Faith-Rooted Organizing on New Terrain
Pre-Festival Offering
Thursday August 28, 2025
9 am–5 pm
cost: $59.00
FACILITATORS
From Ferguson to New York, and from Germany to South Africa to Australia, Lisa Sharon Harper leads trainings that increase clergy and community leaders’ capacity to organize people of faith toward a just world. A prolific speaker, writer and activist, Ms. Harper is the founder and president of FreedomRoad.us, a consulting group dedicated to shrinking the narrative gap in our nation by designing forums and experiences that bring common understanding, common commitment and common action.
Ms. Harper is the author of several books, including Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican…or Democrat (The New Press, 2008); Left Right and Christ: Evangelical Faith in Politics (Elevate, 2011); Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith (Zondervan, 2014); and the critically acclaimed, The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong can be Made Right (Waterbrook, a division of Penguin Random House, 2016). The Very Good Gospel, recognized as the “2016 Book of the Year” by Englewood Review of Books, explores God’s intent for the wholeness of all relationships in light of today’s headlines.
A columnist at Sojourners Magazine and an Auburn Theological Seminary Senior Fellow, Ms. Harper has appeared on TVOne, FoxNews Online, NPR, and Al Jazeera America. Her writing has been featured in CNN Belief Blog, The National Civic Review, Sojourners, The Huffington Post, Relevant Magazine, and Essence Magazine. She writes extensively on shalom and governance, immigration reform, health care reform, poverty, racial and gender justice, climate change, and transformational civic engagement.
Ms. Harper earned her Masters degree in Human Rights from Columbia University in New York City, and served as Sojourners Chief Church Engagement Officer. In this capacity, she fasted for 22 days as a core faster in 2013 with the immigration reform Fast for Families. She trained and catalyzed evangelicals in St. Louis and Baltimore to engage the 2014 push for justice in Ferguson and the 2015 healing process in Baltimore, and she educated faith leaders in South Africa to pull the levers of their new democracy toward racial equity and economic inclusion.
In 2015, The Huffington Post named Ms. Harper one of 50 powerful women religious leaders to celebrate on International Women’s Day. In 2019, The Religion Communicators Council named a two-part series within Ms. Harper’s monthly Freedom Road Podcast “Best Radio or Podcast Series of The Year”. The series focused on The Roots and Fruits of Immigrant Labor Exploitation in the US. And in 2020 Ms. Harper received The Bridge Award from The Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth and Reconciliation in recognition of her dedication to bridging divides and building the beloved community.
Lisa is host of the Freedom Road Podcast, cohost of The FOUR Podcast and author of her weekly column on Substack, “The Truth Is…”. Her much anticipated book, Fortune: How Race Broke My Family And The World–And How To Repair It All, is now available!
Rev. Jen Butler is a faith leader, author, and strategist who has spent over three decades strengthening the progressive faith movement. Her books include Who Stole My Bible: Reclaiming Scripture as a Handbook for Resisting Tyranny and Born Again: The Christian Right Globalized. She founded and led Faith in Public Life for twenty years. Under her leadership, FPL helped pass the Affordable Care Act, blocked discriminatory religious freedom bills, and organized faith leaders to resist Trump-era authoritarianism and racism. Jen’s global advocacy began earlier as the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s representative to the UN, and continues through an international network she launched in 2022 to support faith-based democracy defenders worldwide. She also served as national faith engagement director for the Harris presidential campaign and chaired the White House Council on Faith and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Kristen Cesario Irving is the Director and Producer of TRUE BELIEVER. A veteran impact producer, nonprofit executive, and organizer, her projects have participated at Tribeca, Sundance, and various other festivals and programs. Most recently, Kristen was the Director of Advocacy and Engagement at Brave New Films, with a focus on reproductive justice and combating voter suppression. As the former Director of Social Action and Advocacy at Participant Media, she created social engagement campaigns for documentary and narrative films ranging from CONTAGION to FOOD INC. With TRUE BELIEVER, Kristen participated in the Investigative Reporting Workshop at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, the Camden / Tribeca Film Institute Retreat Sponsored by CNN, and was a Film Independent Documentary Lab Fellow. Previously, Kristen worked at the Creative Artists Agency Foundation, and has held various roles in nonprofit organizations including Hollygrove, XPRIZE Foundation, and the L.A. Kitchen.
Check In for pre-festival events will be available on Wednesday from 1 pm to 5 pm, and Thursday from 7am to 9 am.
If you’re tent camping, there’s no additional campsite charge for Wednesday night.
Some campsite locations are restricted due to large venue tent construction in several areas.
RV campers will need to purchase an additional night.