An ordained elder in The United Methodist Church, Joy currently serves as Visiting Scholar in the Litfin Divinity School at Wheaton College (Wheaton, Illinois). She is, by her own description, an “Ecclesial Storyteller,” which sounds mystical until you realize it simply means she tells community-forming stories from Scripture as a follower of Christ — stories that are theologically framed, biblically attentive, and socially compelling (and, mercifully, not just life-lessons wearing a church hat).
One United Methodist bishop suggested Joy had taken itinerancy a bit too seriously — with appointments stretching from Michigan to Minnesota through North Carolina, California, Indiana, Alabama, and even London, England… before she finally circled back to the Chicago area, where the winters are bracing and the “connection” is both meals and meteorological.
Joy’s research lives at the intersections of biblical studies, practical theology, homiletics, narrative hermeneutics, and social media — because if communities are being formed in contemporary culture, she wants to know how, by what stories, and to what end. She’s widely known for storytelling with a theological twist, and presses preachers to take the story of Scripture seriously rather than imposing our favorite “moralisms” on it.
Joy has pastored with a particular focus on cross-racial ministry in urban, rural, and suburban settings—calling congregations to live their vocation as a peaceable community practicing hope, hospitality, and honesty (which, it turns out, is harder than it sounds and more necessary than ever). She has served the denomination at general, jurisdictional, and annual conference levels, and in on the board for Augsburg Fortress Press.
In higher education, Joy served as the 13th President of Northern Seminary (Lisle, Illinois). Before returning to Illinois, she was Professor of Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary (St. Paul, Minnesota), where she also served as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty. She founded the William E. Pannell Center for Black Church Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena, California), served as an Associate Dean at Duke University Divinity School, and held roles at Huntingdon College, Asbury Theological Seminary and Adrian College. Plenty of classrooms, plenty of pulpits, and enough moving boxes to qualify as a spiritual discipline.
A native of Illinois, Joy grew up on Chicago’s South Side and followed a call to teach into a BA in Education and Mathematics (National College of Education/National-Louis University) and an MDiv (Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary). A John Wesley Fellowship from A Foundation for Theological Education supported her PhD in Practical Theology through Brunel University/London School of Theology. She’s active in the Society of Biblical Literature, the Academy of Homiletics, the American Academy of Religion, the Evangelical Theological Society, and the Wesleyan Theological Society — because apparently she believes in connectionalism even when it comes to professional guilds.
Joy continues researching how different media shapes our religious imagination. When not teaching, she’s happily traveling, rewatching NCIS, and reading (David Baldacci is a favorite). Currently she is reading Toni Morrison and George Lucas… with a side interest in the Marvel Universe, because ecclesial storytellers appreciate a well-crafted saga.
