A former missionary to Romania, Trevin is a regular columnist at The Gospel Coalition and has contributed to The Washington Post, Religion News Service, World, and Christianity Today. He has taught courses on mission and ministry at Wheaton College and has lectured on Christianity and culture at Oxford University. He is a founding editor of The Gospel Project, has served as publisher for the Christian Standard Bible, and is currently a fellow for The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. He is the author of multiple books, including The Thrill of Orthodoxy, The Multi-Directional Leader, Rethink Your Self, This Is Our Time, and Gospel Centered Teaching. His podcast is Reconstructing Faith.
Workshop Leaders and Other Contributors
Josh Chatraw
Chatraw was appointed the Billy Graham Chair for Evangelism and Cultural Engagement in 2023. His research, writing and speaking focuses on public theology, apologetics, evangelism and culture. He has written, co-written and edited eight books including The Augustine Way, Surprised by Doubt, Apologetics at the Cross, Cultural Engagement, The History of Apologetics, Telling a Better Story, Truth Matters and Truth in a Culture of Doubt. His writing has received numerous awards, including Christianity Today’s Evangelism and Apologetics Book of the Year, Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year in Apologetics and The Gospel Coalition’s Book of the Year in Apologetics and Evangelism. He has also contributed numerous essays and articles in both academic and popular publications. Chatraw serves as an inaugural fellow at The Timothy Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics and a fellow at The Center for Pastor Theologians.
Collin Hansen
Collin Hansen serves as vice president for content and editor in chief of The Gospel Coalition, as well as executive director of The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. He hosts the Gospelbound podcast and has written and contributed to many books, including the award-winning Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation and Rediscover Church: Why the Body of Christ Is Essential. His newest book is Where Is God in a World with So Much Evil? He has published with the New York Times and the Washington Post and offered commentary for CNN, Fox News, NPR, BBC, ABC News and PBS NewsHour. He edited the forthcoming book, The Gospel After Christendom: An Introduction to Cultural Apologetics, as well as Our Secular Age: Ten Years of Reading and Applying Charles Taylor and The New City Catechism Devotional, among other books. He is a contributor to the forthcoming book, Scrolling Ourselves to Death: Reclaiming Life in a Digital Age. He is an adjunct professor at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama, where he also co-chairs the advisory board.
Robert Smith Jr.
Robert Smith Jr. served as professor of Christian preaching at Beeson for more than 25 years and held the Charles T. Carter Baptist Chair of Divinity. A renowned preacher and speaker, Smith has received a litany of awards and recognitions throughout his career. His book, Doctrine that Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life was named one of the 25 most influential books in preaching for the last 25 years in 2010 by Preaching Magazine. His research interests include the place of passion in preaching, the literary history of African American preaching, Christological preaching and theologies of preaching. Smith has contributed essays and articles to various books, magazines and commentaries.
Karen Swallow Prior
Karen Swallow Prior is a frequent lecturer and noted author, and has written a number of popular books, including On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books and The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis.
Maurice Watson
Maurice Watson has served as senior pastor of The Second Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, since 2022. Watson is a prolific pastor with a dynamic itinerant preaching ministry that extends across the continent and globe. A sought-after preacher and expositor, in 2002, he served as the morning worship preacher at the Annual Hampton Ministers’ Association Conference and later served as the conference preacher in 2005 and 2015. In 2010, he was inducted into the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Board of Preachers of Morehouse College.
Schedule
Schedule
Tuesday, July 15
3:00-3:30 Welcome and Theme Introduction
3:30-4:45 Plenary #1 (Alister McGrath): Helping the Audience Inhabit the Christian Story | Response (Trevin Wax)
5:15-6:30 Dinner
6:45-8:00 Worship (Justin Bailey preaching)
Wednesday, July 16
8:00-9:00 Breakfast
9:00-10:30 Plenary #2 (Alister McGrath): Capturing the Imagination of the Audience Response | Response (Karen Swallow Prior)
11:00-12:00 Worship (Doug Webster preaching)
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:30-2:20 Breakout Session 1
2:40-3:30 Breakout Session 2
Breakout session options:
- Justin Bailey
- Karen Swallow Prior
- Robert Smith Jr.
- Maurice Watson
Dinner on your own
Thursday, July 17
8:00-8:45 Breakfast
8:45-10:15 Plenary #3 (Alister McGrath): Reassuring the Audience of the Rationality of Faith | Response (Collin Hansen)
10:45-11:45 Worship (Trevin Wax preaching)
12:00-12:30 Closing Reflection
12:30 Adjourn
More information on workshops and messages is coming soon.
