Virtual Summit:

Leading During Polarizing Times

Speakers

Brian McLaren

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

Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. He is Dean of Faculty for the Center for Action and Contemplation. and a podcaster with Learning How to See. He is a co-host of Southern Lights. His newest books are Faith After Doubt (January 2021), Do I Stay Christian? (May 2022), and Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart (2024). His co-authored children’s book Cory and the Seventh Story was released in 2023. The first book of a new science fiction trilogy, The Last Voyage, can be pre-ordered now for release in July, 2025.

Sean Palmer

Topic: “Using Storytelling for Connection”

Sean Palmer is the author of Speaking by the Numbers: Enneagram Wisdom for Teachers, Pastors, and Communicators (IVP 2022) and 40 Days on Being a Three (Enneagram Daily Reflections). He is also the Teaching Pastor at Ecclesia Houston, one of America’s most innovative and vibrant multi-site churches, serving a predominance of Millennials and young adults.

Kathy Escobar

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

Kathy Escobar is Co-Founder and Community Cultivator of The Refuge, a hub for healing community, social action, and creative collaboration serving in North Denver since 2006. She’s also the Co-Founder and Co-Director of #communityheals, a non-profit organization dedicated to making spaces for transformation accessible for all, and is passionate about creating healing spaces in real life, online, and in nature. An author of several books including Practicing: Changing Yourself to Change the World and Faith Shift: Finding Your Way Forward When Everything you Believe is Coming Apart, Kathy’s work is always centered on tangible practices that heal and transform.

Andi Soccoccio & Rebecca Walston

Rev. Andrea (Andi) Saccoccio, M.Div., D.Min.
Website

Rebecca Wheeler Walston, MA, J.D.
Website

Topic: “A Call to Civic Discipleship”

Rev. Andrea (Andi) Saccoccio is the director of congregational education and outreach for Sojourners, overseeing a grant focused on supporting faith leaders facing polarization in their communities. She is also principal and facilitator for Lefko Consulting, empowering predominantly white organizations and faith-based nonprofits to recognize and understand their unique culture and how it plays in multicultural spaces and relationships.Andi served two terms on the board of the Impact Movement and often helps facilitate Impact’s cultural competency training. A Maryland native, she currently lives in the Spokane, Wash. area, where she can often be found exploring the Pacific Northwest with her border collie rescue, Bodhi.

Rebecca Wheeler Walston, MA, J.D.
Rebecca Wheeler Walston, Esq. – A licensed minister, she holds a Master of Arts in Counseling from Reformed Theological Seminary and a law degree from UCLA School of Law. She is the owner and proprietor of Solid Foundation Story Coaching offering trauma-informed care from a Christian perspective. Rebecca has worked with Art of Living Counseling’s Trauma Focused Narrative Group Training: Telling A True(r) Story Master Class as a Speaker and Story Facilitator and The Allender Center at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology, facilitating Story Workshops and Narrative Focused Trauma Care Training. She facilitates story groups and offers individual story consultation with Hope & Anchor, an initiative of The Impact Movement, Inc., bringing story work to college students. She lives in Williamsburg, VA with her husband of 25 years, Vaughn and their two children, Naya and Josiah, where Rebecca runs a Law Practice specializing in non-profit and small business law and serves as General Legal Counsel for The Impact Movement, Inc.

Rachael Clinton Chen

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

Rachael Clinton Chen, MDiv, is a trauma care practitioner, speaker (preacher), and pastoral leader. She serves as a lead instructor for the Allender Center at The Seattle School and is co-host of the Allender Center Podcast with Dr. Dan Allender. Rachael is a stormborn woman of the Oklahoma plains and received a Bachelor of Arts in Religion from Oklahoma Baptist University. She holds a Master of Divinity from The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology and recently had the honor of being named by Sojourners as one of “9 Christian Women Shaping the Church in 2024.”

Rachael is devoted to addressing the harm of abuse – especially spiritual abuse – at the intersection of trauma, healing, embodiment and spiritual formation. She leads the Story Workshop for Spiritual Abuse & Healing and recently developed the Allender Center’s Spiritual Abuse & Healing Online Course, inviting survivors of spiritual abuse to journey together towards healing and reclamation.

Rachael is a contemplative charismatic and unapologetic Jesus follower surrendered to the “do justice, love mercy, walk humbly” kind of life. She’s a tea drinker, an avid sports fan, and a karaoke aficionado. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Reverend Michael S. Chen; two beautiful stepsons, Jamison and Silas; and her beloved daughter Evie.

Scott Hoezee

Topic: “Effective Storytelling for Preaching”

Rev. Scott E. Hoezee is an ordained pastor in the Christian Reformed Church in North America and has served two congregations. He was the pastor of Second Christian Reformed Church in Fremont, Michigan, from 1990-1993. From 1993-2005 he was the Minister of Preaching and Administration at Calvin CRC in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In the spring of 2005 Scott accepted the Seminary’s offer to become the first Director of the Center for Excellence in Preaching. He has also been a member of the Pastor-Theologian Program sponsored by the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey, where he was pastor-in-residence in the fall of 2000. From 2001-2011 Scott served on the editorial board of Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought and was co-editor of that journal from 2005-2011. He blogs regularly for The Reformed Journal and along with Darrell Delaney is the co-host of the Groundwork radio and podcast program.

Rev. Hoezee is married to Rosemary Apol and they have two children. He enjoys birdwatching, snorkeling, and exploring the beauties and wonders of God’s great creation.

Rev. Hoezee is the author of several books including The Riddle of Grace (1996), Flourishing in the Land (1996), Remember Creation (1998), Speaking as One: A Look at the Ecumenical Creeds (1997), Speaking of Comfort: A Look at the Heidelberg Catechism (1998), Proclaim the Wonder: Preaching Science on Sunday (2003), Grace Through Every Generation (2007), Actuality: Real Life Stories for Sermons That Matter (2014), and Why We Listen To Sermons (2018).

Meet Your Hosts

Kate Rae Davis

Executive Director, the Center for Transforming Engagement

Kate works with Christian leaders to restore their inner resilience and form communities of belonging. Passionate about communities that help people to live into their values with meaning and purpose, Kate loves to gather practitioners from a variety of fields, shape discussions around the opportunities of this complex cultural era, and discern how we might join God’s work in the world.

Kate earned her Education Doctorate in Leadership & Innovation from New York University; her dissertation focused on assessing how staff live into organizational values. Her Master of Divinity degree was earned at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology with a master’s thesis focusing on grief and grace. Her Bachelor’s degrees degree is in English and Spanish language and literature and an emphasis on Marginality & Difference. Passionate about the church in its many forms, Kate is an award-winning preacher with experience in a post-evangelical megachurch and multiple mainline parishes.

Kate is a quiet extravert, a constant prayer, a martial art practitioner, a ravenous reader, and an alliteration aficionado. She lives with her husband Keller and dog Magic. Together they regularly hike, play tabletop games, and travel throughout Cascadia and, when they have the opportunity, around the globe. Favorite destinations so far have been Granada, Spain; the Isle of Skye, Scotland; and Lake Crescent, WA.

Rose Madrid Swetman

Assistant Director, the Center for Transforming Engagement

Rose brings a lifetime of ministry experience, having co-founded the Practicing Church in Shoreline, WA and served as the Regional Leader of the Northwest Vineyard USA. She also founded Canopy Scholars, a nonprofit that partners with local agencies to provide tutoring and STEM programs to a diverse population of elementary school students. She continues to teach and preach and is passionate about raising women leaders in church ministry.

Rose has a specific passion for resilience work based on her own story of how ministry impacted her health. In her role as Associate Director, she oversees all of the resilience programs.

Rose obtained her Doctorate of Ministry from Bakke Graduate University, focusing on transformational leadership for the global city.

She and her husband Rich have a blended family of 8 children and over 25 grandchildren.

Virtual Summit Home

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Full Schedule

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FAQS

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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/
(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/