Must Reads: Episode 36 with Leah Schade, featuring "Preaching and Social Issues"

by Perkins Center for Preaching Excellence on Thursday, November 20, 2025

Dr. McKenzie sat down with Dr. Leah Schade to discuss her new book, Preaching and Social Issues: Tools and Tactics for Empowering Your Prophetic Voice.  This research-backed book provides guidance on how to preach about social issues in a way that reflects both the preacher and the congregation. Schade provides an assessment tool that gauges risk and capacity for preaching about social issues. Schade offers three approaches to prophetic preaching: gentle, invitational, and robust, along with strategies for each approach. Each of these three models is based on social, ethical, biblical, and theological foundations. If you are struggling with ways to incorporate social issues into your sermons without causing division in your congregation, you won't want to miss this interview.

The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade is the Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship at Lexington Theological Seminary in Lexington, Kentucky. An ordained Lutheran minister (ELCA) for over twenty years, Leah earned both her M.Div. and PhD degrees from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (now United Lutheran Seminary). She has pastored three Pennsylvania congregations in suburban, urban, and rural contexts. Her books include Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide (2019), Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology, and the Pulpit (2015), and For the Beauty of the Earth (2019).