Our convention April 23-26 will feature the following keynote speakers:
Meredith Gould (@meredithgould) is a sociologist and longtime communications professional. an early adopter of social media, she’s known for being an exuberant evangelist for using digital tools to build and sustain community. Meredith is founder and lead moderator of the weekly twitter-based #ChSocm (church social media) chat. She claims bragging rights for developing the #chsocm hashtag which is universally recognized across social media platforms for tagging content and conversation about social media and church. She has nine published books to her credit, including The Word Made Fresh: Communicating Church and Faith Today, which has helped position church communications as an essential ministry. her newest book, The Social Media Gospel: Sharing the Good News in New Ways is serving a similar function relative to churchsocial media. an independent consultant since 1989, she provides counsel and training as well as hands-on fix-it services to local churches and judicatories across denominations. For even more information: www.meredithgould.com
Kathryn Mary Lohre is the president of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and director of ec
umenical and inter-religious relations for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Prior to that, she served as assistant director of the pluralism project at Harvard university, Diana Eck’s premier research project on religious diversity in the United States. Kathryn received her BA in psychology, religion and women’s studies from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1999. She earned her master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School in 2003. in 2011, the Graduate Theological Foundation in Mishawaka, Indiana conferred an honorary Doctor of Divinity to Kathryn, “in recognition of her election as president-elect of the National Council of Churches and also in recognition of her contributions to women’s interfaith issues and pluralism.” She is married to the Rev. Timothy Seitz and has a 4-year-old son, John Isaiah Lohre Seitz.
A national speaker and writer, Lillian Daniel has served as the Senior minister of the First Congregational Church, united Church of Christ, of Glen Ellyn, Illinois since 2004. Lillianis a regular contributor to and an editor at large with associated Church press member The Christian Century. She is the author of the book Tell It Like It Is: Reclaiming the Practice of Testimony, which is the story of one church’s attempt to get mainline protestants to talk to each other about God. her book This Odd and Wondrous Calling: The Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers, co-authored by Martin B. Copenhaver, is a humorous andhonest look at the ministry. her newest book, published in January 2013, is When Spiritual But Not Religious is Not Enough: Seeing God in Unexpected Places, Even the Church.