LeadNow! is a select group of seminarians, first-call ministers & faith leaders from around the country – a diverse cohort of forward-thinking friends & colleagues committed to encouraging & supporting each other as we lead our communities toward a more just and equitable future.

LeadNow! is open to individuals who are currently enrolled in seminary or who have graduated within the past five years and are currently serving in a first-call ministry placement. There’s no fee to participate.

Jacqui Buschor

Jacqui (she/her) is a pastor and passionate cultivator of community. Along with her small, urban congregation, she enjoys exploring playful and creative new ways to do church and share life together.

Jones 

Jones (they/them) is a queer non-binary trouble maker, a grassroots mobilizer, and a lover. They are committed to courageously inclusive community.

Brian McLaren

Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for a new kind of Christianity – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. He is a core faculty member and Dean of Faculty for the Center for Action and Contemplation. and a podcaster with Learning How to See. He is also an Auburn Senior Fellow and is a co-host of Southern Lights. His newest books are Faith After Doubt (January 2021), Do I Stay Christian? (May 2022), and Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart (May 2024).

Munira Elizabeth Reed

Munira has loved life as a lifelong spiritual seeker along many paths. She has worn many hats, as a mainstream clergy, a psychotherapist, nonprofit director, a Sufi sheikha (teacher) and minister in a western universalist Sufi order and serves on the Board of Directors of Dances of Universal International. She has published numerous articles on women in the church, two online meditation courses: A Healing Journey with the Aramaic Lord’s Prayer and Breathing with the Divine Breath: Deep Inner Healing in the Beatitude Way. Her current writing project focuses on goddesses in the first-century Middle East during the time of Yeshua’s life. She lives in Columbus, Ohio with her wife and life partner of over 32 years, Mary Jo Marraffa, a holistic chiropractor, along with their two cats. She enjoys travel, most recently enjoying working in Colombia, Mexico, and Turkey.

Anna Golladay

Anna thrives on curating creative, spiritual & entrepreneurial possibility. Her social enterprise, Work of Place, helps urban churches understand how their underutilized facilities can work alongside burgeoning entrepreneurs, often lacking in resource and financing, with the intent of sparking both neighborhood revitalization and an increase in ideators who change their communities. Her spirit for entrepreneurship has guided her in launching almost a dozen entities, one of which still occupies much of her time — snarky Jesus-wear apparel company, Bias & Bourbon. She works as the Sr. Director of Communications for the Convergence. She is a former United Methodist pastor and can often be found at a music festival or sporting event.

Rob Lowry

Rob Lowry is a Presbyterian Church (USA) pastor, queer activist, teacher, and husband. He currently serves as pastor of Westover Hills Presbyterian Church which is in turn the host congregation for The Table (a new church community), Sister Thea Bowman Inclusive Catholic Church, and the Central Arkansas Queer Collective. Rob has written for local and national publications on subjects including the church’s complicity in systemic poverty, the ethics of drone warfare, and the call to justice for the trans community. When he is not working, Rob is likely in his garden, in the kitchen, or down by the river with a book and a beer. His favorite description offered of him is that he is its like Lenny Bruce and Shrek had a baby that went to seminary.