After reading posts calling for unity, others calling for resistance, and sorting memes with scriptures wildly taken out of context, Trista felt the need to form a group of people wanting to talk through public theology, social ethics and the Bible.
After introduction meetings, three areas of need were identified:
- We want spaces to practice talking about faith and politics. Real and welcoming conversations where we can ask questions/process together/and receive grace even when our words aren’t perfect.
- We want to have targeted conversations around specific topics. I have a list of suggested topics collected from our group meetings.
- We want to know how to move (ourselves and others) from conversation to action.
Responding to these needs, a small advisory board was formed to help shape the work. This group includes individuals in the fields of law, political communication and political organizing as well as local church pastors. Through this network, The Public Theology Project has developed a training plan for the coming months, including trainings in The Gospel and The Public Square, Clergy and Politics and a roundtable discussion on REsisting Injustice. More trainings are on the docket for the coming months.
About Trista
Rev. Trista Soendker Nicholson has served as Senior Pastor at St. Paul’s UMC.Previously, she served as an Associate Pastor at Missouri UMC and Lead Pastor at New Horizons in Columbia, both in Columbia, MO. Trista is passionate about service and sharing the love and grace of God with others, and has implemented unique connection opportunities to reach those who have felt unwelcome in church. She also enjoys helping people discover and cultivate their own gifts as they seek to serve the world. Trista is committed to intentional mission work, and has led several mission teams in Haiti that provided hygiene training and installed life-giving water filters. She was awarded the Martha Wright Griffiths’ Emerging Leader Award in 2015, awarded to an alumni from the University of Missouri for work for the betterment of women around the world.
Trista is privileged to serve as a General and Jurisdictional Conference Delegate for the Missouri Annual Conference, is part of the Board of Ordained Ministry, and is a member of the Conference Episcopacy Committee.
Prior to becoming a pastor, Trista worked in public service and political roles in Washington, DC. There, she worked with homeless individuals seeking job placement and permanent homes, and coordinated an ongoing feeding program on Capitol Hill United Methodist Church.
Trista earned her MSA from Trinity University in Washington, DC, and her MDiv from Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, where she was awarded The Roy M. Brady Award for preaching. She was ordained in 2012, and is now an adjunct faculty member teaching Old Testament and Preaching at Saint Paul School of Theology. Trista intends to seek an advanced degree in theology in the near future.
Trista and her husband, Sean, have two sons, Judah and Abram. They also have two dogs, Sarge and Phoebe, and a kitten named Kit Kat.
Trista’s Recent Publications and Presentations
- Renewing Connections: The Methodist Movement in a Time of Polarization
- Doing Theology in Age of Crises: Learning from the conflicts of our past to face the modern day poly-crisis within the Church
- Ted and Trauma: How Repressed Trauma impacts the Body of Christ. Theology, Religion, and Ted Lasso. Manuscript in Process
Power to the People: Connections between Martin E. Marty’s analysis of 18th Century democracy and Wesleyan Ecclesiology, and the Christian Nationalists’ response to perceived threats to the power of both in the 21th Century - An Invitation to Dialogical Preaching & Pedagogy in the Digital Age
- Effective Governmental Advocacy
- Engaging Elected Officials Around Justice
- Preaching Good News into the Climate Crisis