Pastoring in Polarizing Times

Find your footing again in a time of division. Gather online with us for this free, two-day summit designed for ministry leaders navigating divided times,

Reserve Your Spot

September 8 - 9, 2025

What you will learn

Learn to lead through conflict without losing yourself.

Gain tools to preach truthfully and pastor courageously in a divided world.

Restore connection with your calling and your people.

Lead with integrity—even when the path forward is unclear.

Receive practices for healing fractured communities.

Move beyond survival into leadership that restores trust.

You didn’t enter ministry to referee political battles.
You were called to preach good news and love people well.

But now, every sermon feels risky.

Speak up, and you're too political.

Stay quiet, and you're complicit.

Even community service feels controversial.

You’re not alone.

Leaders everywhere are carrying this tension—longing for a faithful, loving way forward.

We see you.
And we want to walk with you.

Reserve Your Spot

How it Works…

Who is the Summit for?

This summit is for ministry leaders who are navigating the complexities of leadership in a divided world.

Whether you’re a pastor, clergy member, or faith leader serving in congregations or communities, if you’ve found yourself asking:

  • How do I lead with courage when everything feels so fragile?
  • How do I speak truth without alienating people I love?
  • Is there a way forward that honors both my calling and my community?

Then this space was created with you in mind.

How do I access the Virtual Summit?

Scroll down this page to register for this event. Once registered, you don’t have to do anything else! We will send you an email reminder the day before the event with a link to access the video sessions when they live.

Details about the Summit

The free pass is good for 48 hours!

Pastoring During Polarizing Times is a 2-day virtual experience. The six video sessions will be available during a short 48-hour time frame from September 8 – September 9th, 2025.

The videos will be released on a schedule, with three videos released for your viewing on Sept. 8th and 3 more on Sept. 9th.

Each day, you will have the opportunity to participate in a live Q&A session (on Zoom) with our hosts, Dr. Rose Madrid Swetman and Dr. Kate Rae Davis. The link and time for this Q&A will be available in the Summit Home after the event has started.

If you miss the event, it is ok! The video sessions will be available for purchase.

Is there a deadline to register?

To register for the free Summit experience, you must sign up before September 7th, 2025. The Summit sessions will be available for purchase at a later date.

Can I purchase the Summit to watch later?

After the Summit experience is complete, you will have the opportunity to purchase the video sessions and any downloadable materials that go with them.

Speakers & Session Information

Brian McLaren

Website

Topic: “When the past and present are a mess, imagine a better future”

In times of stress and uncertainty, many long to return to what once felt familiar, even if that past is only imagined. But the biblical prophets call us forward, not backward, inviting us to envision a future shaped by justice, hope, and renewal.

This session explores the power of prophetic imagination to guide us beyond polarization and paralysis. Rather than reacting to the chaos of the present or idealizing the past, leaders are invited to cultivate a vision compelling enough to draw communities toward something new.

Especially in seasons when there’s no going back, this kind of faithful imagination helps us begin sowing the seeds of a better future, one rooted in courage, compassion, and shared purpose.

Rachael Clinton Chen

Topic: “Tending the Wounds: The Power of Lament in Fragmented Times”

This webinar, Tending the Wounds: The Power of Lament in Fragmented Times, invites pastors and faith leaders to rediscover lament as a transformative, trauma-informed process for healing and reconnection. In an era marked by polarization, spiritual harm, and division, lament offers a prophetic response—naming truth, holding space for grief, and beginning the work of repair.

Participants will explore how lament can be integrated into pastoral care and leadership to tend to both personal and collective wounds. Rooted in theological reflection and practical wisdom, this conversation offers hope for restoring trust and wholeness within fractured communities of faith.

Sean Palmer

Website

Topic: “Using Storytelling for Connection”

Stories are more than illustrations; they’re how we make sense of the world, find belonging, and encounter grace in everyday life.

In this session, you’ll explore the power of storytelling as a tool for authentic connection in ministry. Learn why stories matter so deeply to us, how to craft stories that resonate, and what it means to hold someone else’s story with care and integrity.

For those who are preaching, pastoring, or simply trying to connect across differences, storytelling can help bridge the gap and remind us of our shared humanity.

Andi Soccoccio & Rebecca Walston

Rev. Andrea (Andi) Saccoccio
Website

Rebecca Wheeler Walston, MA, J.D.
Website

Topic: “A Call to Civic Discipleship”

Faithful Christian leadership includes how we show up in public life. Civic discipleship offers a theological and practical framework for engaging politics—not as partisans, but as people formed by the gospel’s call to justice, righteousness, and steadfast love.

This session explores how the church can faithfully respond to growing polarization in our political and cultural landscape. You’ll gain tools and language to help facilitate courageous conversations in your community and learn how to bridge divides without compromising your convictions.

Rooted in cross-denominational wisdom, this conversation invites clergy and Christian leaders to imagine a healthier relationship between faith and public life—one marked by truth, love, and collective flourishing.

Kathy Escobar

Website

Topic: “New Ways for a New World: Leadership Beyond Boxes, Binaries, and Borders”

In these unprecedented times, faith leaders won’t be able to think, strategize, or theologize our way to something new. We need new ways for this new world, and it starts with embodying more healthy and tangible practices personally and as communities that reflect our truest values, heal wounds, catalyze freedom, and cultivate community.

Scott Hoezee

Website

Topic: “Effective Storytelling for Preaching”

The basic premise will be that in preaching, we need to tell real-life stories to illustrate what Paul Scott Wilson calls both the Trouble and the Grace in any given sermon. As part of the mantra “Show, Don’t Tell,” preachers need to be able to display what they are talking about, showing what a given theme or idea looks like in action on a given Wednesday afternoon or Friday morning.

Solid stories help people be able to recognize their own lives in sermons as well as equipping them to recognize the in-breaking of God’s grace in everyday life when they see it.

Book your seat now

Full attendance and participation during all sessions are expected to complete the program.
Terms / Conditions. By registering for a Resilience or Leaders Circle, you agree to the following (scroll down and click agree)
Please consider the schedule closely to ensure you will be able to participate in the virtual meetings, and block off your calendar to ensure your attendance. Should you have an emergency (illness, situations out of your control) that will impact your participation please email transforming@theseattleschool.edu
Time commitment:
Two hours one day per month for 8 months, dates to be determined by majority of registrants' availability and adjusted as needed during the first group meeting.
Your feedback is immensely valuable!
As an essential component of your participation in this program, we ask that you provide us with your honest, candid, and timely feedback in program surveys and conversations, and consider providing reviews or testimonials of the program for promotional use.
Code of Conduct:
The Center for Transforming Engagement strives for intentionality in the ways we relate to one another - how we as a team relate to each other, how we relate to participants, and how we hope participants will relate to us and one another. To that end, we hold cultural norms about the ways we interact with one another. Your participation in this program is contingent on your agreement to abide by these cultural norms. i. For growth to happen, we all need to be able to share about the deeper challenges we face. To provide that atmosphere of openness and support, you commit to not sharing personal information that is shared in program meetings. ii. In our interactions with each other and our communities, we practice the humility of not-knowing that is required to listen and discover. iii. Be aware of different cultural and characterological ways of communicating, and invite others’ voices. Respect theological differences: the river of Christian orthodoxy is wide, and while the streams of that river are distinct, they are not inherently better or worse. Even if you can’t respect the belief, treat the person with respect. iiii. We value both thoughts and feelings as valuable pieces of information that inform one another, and inform our learning and discerning together. iv. Be in the here and now (not mentally somewhere or some time else), with the people who are sharing their time and stories with you. Eliminate any distractions possible.
Fair Use Policy
All program content, recordings, and materials are the intellectual property of The Seattle School and may not be presented, distributed, or replicated. The Seattle School retains the copyright for all recorded content. Some print materials (PDFs, worksheets, journal prompts, etc.) will be licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike. Those materials will be available for download on our website, and may be used as long as the following conditions are met: (1) attribute to the Center for Transforming Engagement even if remixed/modified; (2) do not use for commercial (paid) purposes; and (3) anything you make that remixes or builds upon this material, you must also distribute under Creative Commons. More information on this license is available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Agree and Close
(scroll down and click agree) Full attendance and participation during all sessions are expected to complete the program. Please consider the schedule closely to ensure you will be able to participate in the virtual meetings, and block off your calendar to ensure your attendance. Should you have an emergency (illness, situations out of your control) that will impact your participation please email transforming@theseattleschool.edu Time commitment: Two hours one day per month for 8 months, dates to be determined by majority of registrants' availability and adjusted as needed during the first group meeting. Your feedback is immensely valuable! As an essential component of your participation in this program, we ask that you provide us with your honest, candid, and timely feedback in program surveys and conversations, and consider providing reviews or testimonials of the program for promotional use. 2. Code of Conduct The Center for Transforming Engagement strives for intentionality in the ways we relate to one another - how we as a team relate to each other, how we relate to participants, and how we hope participants will relate to us and one another. To that end, we hold cultural norms about the ways we interact with one another. Your participation in this program is contingent on your agreement to abide by these cultural norms. Confidentiality. For growth to happen, we all need to be able to share about the deeper challenges we face. To provide that atmosphere of openness and support, you commit to not sharing personal information that is shared in program meetings. Curiosity. In our interactions with each other and our communities, we practice the humility of not-knowing that is required to listen and discover. Respect differences. Be aware of different cultural and characterological ways of communicating, and invite others’ voices. Respect theological differences: the river of Christian orthodoxy is wide, and while the streams of that river are distinct, they are not inherently better or worse. Even if you can’t respect the belief, treat the person with respect. You are invited to be a whole person, with both thoughts and feelings. We value both thoughts and feelings as valuable pieces of information that inform one another, and inform our learning and discerning together. Presence. Be in the here and now (not mentally somewhere or some time else), with the people who are sharing their time and stories with you. Eliminate any distractions possible. 3. Fair Use Policy All program content, recordings, and materials are the intellectual property of The Seattle School and may not be presented, distributed, or replicated. The Seattle School retains the copyright for all recorded content. Some print materials (PDFs, worksheets, journal prompts, etc.) will be licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike. Those materials will be available for download on our website, and may be used as long as the following conditions are met: (1) attribute to the Center for Transforming Engagement even if remixed/modified; (2) do not use for commercial (paid) purposes; and (3) anything you make that remixes or builds upon this material, you must also distribute under Creative Commons. More information on this license is available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Agree and Close