Summer Courses
May-June 2025
Our annual East Coast Theology Summer School encompasses summer courses, micro-credentials, lectures, seminars, parties, and more! Our public events take place over one week in June. In 2025 we heard from Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean and Dr. Dave Overholt in an exploration of Next Generation Ministry.
View Recordings
Lecture 1
Lecture 2
Lecture 3
Preaching Seminar
Worship Service
ECT Vol. 2 Book Launch
Red Sofa Conversation
Our Speakers
Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean
Kenda Creasy Dean is an ordained United Methodist pastor and the Mary D. Synnott Professor of Youth, Church and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, where she works closely with the Institute for Youth Ministry and the Farminary. She currently serves as the senior strategist and principal investigator for three major PTS initiatives: the Polaris Young Adult Leadership Network (to support and connect young Christian leaders), the Ministry Collaboratory (to support congregations working with young adults), and the Teaching Spiritual Entrepreneurship Initiative (a 9-seminary initiative to create more entrepreneurial/creative faith leaders). Kenda is the author of numerous books, including Innovating for Love: Joining God’s Expedition through Christian Social Innovation, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church, and The Godbearing Life: The Art of Soul-Tending in Youth Ministry with Ron Foster and Megan DeWald (the 25th anniversary edition was updated and released in 2023). Recently named the 2024 Distinguished Leader in Innovation by Wesleyan Impact Partners, she co-founded Ministry Incubators in 2014 with fellow PTS alumnus Mark DeVries to support theologically-responsible innovation and sustainability in ministry. A graduate of Miami University (Ohio), Wesley Theological Seminary (Washington, DC), and Princeton Theological Seminary (New Jersey), Kenda has pastored churches in Arlington, VA, College Park, MD, and Kingston, NJ. She and her husband Kevin love hanging out with their hilarious grown kids and digging their toes in the sand on the Jersey shore.
Rev. Dr. Dave Overholt
Dave Overholt is the founding pastor of Church on the Rock, one of the largest and longest running youth-targeted churches in North America. In addition to 27 years in youth ministry, Dr. Overholt has a doctorate in philosophy of education from University of Toronto with a thesis in “Adults Mentoring Adolescents.” His books include: Reasons to Believe (a youth apologetic), Live What You Believe, (a youth growth project), Soul Searching the Millennial Generation, (a youth worker’s guide to teen work) and New Beginnings (a youth devotional). Dr. Overholt speaks to thousands of students each year through a wide-ranging speaking and consulting ministry.
What is East Coast Theology?
East Coast Theology is a Theological Expression
East Coast Theology is a Summer School
East Coast Theology is a Publishing Project
East Coast Theology is about what God’s Word is saying through our voice, our heartbeat, for our time.
Through the sharing of ideas, engaging with churches, and deepening our scholarship in this place we call home, we will write theology for this place and this time. This theological expression will discover what is unique about this place, allowing God to speak through His Word to where we are and what we’re doing here today.
“Jesus walks here through Mi’kmak’i and Africville, on the waters of the Bay of Fundy and in the mountains of Gros Morne. We follow him with the scent of salt on our clothes and earth on our fingers; through the pine forests of Miramichi and the bustling streets of Halifax. Jesus walks here. We follow him here. The Bible speaks to our experiences and nurtures our faith. Today we recognise that there is an Atlantic Canadian Voice that can engage the important issues here, where sea meets land and sky.”
