The Religious Communication Association is pleased to announce that Frank A. Thomas is the recipient of the Inaugural Presidential Citation Award. The award recognizes the extraordinary contributions of individuals who personify RCA’s commitment to religious communication, scholarship, and dialogue. The committee felt that Thomas’s contributions to the church and the academy and founding the African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric program at Christian Theological Seminary exemplify what we aim to achieve at the Religious Communication Association.
RCA will host a conversation with Professor Thomas at its annual conference at the Hilton Garden Inn New Orleans Convention Center, 1001 South Peters Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 20 at 4:30pm. We will hold the event in the Bourbon Room, and the public is invited.
More about Frank A. Thomas:
Frank A. Thomas, PhD, is currently the Director of the Compelling Preaching Initiative and the Nettie Sweeney and Hugh Th. Miller Professor of Homiletics at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, Indiana. A revised and updated version of They Like to Never Quit Praisin’ God: The Role of Celebration In Preaching was released in August 2013. To complement this classic preaching book, Thomas published, in 2014, Preaching as Celebration Digital Lecture Series and Workbook. For many years, Thomas has also taught preaching to Doctoral and Masters level students at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois, Memphis Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tennessee, and United Theological Seminary of Dayton, Ohio. He is the CEO of Hope For Life International, Inc., which formerly published The African American Pulpit. Thomas also serves as a member of the International Board of Societas Homiletica, an international society of teachers of preaching.
Thomas is the author of Introduction to Introduction to the Practice of African American Preaching with Abingdon Press. He is also the author of the Dangerous Sermon trilogy: How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon, Surviving a Dangerous Sermon, and The God of the Dangerous Sermon, all with Abingdon Press. He also co-edited Preaching With Sacred Fire: An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present with Martha Simmons, published by W. W. Norton & Company in 2010. This critically acclaimed book offers a rare view of the unheralded role of the African American preacher in American history. Thomas also authorizes several other books on subjects from prayer to spiritual maturity.
Thomas served with distinction as the senior pastor for two remarkable congregations: New Faith Baptist Church of Matteson, Illinois, and Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church of Memphis, Tennessee, for eighteen years and thirteen years, respectively.
Thomas holds a PhD in Communication (Rhetoric) from the University of Memphis, a Doctor of Divinity from Christian Theological Seminary, Doctor of Ministry degrees from Chicago Theological Seminary and United Theological Seminary, a Master of Divinity from Chicago Theological Seminary, and a Master of Arts in African-Caribbean Studies from Northeastern Illinois University.
Thomas and his wife, the Rev. Dr. Joyce Scott Thomas, each earned their Certified Professional Coaching Certificate (CPC) from the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). Based in their coaching experience, Thomas published with Hope For Life International Press, The Choice: Living Your Passion Inside Out, in October 2013. Thomas explains and explores the spiritual and coaching process to live your passion from the inside out.