About Rich Voelz

Rev. Richard (Rich) W. Voelz, PhD currently serves as the Senior Minister of Johns Creek Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Johns Creek, GA. Prior to coming to Johns Creek in June 2012, he previously served churches in Tennessee and Florida and was a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN from 2005-2011.

Rich holds the PhD in Homiletics and Liturgics from Vanderbilt University (2011) and is the author of A Youthful Homiletic: A Practical Theological Examination of the Relationship Between Preaching and Adolescent Youth (PhD diss.) which explores the preaching of adolescent youth and how their preaching might shape adult preaching theories and practices as well as formations of Christian identity, even as adults maintain an interest in adolescents’ formation as preachers and people of faith. At Vanderbilt Divinity School he served as a teaching assistant for the Introduction to Homiletics and History of Christian Liturgy courses.

Another book, tentatively entitled Tending the Tree of Life: Preaching and Worship through Reproductive Loss and Adoption, is under contract with Shook Foil Books. He has also written a number of articles and book reviews and previously served as managing editor for Homiletic, the scholarly journal of the The Academy of Homiletics. Rich will have entries on passages from the Gospel of Mark in the forthcoming volume of Feasting on the Gospels by Westminster John Knox Press. Rich has presented his work at the annual meeting of The Academy of Homiletics and other conferences. He is also a member of the American Academy of Religion.

A lifelong member of the Stone-Campbell tradition, he grew up in the independent Christian churches (Christian Churches/Churches of Christ), graduating from two of their institutions of higher learning: Milligan College (BA, 2001) and Emmanuel School of Religion (now Emmanuel Christian Seminary, M.Div, 2005).

Rich’s scholarly interests are in contextual homiletics, the ethics of preaching, homiletic pedagogy, preaching and the Stone-Campbell Movement, and theological education. He is interested in helping preachers find their voice and become faithful, passionate, and reflective practitioners of the church’s long tradition of preaching.

In the Georgia Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Rich serves as a member of the Sexual Misconduct Response Team.

Rich is married with one child and is originally from Cary, North Carolina (just outside of Raleigh). He is a rabid college basketball fan, following both North Carolina State University and Vanderbilt University. After his two-year old goes to bed, he and his wife binge on great television series through Netflix and Hulu.