In this dissertation, I will argue that an examination of the formative experiences of openly LGBTQIA+ Mainline Protestant preachers can uniquely inform and shift the pedagogical tasks and norms of the preaching classroom for all students of preaching – both those who identify as queer and those who do not. This shift relates specifically to the development of the person and performance of the preacher, the engagement of queer approaches to evaluating the preacher’s operational theological orthodoxy, and an understanding of the preaching task as a complex act of queer failure, resistance, and potentiality.

To this end, I intend to conduct qualitative research, engaging openly queer Mainline preachers in conversations on the themes above through interviews. The qualitative findings will be interrogated theoretically by way of queer theory and gender studies, especially along the themes of gesture, presence, failure, and futurity; they will be theologically examined through the seemingly opposed lenses of the Wesleyan/pietistic tradition and Marcella Althaus-Reid’s seminal work, Indecent Theology. After establishing and examining the unique perspectives of openly queer Mainline preachers qualitatively, theoretically, and theologically, I will incorporate these learnings toward a queer-informed philosophy of pedagogy for both the introductory preaching classroom and continuing homiletical education which takes seriously the impact of queer preaching bodies and their dissonant relationship to ecclesial and homiletical norms.