Abilene Christian University’s 108th annual Summit begins tonight when Don McLaughlin, pulpit minister at North Atlanta (Ga.) Church of Christ, is the 7 p.m. theme speaker. More than 130 top preachers and teachers are scheduled to present Sunday through Wednesday on the theme “Earthed: Discovering Our Origin in God.”
Watch live major presentations here by featured guest presenters and theme speakers at 7 p.m. tonight and Monday-Wednesday at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Featured guest presenters:


Dr. Barbara Brown Taylor was featured in the April 28 cover story of Time magazine. She was named in 1996 by Baylor University as one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking world, along with Dr. Fred Craddock, Billy Graham and Dr. Charles Swindoll. Hauerwaus’ book, A Community of Character: Toward a Constructive Christian Social Ethic, was named one of the 100 most important books on religion of the 20th century. She is the Butman Professor of Religion at Piedmont College in rural northeast Georgia. An Episcopal priest since 1984, she is the author of a dozen books, mostly on the preaching life, including The New York Times best-seller An Altar in the World, acclaimed and award-winning Leaving Church, and most recently, Learning to Walk in the Dark. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion from Emory University, a Master of Divinity degree from Yale University and has received several honorary doctorates. She and her husband live on a farm in the foothills of the Appalachians.


Dr. Stanley Hauerwas is professor emeritus of divinity and law at Duke University, where he has taught in the Duke Divinity School since 1984. A native of West Texas, he earned a degree from Southwestern University, four graduate degrees – including a Ph.D. – from Yale University. Hauerwas taught at the University of Notre Dame from 1970-84. He was named “America’s Best Theologian” by Time magazine in 2001 and his 25 books include A Community of Character, The Peaceable Kingdom, Resident Aliens, and Hannah’s Child: A Theologian’s Memoir. For 40 years, Hauerwas has been considered a leading voice on the importance of lived theology, of character and virtues, of narrative, and of the church’s role in Christian formation and moral reflection.


Andrea Palpant Dilley is an author published in Christianity Today, Beliefnet, Her.meneutics, Huffington Post, CNN Belief Blog, and Faith and Leadership, a journal of the Duke University Divinity School. As a documentary producer, her work has aired nationally on American Public Television. Dilley has written Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing Up Female and Evangelical and Talking Taboo: American Christian Women Get Frank About Faith. Her memoir, Faith and Other Flat Tires: Searching for God on the Rough Road of Doubt describes her childhood in Kenya as the daughter of Quaker medical missionaries. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and their three children.
Theme speakers in Moody Coliseum:

• SUNDAY, 7 P.M. – Don McLaughlin, “God’s Earthed Words”
• MONDAY, 11 A.M. – Dr. Barbara Brown Taylor, “Abraham’s Unchosen Blessing”
• MONDAY, 7 P.M. – Dr. Lawrence Murray, assistant professor of psychology and family studies/liberal arts at Oklahoma Christian University, Edmond, Okla., “Believing God Leads to Righteousness”
• TUESDAY, 11 A.M. – Sam Barrington, pastor of Living Stones Church in South Bend, Ind., “God Blesses Outsiders”
• TUESDAY, 7 P.M. – Dr. Stanley Hauerwas, “The ‘God Wrestlers’ ”
• WEDNESDAY, 11 A.M. – Sam Gonzalez (’93), campus minister of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, “The Strange Strength of a Matriarch”
• WEDNESDAY, 7 P.M. – Randy Harris, popular author and speaker, and instructor of Bible, mission and ministry at ACU, “Abandoned to the Power of God”