About Expanding the Pulpit

Expanding the Pulpit is a cohort-based initiative designed to strengthen, encourage, and equip both lay and clergy preachers within the Presbytery of Philadelphia. Generously funded by a grant through the Lilly Endowment’s Compelling Preaching Initiative, we seek to empower our preachers to faithfully proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ in the midst of a rapidly changing Church and world. Over the course of a year, participants will learn from leading homiletical scholars, experienced preachers, and one another through retreats, workshops, peer groups and one-on-one coaching.

Each cohort will consist of approximately twelve participants each.  Rather than a curriculum-based model, each year will be unique in that it will depend upon learnings from the previous years, paying particular attention to the desires of the current participants.  To that end, every cohort member goes through an intake process, where we deeply listen to their longings to improve and contextualize their skills.  After our leadership team explores these findings, the workshops and teachings are mapped out for the year.  In this way, no two years will be identical, and we remain committed to participants having agency over the content of their workshops and small groups.  Instead of a top-down approach, we allow the cohorts to express their needs, with program leadership finding ways to meet these needs in impactful ways that make concrete improvements to their confidence and enthusiasm for preaching.

Program Leadership

  • Rev. Ruth Faith Santana-Grace, Executive Presbyter

    Rev. Ruth Faith Santana-Grace is currently serving as co-moderator of the PC(USA). She began her call as Executive Presbyter on February 1, 2014. Before pursuing ordained ministry as Minister of Word and Sacrament, Ruth received a Masters in Public Administration and used her gifts as a “bridge builder" for more than 15 years – serving in Washington, DC and Rome, Italy. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, Ruth served as Associate Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Bethlehem, PA, and as Executive Presbyter of San Gabriel Presbytery in Southern California. Ruth has been described as linguistically tri-lingual (speaking English, Spanish and Italian) and theologically bi-lingual, and she comes with a deep commitment to bringing people together of different cultures and theological perspectives. Ruth is married to the Rev. Dr. Edward Santana-Grace and they are parents to two children – Dakota and David (who lives with his family in Italy).

  • Rev. Sarah A. Colwill, Program Director

    Rev. Sarah A. Colwill serves as the Director of Lilly Initiatives for the Presbytery of Philadelphia. She joined the presbytery staff in mid-April of 2021 to lead our first Lilly Endowment grant-funded initiative, Cultivating Enough in the Care of Clergy. She now also serves as Program Supervisor for our second Lilly Endowment grant-funded initiative, Expanding the Pulpit . Prior to her current call, Sarah served as Pastor at Church on the Mall, Campus Chaplain at Drexel University, and Associate Pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Springfield (Flourtown). Her experience in these contexts has birthed a desire to help pastors feel connected to colleagues, encouraged to care for themselves, and equipped for transformational ministry. Sarah is a graduate of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Penn State University. Her call to ministry stems from the loving church community in which she was raised, where she was taught that she is loved, she belongs, and she is valued. Sarah has two teenage children, Nathan and Julia, and enjoys running, journaling, doing crossword puzzles, and playing with her dog, Bella.

  • Rev. Jess Winderweedle, Program Coordinator

    The Rev. Jess Winderweedle (she/her) serves as program coordinator for the Expanding the Pulpit program. Though she is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church, as both an MDiv alum and current PhD candidate at Princeton Theological Seminary, she considers herself an honorary Presbyterian. Her time in ministry has included experience as a youth minister, church musician, lead pastor, and the founder of The Feed Truck, a mobile campus and community outreach ministry. Since returning to school to pursue a PhD in practical theology with a focus in homiletics, Jess has become a sought-after guest preacher, stepping into pulpits throughout New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Jess’s research centers on the experiences of LGBTQIA+ preachers in Mainline Protestant traditions as well as the performative impact of queer presence in the pulpit. As an instructor of preaching, her work focuses heavily on the intersections of embodiment, identity, social location, and marginalization in preaching. Jess is particularly inspired by and enjoys working with preachers who follow God’s call to proclaim the gospel in spite of having been told that they should not because of who they are. Jess currently lives in Princeton, NJ with her rambunctious Boston Terrier, Rufus. She enjoys road trips, food adventures, and playing all manner of drums.

  • Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner, Preacher-in-Residence

    The Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner serves as the Assistant Professor of Preaching at Princeton Theological Seminary. She received a B.S. in Secondary Life Science Education from Miami University (OH), a M.Div. from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, and her Ph.D. from the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University. Though she has served among the Lutherans and was educated among United Methodists, Dr. Wagner is ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Previous experience on the pastoral staff of a PC(USA) congregation in Virginia helps fuel and inform her present scholarship and teaching. She is passionate about supporting students’ formation and helping clergy and communities navigate the realities of an ever-changing world and church. Her current writing and work focus on preaching and ministry in the midst and wake of trauma, particularly thinking about collective trauma, the role of the preacher, and the resources of our Scriptures and faith to respond to these moments. Dr. Wagner’s book, Fractured Ground: Preaching in the Wake of Mass Trauma (Westminster John Knox Press, 2023), offers guidance for preaching in the aftermath of communal trauma, including mass violence, natural disasters, and public health crises.