Perkins Sermon Symposium
Sponsored by the Office of the Dean and Perkins Center for Preaching Excellence
Three dates. Three preachers. One topic.
Each semester, we will have three preachers, in three consecutive months, offer a sermon on the same topic, issue, biblical text, doctrine, homiletical approach, or the like. One of the preachers will be a homiletician from another institution, another will be a working preacher, and the third will be a Perkins faculty member. We are asking the preachers to keep their sermons to twenty minutes or less, leaving the rest of the hour for Q&A with them.
All events will take place in Kirby Commons at 1:30 pm. See below for each live-stream link.
Fall 2026: Christian Nationalism
September 2, 2026: Juan Carlos Huertas 
Juan Carlos Huertas is the Minister of Proclamation & Practice of Justice at First-Plymouth Congregational Church in Lincoln, NE. A native of Puerto Rico, he is passionate about helping congregations reconnect with their neighborhoods, about a decolonized church, and about worship that expresses the human need for ritual and spiritual community amid the messiness of life.
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October 7, 2026: Carolyn Browning Helsel
Carolyn Browning Helsel is the Associate Professor of Preaching in the Blair Monie Distinguished Chair of Homiletics and Project Director of the Sharing Faith Initiative at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. She is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the author and co-author of four books, including Preaching about Racism and Anxious to Talk about It: Helping White People Talk Faithfully about Racism, and she speaks around the country on anti-racism.
November 4, 2026: Steve Long
D. Stephen Long, Ph.D, is the Cary M. Maguire University Professor of Ethics at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. The author or editor of fourteen books, Long is ordained in The United Methodist Church. Previous appointments include Marquette University, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, St. Joseph's University, and Duke Divinity School.
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