Community Worship: Rev. Dr. Gregory Sterling

Lakeside is excited to welcome Rev. Dr. Gregory Sterling, Dean of the Yale Divinity School (YDS) in New Haven, Connecticut, as the season’s first guest preacher on Memorial Day weekend. This week’s preacher is supported by the Gretchen A. Curtis Endowment. 

Sterling will lead the 10:30 a.m. Chautauqua Community Worship Service on Sunday, May 26 in Hoover Auditorium. His sermon is titled “If God is for us, Who Can be Against us?” and the scripture lesson is Romans 8:31–39.

Michael Shirtz and guest artists will provide musical leadership during the service, while the liturgy will be led by Rev. Dr. Charles Yoost, Senior Director of Religious Life & Pastoral Care. Worship music for the 2024 summer season is supported by James E. Beardsley and Doris F. Beardsley.

Following the opening prayer, children (ages 5-11) will proceed to Bradley Temple for Children’s Church with Chip Richter. There will be a message by Richter, songs, crafts, lemonade and cookies to share. Preschoolers are welcome if accompanied by an adult.

Sterling has served as The Reverend Henry L. Slack Dean and Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament at Yale Divinity School since 2012. He is the former Dean of the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame, where he also served on the faculty for 23 years.

During his decade at YDS, Sterling has been a leading theological and moral voice for addressing inequality and injustice in society. Amid an urgent national reckoning with racism, he and the divinity school have tripled the number of faculty from underrepresented groups and doubled the number of staff and students from diverse backgrounds.

Sterling has worked to provide increased support for students so that graduates can pursue careers and vocations based on their calling and not financial constraints. In 2022, the school achieved its goal to cover all tuition costs, and some living expenses, for students with demonstrated need.

He has also led efforts to create the Living Village for student housing, a visionary project that is designed to be the education sector’s largest green-building residential complex and a model for the nation and the world. YDS has succeeded in earning the approval to move ahead with the first phase of this project, with the goal of moving students into the facility, at below-market rental rates, in 2024.

In addition, Sterling was instrumental in creating the historic merger of Yale Divinity School and Andover Newton Theological School, which led to Andover Newton’s relocation to Yale and the continuation of its mission at YDS.

In his teaching and research, Sterling focuses on Hellenistic Judaism and has published over 100 scholarly papers on, among other subjects, Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, and Luke–Acts. He is the author of Historiography and Self-Definition: Josephus, Luke-Acts, and Apologetic Historiography; Armenian Paradigms and Coptic Paradigms: A Summary of Sahidic Coptic Morphology and is the editor or co-editor of five other books.

Sterling received his bachelor’s degree in Christianity and history from Houston Baptist University in 1978 and completed post-baccalaureate studies in classics at Houston Baptist the following year. He received a master’s degree in religion from Pepperdine University in 1980 and a master’s in classics from University of California, Davis, in 1982.

In 1990, he completed his doctoral studies in biblical studies with a specialization in the New Testament from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.

Sterling has held numerous leadership positions in the Society of Biblical Literature, the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas and the Catholic Biblical Association. He is a minister in the Churches of Christ and serves in several leadership roles for his own denomination.

Guests are welcome to attend Community Worship free of charge by requesting a complimentary Church Pass between 7:30-10:30 a.m. Sunday; valid until 1 p.m. The pass includes admittance for guests and auto. This pass must be presented to the gate attendant upon departure. If the time allotted is exceeded, the guest(s) will be charged a fee. This pass does not include access to the Grindley Aquatic & Wellness Campus pool. Complimentary passes are available for all worship services and Faith for Living Hour.