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Reading: “Proclamation Beyond the Pulpit” by Chelsea Yarborough (Resource Center for Women & Ministry in the South)
January 22 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
RCWMS is pleased to invite you to join us for a reading by Chelsea Yarborough from her new book, Proclamation Beyond the Pulpit: The Expansive Homiletical Practice of Black Women (Baylor, 2025).
Preaching is typically considered to be a practice confined to ministry within the institutional church. Studies of preaching are often filtered through the lens of the pulpit, with Black women rarely featured as central figures. Proclamation Beyond the Pulpit lifts up Sojourner Truth, Nannie Helen Burroughs, and Fannie Lou Hamer as crucial sources for homiletic theory. Chelsea Yarborough introduces a methodology for preaching that arises from the witness and practices of these three Black women non-pulpit preachers, expanding our understanding of proclamation beyond traditional notions of its nature and purpose.
This shift away from the limitations of the pulpit into the public sphere and beyond has deep roots in the preaching legacy of Black women. Often denied places of authority in the church, Black women have carved out spheres for their proclamation, teaching us that the essence and purpose of preaching is less about place and more about impact and practice. By centering the lives and ministries of three historical Black women preachers who preached beyond the pulpit, Yarborough highlights a lineage of expansive homiletical possibilities and offers valuable insights for preachers across diverse platforms.
Rev. Dr. Chelsea Brooke Yarborough, PhD, is the Associate Director of Leadership Programming at the Association of Theological Schools. She is a preacher, an ordained minister in the Baptist tradition, a poet, leadership coach and an enneagram teacher. She serves as a trustee for RCWMS.
