Are you ready to innovate in ministry?
Maybe you’re not called to be a pastor, or perhaps your part of a church seeking to do new things. Maybe you’re a nonprofit wanting to connect more deeply with your community. Wherever you find yourself, one truth is clear: white supremacy culture often stands in the way of organizational health. Even more, it blocks vision, stifles imagination, and keeps us from dreaming boldly.
This workshop is an invitation to break through those barriers. If you’re ready to create, to dream again, and to explore new paths—whether in your personal ministry or in your organizational calling—come join us. Together we’ll discover how nontraditional forms of ministry can bring fresh life, vision, and purpose.
Rev. Dr. Irie Lynne Session
Dr. Irie Lynne Session is an award-winning minister, pastor, author, TEDx presenter, spiritual entrepreneur, transformation strategist, and Womanist practitioner. Raised in the South Bronx and in the New York City Housing Projects, she began her service to humanity by ministering to person’s marginalized in society due to incarceration, addiction, commercial sexual exploitation, prostitution, and HIV/AIDS histories. She holds an undergraduate degree in Social Work from Oklahoma Christian University; a Master of Divinity with Certificate in Black Church Studies from Brite Divinity School; and a Doctor of Ministry in Transformative Leadership and Prophetic Preaching from Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, in Rochester, New York.
Her first career was in Social Work with employment as a Parole Officer with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, an Investigator with the Texas Department of Protective & Regulatory Services (CPS), an Adolescent Services Director for Bryan’s House - a Dallas non-profit serving children and families impacted by HIV/AIDS, and Director of Spiritual Support and Training for New Friends New Life, a non-profit providing services to women seeking out of prostitution and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation.
As an ordained clergywoman with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) she’s held the following leadership roles: Associate Area Minister of the North Texas Area in the Southwest from 2006-2012; Vice-President and President of the National Convocation Board; and President of both the Black Ministers Fellowship and the Fellowship of Black Disciples Clergywomen.
Currently, Dr. Irie is one of the organizing Co-Pastors leading The Gathering, A Womanist Church of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Dallas, Texas; CEO of DreamBIG Coaching & Consulting Services where she strategizes with Black women to transcend barriers to flourishing by leveraging their professional expertise and experience to transform ideas into income, live their dreams, achieve economic autonomy; and creator and curator of Sistarhood Retreats.
Dr. Irie has educated and mentored countless students as a visiting professor at Perkins School of Theology, Eden Theological Seminary, Memphis Theological Seminary, and Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University. She is a Certified CEU instructor for The School for Global 2 Citizenry where her online course, Holy Disruptors: Igniting Social Change Through Spiritual Entrepreneurship receives rave reviews. Her messages of liberation and transformation using a womanist lens have been globally impactful.
In partnership with Chicago Theological Seminary and NSP (Nevertheless, She Preached) Dr. Irie and Dr. Kamilah Hall Sharp, Co-Pastors of The Gathering, are the recipients of a $1.18M five-year Compelling Preaching Initiative Grant from the Lilly Foundation (Building New Tables: Queering Womanist Preaching). Dr. Irie also received a $50,000 Lilly Endowment Clergy Renewal Grant (2022-2023) from Christian Theological Seminary and in 2019 a $15,000 Pastoral Study Project Grant from the Louisville Institute. Her Clergy Renewal Grant was themed, Reclaiming Joy as My Birthright, and her Pastoral Study Project research was titled, Womanist Ecclesiologies: Black Women Resisting White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy. Also, in 2019 Dr. Irie was inducted into the 2020 Board of Preachers in the Martin Luther King Jr. International College of Ministers and Laity at Morehouse College.
She enjoys travel abroad as the Resident Reverend for DDT-CSI, a Black owned travel company serving over 500 travelers. In that capacity she preaches an annual Sermon on the Beach. Dr. Irie has preached on beaches in St. Maarten, Aruba, Jamaica, Panama, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Turks & Caicos, and Costa Rica.
Dr. Irie is co-author of, The Gathering, A Womanist Church: Origins, Stories, Sermons, & Litanies. She is also author of Badass Women of the Bible and, Murdered Souls, Resurrected Lives. All are available on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. Her latest Journal article with Luther Seminary’s Word & World is titled, “Sawubona in a Pandemic: Black Women, Embodied Ecclesiology, and Sacred Spaces in Cyberspace.”
Dr. Irie is the single mother to one daughter, 31-year-old India Liana.
Motto: When Black Women Flourish, So Can Everyone Else.
Social Media Handles:
Facebook: @revdririe
IG: Revdririe
BlueSky: @thedreamstrategist
