Hickory – Lenoir-Rhyne University’s Institute for Faith and Learning (IFL) will conclude its 2017-18 Speaker Series with a presentation by the Rev. Dr. Soong-Chan Rah on Thursday, March 1 at 7 p.m. in Grace Chapel.
A sought-after speaker and a major voice of today’s evangelical social justice scene, Rah’s presentation titled, “The Necessity of Lament in a Broken World,” will provide a narrative of hope and healing for God’s people in a nation that is deeply divided and in a social reality that is profoundly broken.
Rah is Milton B. Engebretson professor of church growth and evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, Ill. He was founding senior pastor of Cambridge Community Fellowship Church (CCFC), a multi-ethnic, urban ministry-focused church committed to living out the values of racial reconciliation and social justice in Cambridge, Mass. Additionally, he was part of a church planting team in the Washington, D.C., area, worked with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Boston, and mobilized CCFC to plant two additional churches.
He serves on the boards of Catalyst Leadership Center and Sojourners/Call to Renewal. He has been an active member of the Boston Ten-Point Coalition, an urban ministry working with at-risk youth, and is a founding member of the Boston Fellowship of Asian-American Ministers.
Rah’s latest book, Still Evangelical? Insiders Reconsider Political, Social, and Theological Meaning, was published in January 2018. He is also the author of Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Cultural Captivity, and Many Colors: Cultural Intelligence for a Changing Church, winner of an Outreach magazine book award. Rah co-authored Return to Justice: Six Movements that Reignited Our Contemporary Evangelical Conscience and Forgive Us.
A graduate of Columbia University, Rah received his Bachelor of Arts in political science and history/sociology. He earned his Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, his Master of Theology from Harvard University, and his Doctor of Ministry from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Rah lives in Chicago with his wife, Sue, who teaches special education, and their two children, Annah and Elijah.
The event is free and open to public. For more information, visit www.lr.edu/publicevents or contact Jonathan Schwiebert, LRU professor of religious studies, at [email protected] or by calling 828.328.7184.
The IFL Speaker Series invites prominent religious figures and authors to share their work and beliefs with audiences at LRU and Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary (LTSS). The IFL at LRU, in conjunction with the Academy for Faith and Leadership (AFL) at LTSS, endeavors to provide programming that contributes to and enriches a culture of the intellect that is theologically based. Its programs are directed to Christians of all traditions.
Rev. Dr. Soong-Chan Rah speaks March 1
