First Presbyterian Church of Salisbury will welcome Dr. Joy Moore for the 9th Annual Lewis Preaching Series.
This series was established to honor the service of Dr. Robert Lewis at First Presbyterian Church. The purpose of the series is to welcome treasures of the church to the community of faith and also to invite church professionals to hear and learn from these treasures.
Dr. Moore is the associate dean of the African American Church Studies Program and assistant professor of preaching at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif. Before serving at Fuller, she served four years at Duke Divinity School, where she was the associate dean for black church studies and church relations and taught in the area of homiletics and practice of ministry.
Her interest focuses on understanding the critical issues influencing contemporary culture for community formation. She is well known for telling stories with a theological twist!
Her theme for the weekend is “Catching Fire: How the Hunger Games Taught Me to Preach Scripture.”
Considering the present religious, political, and social climate by engaging the movie “The Hunger Games,” the prophet Isaiah, and the Beatitudes, Dr. Moore will describe how the entertainment industry employs theological issues and challenges the church to reconsider biblical texts to recover the scandal of the gospel message.
She will be speaking on three occasions.
Join us for worship on Sunday morning, Feb. 9, at 8:30, 8:50 and 11 a.m. when Dr. Moore will speak about “Playing Games with Popularity, Power, and Prosperity.” She will focus on Daniel 3.
Sunday evening the program will be held in Lewis Hall of the Family Life Center. We will begin at 6:30 for her thoughts on “The Gospel and Gadgets.”
She describes her evening thoughts in these words: “Behind the 30-second sound bite and never-ending status updates, consumers, politicians, and entertainers raise theological issues that a seemingly insensitive, irrelevant, or arrogant church ignores. Asking whether we should adopt, adapt, or abandon popular forms of media, the lecture aims to raise awareness of the theological questions and answers present in the mediums of communication preachers optionally view as innocuous entertainment or an evil menace.”
On Monday morning we will gather in Lewis Hall at 9. This session is titled “Ancient (Be)attitudes in the Virtual Future.” This session is designed for church professionals, but anyone is welcome.
Dr. Moore describes her Monday morning session as follows: “If the Bible is an ancient version of Facebook, then everything from the written transcripts of Jesus’ spoken messages to the pdf-files of Paul’s letters are ancient blogs sent out through the progressive technological advancement in communication then known as writing. Continuing the lecture theme around The Hunger Games, this session compares the books and the movies to provide strategies for how preachers can respond to the theological issues behind the 30- second sound bite and never-ending status updates.”
Dr. Joy Moore is truly a treasure for the church today. She brings an energy that is inspiring to all. Please join with us for this very special weekend. For more information go to www.salisburyfirstpres.org.