Speakers Bureau
Memphis Theological Seminary has faculty and staff that are experts in their respective fields. They are well known and sought-after for their insight and various degrees of depth. This page is dedicated to featuring our faculty and staff. Here you will be able to find your next speaker for your upcoming event, panel, conference or retreat.
Jody Hill, D.Min.
President
Best Selling Author of “38: The Chucky Mullins Effect”, Biblical Leadership, Preaching, Lecturer
Peter Gathje, Ph.D.
Vice President of Academic Affairs/Academic Dean
Dr. Gathje is also the Professor of Christian Ethics.
Research interests include farming and food, state sanctioned violence in war, the death penalty, policing, and imprisonment, homelessness, poverty, racism, holiness, alternative Christian communities, and virtue ethics.
Christopher Davis, D.Min.
Associate Professor of Preaching and Pastoral Ministry
Dr. Davis is also the Associate Dean of Doctoral Studies and the Director of Community Engagement.
His research interests include preaching and pastoral ministry. In the area of preaching, his focuses are narrative exposition, imagination, contemporary preaching and African American preaching.
Mitzi L. Minor, Ph.D.
Professor of New Testament
Research interests includes the intersection of the New Testament with our own spiritual journeys.
She teaches courses at MTS in the Gospels, Romans, the Corinthian letters, Revelation, NT Greek, and feminist NT studies. She’s written two books and numerous articles on Mark and has lectured on the Second Gospel twice.
Carmichael D. Crutchfield, D.Min., Ph.D.
Clara Scott Chair of Church and Ministry
Dr. Crutchfield is also the Professor of Christian Education, Spiritual Formation, and Youth Ministry.
Research interests include Human Development, the Human Brain, Teaching and Learning issues, the Formation and Nurture of Christians, Contemplative Pedagogy, African American Adolescent Males, Discipleship, and Critical Pedagogy.
Mary Lin Hudson, Ph.D.
Professor of Homiletics and Liturgics
Research interests include homiletic theory and storytelling and narrative structures in sermon design, and situational preaching for 21st century world.
In the area of liturgics, she explores the intersection of ethics and liturgical theology, with particular interest in the meaning and practice of the sacraments of Eucharist and baptism.
Christy S. Woodbury-Moore, D.Min.
Assistant Professor of Spiritual Formation
Dr. Woodbury-Moore is also the Director of Supervised Ministry.
Research interests include formation of the seminary and post-seminary student, womanist theology, womanist ways of being, practical theology, women in ministry, and spiritual formation of the adult learner.
Janel Kragt Bakker, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Mission and Culture
Research interests include partnership-based approaches to grassroots mission efforts, the religious dimensions of bereavement, and the intersection of globalization and religion, and the restructuring of American Christianity.
Michael K. Turner, Ph.D.
Hamilton and Varnell Chair in Wesleyan Studies
Dr. Turner is also an Associate Professor of the History of Christianity and Director of the Methodist House of Studies.
Research interests include the history of religion in North America, Pan-Methodist history, John Wesley’s theology and how it was appropriated in America, the intersection of popular with institutional religion, and the role that religious ideologies and institutions played during the U.S. Civil War era.
Tricia Vesely, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible and Christian Ethics
Research interests focus on the intersection between biblical studies and ethics with a particular concentration on character-based ethical approaches and the wisdom texts of the Hebrew Bible. Her additional interests lie in gender and religion, narrative ethics, and biblical languages.
G. Lee Ramsey, Jr., Ph.D.
Marlon and Foster Professor of Pastoral Theology and Homiletics
Dr. Ramsey is also the Associate Director of the Methodist House of Studies.
Research interests include Wesleyan practices of pastoral care, the relationship between pastoral care and preaching, pastoral care in times of grief and loss, and the use of fiction and film to explore the practices of Christian ministry.
Gail Robinson, Ed.D.
Vice President of Enrollment Services and Institutional Effectiveness & Registrar
Dr. Robinson is the head of the Registrar’s Office.
Interests include grant writing, non-profit 501(c)(3) establishment.
Martha Lyle Ford, D.Min.
Director of the Center for Faith and Imagination
Dr. Ford also heads the Green Seminary at MTS.
Research interests include eco-theology and food justice.
Michael Qualls, D.Min.
Director of the Cumberland Presbyterian House of Studies
Dr. Qualls is also the Director of the Program of Alternate Studies and an Adjunct Professor of Evangelism
Research interests include church planting, evangelism, helping congregations thrive, the Rural Church, and the intersection of Evangelical and Progressive Christianity.