Cost to Attend

$40/per person and is open to the public.
REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED BY FEBRUARY 17th!

(Ticket purchase includes Consultation Panels, Breakout Sessions, meals, and/or BCS Banquet on February 20, 2026. All other events earlier in the week are FREE to attend.)

Registration Details/Ticket Types:

During registration please select your general admission ticket type.
- Combo ticket includes admission to the Consultation Panels/Sessions (please indicate if you will be attending In-Person or Online) AND BCS Banquet (In-Person Only).
After selecting your consultation ticket type, please indicate your participation for each of the prior events leading up to the Friday consultation.
If you have any questions or need help registering, please email bcs@lpts.edu
During the registration process, you will have an opportunity to make an optional donation to Black Church Studies or Louisville Seminary. If you have any questions or need assistance registering, please contact Kassandra Turpin at info@lpts.edu.

About the 2026 Black Church Studies Consultation & Leading Events

This year’s theme calls us to embody the Gospel’s mandate for radical hospitality as a practice of justice. In Luke 14:12–14, Jesus commands us to welcome those who cannot repay us—the marginalized, the overlooked, and the excluded. “Turn to Your Neighbor” invites us to reimagine neighborliness through the mission, theology, and witness of the Black Church, where liberation, dignity, and communal care shape faithful response. As we gather, this theme explores how congregations and faith leaders can move beyond transactional engagement toward a liberative way of being community—one that nurtures courageous faith, deep solidarity, and a neighborly love that resists injustice. In this spirit, hospitality becomes a practice that centers those society too often leaves behind.

2026 Consultation Schedule:

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20:

9:00 AM–2:45 PM - Consultation Panels & Breakout Sessions (ticketed event)

The core of the Consultation features panels and breakouts exploring hospitality as resistance, centering marginalized voices, and transformative discipleship. Breakfast and lunch included.
How to participate: In-person and online details are provided in your registration confirmation email.

9:00-9:30 AM - Grab-and-Go Breakfast and Registration

9:30-10:00 AM - Welcome & Worship with guest preacher Rev. Traci Simmons, (MDiv ‘15, MAMFT ‘22)

10:00-10:15 AM - Break

10:15-11:00 AM - Opening Plenary:“Turning to the Other Side of the Road: Radical Hospitality and Neighbor-Making in the Black Church,” with guest speaker, Rev. Traci Blackmon

Set amid deep polarization and renewed public assaults on vulnerable communities, this plenary calls the Black Church to reclaim its prophetic and pastoral vocation to become a neighbor rather than pass by. Grounded in Luke 10 and Luke 14, the lecture challenges the forces that constrain faithful witness—fear of backlash, pressures to appear respectable or palatable, and inherited theological habits that privilege comfort over compassion. Framing radical hospitality as a spiritual discipline of resistance, the session presses leaders to cross boundaries of convention and safety, expanding belonging to immigrants, LGBTQIA+ persons, unhoused neighbors, and others pushed to the margins, while cultivating congregational cultures marked by courage, justice, and transformative neighbor-making.

11:00-11:15 AM - Break

11:15-12:00 PM - Panel Discussion: “Turning Toward Black Women in Ministry: Work, Weight, Witness and the Struggle for Welcome,” with Rev. Dr. Perzavia Praylow & Invited Guests.

Rooted in Jesus’s call in Luke 14:12–14, this workshop centers the often-unseen pastoral, spiritual, and organizational leadership of Black women serving in ministry within congregations and across Black communities. Black women sustain the church’s spiritual life and public witness through care, teaching, and community presence, yet their leadership is frequently overlooked or constrained by barriers within and beyond church structures. Participants will reflect on these realities and explore practices that more fully recognize, support, and welcome Black women’s leadership in ministry.

Dr. Praylow is the Assistant Professor of Historical Theology and Black Church Studies
Director of Black Church Studies and the Black Church Cornerstone Collaborative

12:00-12:45 PM - Lunch and Table Topic Conversation

12:45-1:00 PM - Break

1:00-1:45 PM - Concurrent Workshops - (You will be invited to attend one of the following three workshops)

“Turning Toward Our Kin: Queer Belonging in the Black Church,” with presenter, Rev. Don Abram, Founder and CEO, Pride in the Pews. *Please note that this will be the only workshop available to our online participants.

Grounded in the Consultation theme Turn to Your Neighbor, this workshop invites the Black Church into a faithful examination of the exclusion of LGBTQIA+ persons from full belonging, leadership, and affirmation in congregational life. Drawing on the liberative witness of the Black Church, contemporary queer theology, and the lived testimonies of queer and trans Christians, the session challenges participants to reimagine who we call “neighbor” and how Jesus’s ethic of expansive love demands justice-rooted inclusion. In a moment of heightened polarization and moral urgency, this workshop names the harm of exclusion—to LGBTQIA+ people and to the Church’s collective witness—and offers pastoral and theological pathways toward a more faithful future.

“Turning Toward Healing: Strengthening Emotional, Physical, and Practical Care Networks in the Black Church,” with co-presenters: Rev. Dr. Teresa Walton O’Bannon (MDiv, DMin), Chaplain, Louisville Metro Police Department & Pastor, Agape Fellowship United Church of Christ, Louisville, KY, and Dr. La’Shonda Fletcher (LMAMFT, MAR), Lead Therapist, Revelation Counseling Center, Louisville, KY.

This workshop centers healing-focused ministry that moves beyond hospitality toward sustained care. The session explores how congregations, mental health therapists, and community care practitioners can respond to layered emotional, physical, and socioeconomic needs by examining spiritual care structures, disability accommodations, trauma-informed practices, and community partnerships. Participants will gain practical tools to strengthen care networks, connect members to mental health and housing resources, and build congregational infrastructures that embody healing, dignity, and accountability.

“Turning to Every Generation: Creating Authentic Intergenerational Community at a Table Big Enough for the Whole Black Church,” presented by Pastor Tim Findley, Senior Pastor, Kingdom Fellowship Christian Life Center, Louisville, KY.

Grounded in the call to turn to your neighbor, this workshop explores how the Black Church can foster authentic intergenerational community among children, youth, adults, and elders. While long a strength of Black congregational life, intergenerational engagement is often challenged by generational silos and limited participation. Participants will explore biblical and cultural foundations alongside practical strategies for shared worship, leadership, mentorship, technology use, and community service, rediscovering the joy and spiritual depth that emerge when generations truly see and serve one another together.

1:45-2:00 PM - Break

2:00-2:45 PM - Communal Dialogue: “Turning to Our Neighbor: A Call to Action for Times Like These.”

All attendees will participate in a communal dialogue.

7:00 PM - BCS Banquet with Dr. Obery Hendricks (ticketed event)

Celebrate the closing evening with a keynote from Dr. Obery Hendricks, “Who Is Our Neighbor: The Politics of Jesus and Our Witness in Times Like These,” along with the presentation of BCS Honors recipients.
How to participate: In-person only. Details are provided in your registration confirmation email.

Additional BCS Events Leading up to the Consultation - FREE to Attend:

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17:

12:00 PM - BCS Lunch & Learn: Faculty & Staff Reflections

Begin the week with a thoughtful Lunch & Learn as LPTS faculty and staff reflect on this year’s theme, “Turn to Your Neighbor.” Together we’ll explore how hospitality and community shape ministry and leadership.
How to participate: In-person and online details are provided in your registration confirmation email.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18:

12:00 PM - Chapel Service with Rev. Dr. George L. Parks Jr.

The Consultation opens with a virtual chapel service focused on compassion, justice, and spiritual grounding.
How to participate: Online only. Zoom details are provided in your registration confirmation email.

1:00 PM - Community Lunch

Continue the conversation and fellowship together following worship.
How to participate: In-person only in the Winn Center on the campus of Louisville Seminary.

7:00 PM - Revival Service with Rev. Dr. Dominique Robinson

Join us for an evening of dynamic preaching, praise, and renewal inspired by the call to turn toward one another.
How to participate: In-person at Bates Memorial Baptist Church located at 620 Lampton Street, Louisville, KY 40203 or online at: www.batesmemorial.com/livestreaming

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19:

12:00 PM - BCS Chapel with Rev. Annettra Jones

Rev. Annettra Jones (MDiv ‘12) leads us in a powerful message on hospitality as holy resistance.
How to participate: In-person at Caldwell Chapel on the campus of Louisville Seminary or online at lpts.edu/watchlive

1:00 PM - Community Lunch

Gather once again to share food and conversation rooted in community.
How to participate: In-person only in the Winn Center on the campus of Louisville Seminary.

5:00 PM - BCS Homecoming Reception

Join us for a reception celebrating and reconnecting the extended Black Church Studies community and supporters.
How to participate: In-person only in the Winn Center Lobby on the campus of Louisville Seminary.

6:00 PM | Winn Center + Online

Reception The Edwards Lecture with Dr. Justin Reed
Dr. Justin Reed offers a justice-oriented exploration of scripture, drawing from his forthcoming book “The Injustice of Noah’s Curse.”
How to participate: In-person and online details are provided in your registration confirmation email.

About Our Preachers and Presenters:

Rev. Dr. George L. Parks Jr.

Rev. Dr. George L. Parks Jr. is the seventh pastor in the 161-year legacy of The Historic Metropolitan Baptist Church, formerly of Washington, DC, and now located in Largo, Maryland. A dynamic preacher, thoughtful leader, and compassionate servant, Dr. Parks carries forward the rich spiritual heritage of Metropolitan with a deep commitment to biblical integrity, community impact, and Christ-centered ministry.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, to Rev. Dr. George L. Parks Sr. and Mrs. Kay Ramona Parks, his formative years were shaped by faith and family in both Dayton and Cleveland, Ohio. Influenced by the example of his father, Dr. Parks accepted his Call to preach on January 25, 1998, and he delivered his initial sermon just two months later at Sacrificial Baptist Church in Cleveland, where his father continues to serve as Pastor.

Dr. Parks earned a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical and Pastoral Studies from American Baptist College in Nashville. Driven by a desire to grow in theological depth and spiritual maturity, he earned his Master of Divinity from the Howard University School of Divinity, where he was honored with the prestigious J.H. Jackson Award for Promise in Pastoral Excellence. He later completed is Doctor of Ministry in Expository Preaching at Union University’s School of Theology and Missions in Jackson, Tennessee.

Throughout his ministerial journey, Dr. Parks has served faithfully in a variety of pastoral and leadership roles. He was licensed and ordained in 1998 and 2007, respectively, and has held key positions at Watson Grove Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee; Meridian Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC; Riverside Missionary Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee; and most recently New Hope Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he served as Senior Pastor for eight years. On July 30, 2023, Dr. Parks was called to serve as the Senior Servant at Metropolitan Baptist Church, where he continues to lead with conviction, compassion, and clarity of vision.

Dr. Parks’ leadership extends beyond the local church. In 2020, he was inducted into the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College. He currently serves as an adjunct professor at Philander Smith College; and in 2025, he was appointed Director of Pastors and Ministers for the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. by president Dr. Boise Kimber. He is a proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and is widely recognized for his dedication to outreach, mentorship, and equipping the next generation of faith leaders.

Dr. Parks is blessed to share life and ministry with his wife, the former Joy Marie Dailey. Together, they are the proud parents of four children: George III (“Trey”), Genesis, and twins Gabriel and Grayson.

Rev. Dr. Dominique Robinson

Rev. Dr. Dominique A. Robinson is the John E. Hines Assistant Professor of Preaching at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, where she is the first full-time African American scholar on the theology faculty. She also serves as Grant Manager for the AME Zion Church’s Lilly Endowment–funded Compelling Preaching Initiative. Robinson earned her Doctor of Ministry from Columbia Theological Seminary, where she developed the groundbreaking digital preaching method iHomiletic™. She is currently completing a PhD in African American Preaching & Sacred Rhetoric at Christian Theological Seminary, focusing on Black Methodist womanist homiletics and depression among African American clergy. An ordained itinerant elder in the AME Zion Church, Robinson is also a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. She is widely recognized as a preacher, professor, and justice advocate committed to the intersections of faith, mental health, and the flourishing of Black communities.

Rev. Annettra Jones

Rev. Annettra R. Jones is a passionate minister of the Gospel and practical theologian. She is a proud first-generation college graduate and first-generation pastor and preacher. Although a former 10th-grade dropout and GED recipient, Rev. Jones earned a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from Sullivan University in 2013, a Master of Divinity Degree, and a Certificate of Black Church Studies from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 2018. At commencement, she was awarded The George and Jean Edwards Award in the Interpretation of Scripture to Christian Life and The Melanie Lane Preaching Award.

Rev. Jones is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. She currently serves as the Senior Pastor of Scott UMC in Indianapolis, Indiana. She has served in pastoral leadership roles in various cross-cultural congregations and as the Associate Director of Diversity, Missions, and Justice Ministries for the Indiana Conference of the UMC, where she developed conference-wide intercultural competency and anti-racism training, supported cross-cultural clergy appointments, and equipped local congregations to engage in missional outreach rooted in justice and inclusion. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Center for Congregations as a Louisville Seminary appointee, recommended by President Alton Pollard in Sept 2022.

Rev. Jones integrates womanist theology, Wesleyan theology of grace, and her lived experience into every facet of her work. She is a prisoner of hope whose ministry is deeply informed by Micah 6:8, as she seeks to walk humbly with God while advocating for justice, mercy, and love for all of humanity. Above all, she is a mother of three and a nana of her beloved grandson, Isaiah.

Dr. Justin Reed

Justin Michael Reed earned a bachelor's degree in African & African American Studies from Stanford, his master's degree in Hebrew Bible from Harvard, and his PhD in Old Testament from Princeton Seminary. He combines these interests through teaching and publications focused on Black biblical hermeneutics, ideological criticism, and how the study of race and ethnicity can inform our interpretation of biblical texts.
Reed's 2020 dissertation earned him the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise and is the foundation for his first monograph, The Injustice of Noah's Curse (Oxford University Press, 2025).

He is ordained as a Progressive National Baptist minister, and contributes to the wider church by sharing the insights of critical biblical scholarship in ways that are interesting and accessible.

For access to some of his work, visit drjustinreed.com/links.

He is married to attorney Catherine Howard, who serves as a public defender for Jefferson County; they are the proud parents of Jordan and Justice.

Dr. Obery Hendricks

Dr. Obery Hendricks is the most widely read and perhaps the most influential African American biblical scholar in America today. He has been a Wall Street investment executive, a theological seminary president, a Distinguished Senior Fellow at The Democracy Collaborative think tank, and served in the U. S. Department of State Religion and Foreign Policy Working Group under Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. Currently he teaches Religion and African American and African Diasporic Studies at Columbia University, is an advisory board member at the Institute of Christian Socialism, and a trustee of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). He is also an ordained elder in the AME Church, an Elder Scholar-in-Residence at the Children’s Defense Fund and an advisor to the Abolition Sanctuary social justice organization. Among his books is the best-selling The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus’ Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted (Doubleday: 2006). His most recent book is the critically acclaimed, Christians Against Christianity: How Right-Wing Evangelicals Are Destroying Our Nation and Our Faith (Beacon: 2021).

*In case of unforeseen circumstances, minor adjustments may need to be made to the schedule.

**The link(s) you will receive upon completing registration are unique to you. Please do not share the link or post it publicly.

***Please note that the 2026 BCS Consultation may be recorded. By registering and participating, you understand that your likeness may be included in the recorded video and/or photography, and you consent to this recording and its use in any and all media throughout Louisville Seminary and its partners.

"Turn to Your Neighbor"

2026 Black Church Studies Consultation & Banquet