HBCU Link 2026 Speakers
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SESSION DETAILS:
"Revival? Engaging the Present and Preparing for the Future."
Something is stirring among Black Gen Z in America. The question isn’t whether it’s real, it’s whether we’re preparing them for what comes after ‘the moment.’ Dr. K.A. Ellis brings over two decades of research alongside persecuted Christian communities in Iran, China, and Cuba into direct conversation with that question. Her session introduces a theological framework of Christian Endurance, and calls ministry leaders to a different starting point: not revival as event, but revival as endurance. Not spiritual awakening as cultural or sociological trend, but the costly, held-fast, soul-saving, culture shaping, Holy Spirit transformation that our biblically faithful ancestors have always experienced under pressure.
BIO:
K.A. Ellis is the Director of the The Alonzo and Althea Edmiston Center for Christian Endurance Studies in Atlanta, Georgia. She’s passionate about theology, human rights, and global religious freedom.
Since 2006, it’s been Dr. Ellis’ pleasure to collaborate with the Swiss-based organization, International Christian Response, traveling internationally to connect local and global Christians while studying and advocating for global religious freedom. Her research explores Christian endurance from society’s margins, particularly in places where it’s most difficult to live the Christian life.
Dr. Ellis is the Cannada Fellow for World Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary. She holds a Master of Arts in Religion (MAR) from Westminster Theological Seminary, a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) from the Yale School of Drama, and a Ph.D. in World Christianity and Ethics at the Oxford Center for Mission Studies in England.
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SESSION DETAILS:
"How Should We Live? Bringing Our Faith to All of Life."
Students are facing complex and polarizing ethical questions daily. As they wrestle with these questions, how do we equip them to understand the Christian life and live faithfully for Christ? This session will show ministry leaders how to build an ethical framework that not only will help us engage students but also help students engage key issues that are impacting Black college campuses today.
"Dinner and Discussion: A Screening of Black + Evangelical"
Many of us find ourselves navigating what it means to find our ministerial home in an evangelical ministry while serving Black campuses. Let's learn about the journeys of the past to set a course for our journeys now. Join Dr. Vincent Bacote with special guest Dr. Carl Ellis as we together watch and then discuss this feature-length documentary that profiles the history, struggles, and contributions of African American evangelicals.
BIO:
Vincent Bacote is Professor of Theology and the Director of the Center for Applied
Christian Ethics at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL. He is co-creator of the
documentary Black + Evangelical, author of the books Reckoning with Race and
Performing the Good News: In Search of a Better of a Evangelical Theology (2020) and
The Political Disciple: A Theology of Public Life and a forthcoming book on eschatology
and ethics.
He has contributed to books including Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in
Contemporary Issues (2019), The Church’s Social Responsibility (2015), and Black
Scholars in White Space (2015), and has contributed to several books, magazines,
journals, as well as appearing on several podcasts.
An ordained minister, He lives in the Chicago area with his family.
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SESSION DETAILS:
"Already Holy Ground: The Christian Legacy of HBCUs and the Ministry Still Happening There."
This session walks campus ministry leaders through the history of the HBCU as a Christian institution: the people, the theological convictions, and the particular burdens that shaped these schools and still shape the students who attend them. Drawing on her work as a historian and museum educator in Mississippi — a state whose HBCUs carry some of the deepest versions of this story — Jasmine invites ministry leaders to serve Black college students as inheritors of a sacred tradition, not as a mission field to be entered from the outside.
Bio:
Jasmine L. Holmes is a historian, author, and museum educator whose work centers African American history, public memory, and the primary sources that keep both honest. She serves as Director of Museum Education at the Two Mississippi Museums and is the author of nine trade-published books on Black women in American history, faith, and the long arc of the freedom struggle. She holds an M.A. in history, works as a developmental editor and historical consultant alongside her museum role, and lives in Mississippi with her husband Phillip and their three sons.
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SESSION DETAILS:
"Workshop! Let's Learn from Each Other."
The beauty of the HBCU Link is that we have different ministries from different schools all together in the same room. We each are coming to the Link with treasures in the form of stories, methods, struggles, ideas, piercing questions, and longings that are unique to each of us. This session will intentionally bring you into conversation and prayer with leaders from different ministries and schools for the purpose of learning, collaboration, and inspiration.
BIO:
Rev. Chavis is from Virginia Beach, VA. He is an alum of the University of Virginia, earning a B.A. in Religious Studies in 2013, and is an alum of Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, earning an MDIV with a Biblical Exegesis emphasis in 2017. Doing campus ministry on HBCUs since 2014, Cyril has served as an RUF Intern, RUF Campus Minister at Jackson State University, and now RUF Campus Minister in Washington, D.C. While pastoring, Cyril founded Hidase Publishing in order to address the African experience – diaspora and continent – from the rich resources of the Christian faith. When he is not pastoring or writing, he is probably laughing way too hard with friends; goofing off with his wife, Jenell, and his three kids; or dreaming about how things could be.
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SPECIAL GUEST
BIO:
Carl Ellis Jr. is a theological anthropologist with decades of ministry experience as a pastor, campus minister with Tom Skinner Associates, community instructor with Prison Fellowship, and faculty member at the Center for Urban Theological Studies (C.U.T.S.), Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, and Redeemer Seminary in Dallas. He serves as Provost’s Professor of Theology and Culture, Assistant to the Chancellor, and Senior Fellow of the African American Leadership Initiative at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson. Dr. Ellis is the author of several books, including Free at Last? The Gospel in the African-American Experience and Going Global Beyond the Boundaries: The Role of the Black Church in the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.