The 2026 Space for Grace & Spiritual Caregivers Conference explores the power of faithful storytelling
KING OF PRUSSIA, PA (ABNS 5/22/2026)—“Come as you are. Come, you weary. Bring your doubts and your scars.”
The invitation was sung before it was spoken.
On a crisp April morning in downtown Cleveland, hundreds of pastors, chaplains, pastoral counselors, seminarians, educators, and ministry leaders gathered for the 2026 Space for Grace & Spiritual Caregivers Conference, American Baptist Home Mission Societies’ (ABHMS) signature national event.
Under the musical direction of Dr. Tony McNeill, the conference opened with “The Many,” a contemporary hymn welcoming “saints and sinners, the faithful and the faint, the broken, the strange, and the searching.”
Then Dr. Jeffrey Haggray, executive director of ABHMS, stepped to the podium.
“Welcome home,” he said.
For many in the room, those two words captured what Space for Grace has offered since its founding in 2015: a place to breathe, listen, and remember that ministry begins not with accomplishment but with grace.
Held April 21-23 at the Hotel Cleveland, the fifth edition of Space for Grace drew more than 400 faith leaders from across the United States and Puerto Rico. Inspired by II Corinthians 3:2-3, the 2026 theme, “Storytelling: Discovering Its Power for Faith Leaders Today,” invited participants to consider how stories can liberate the gospel from narrow assumptions, connect people across generations and cultures, and transform both the teller and the listener.
Over three days, those ideas moved from theory to lived experience. Stories were preached from behind a lectern, embodied onstage by a theater troupe, explored in workshops, and shared over meals and in quiet conversation.
Letters Written on Human Hearts
The conference theme drew on Paul’s words to the Corinthians: “You yourselves are our letter … written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God.” Rev. Dr. Lauren Lisa Ng, senior program officer at Berkeley School of Theology, returned to that passage in the opening plenary address, using it as a point of departure for her reflection on what it means to become “paperless people.”
Using the story of Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman known to have arrived in the United States, Ng explored how institutions often define people through records and categories that tell only part of the truth. God, she suggested, works differently. The Spirit writes not on paper but on human hearts.
Her message set the tone for the days ahead. The stories that matter most are not the ones imposed on us by empires, institutions, or expectations. They are the ones God continues to write in our lives.
Stories That Reframe a Life
Each plenary speaker approached storytelling from a different angle, yet all returned to a shared conviction: stories do not simply recount what has happened. They shape who we become.
Tuesday evening, Rev. Dr. Jim Somerville, pastor of First Baptist Church of Richmond, described arriving at Phillips Exeter Academy as a scholarship student and measuring success by wealth and status. In time, he realized that what his family possessed in abundance—love—was more enduring than the privilege he had envied. That insight altered the course of his life and led him to ministry.
The next morning, Rev. Dr. Tisha Dixon-Williams, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Bridgehampton, offered a vivid image of resurrection drawn from an old arcade game. When her character seemed finished, she discovered she did not need another quarter to continue.
“Jesus doesn’t need quarters,” she said to laughter and applause.
Preaching on the raising of Tabitha in Acts 9, Dixon-Williams described resurrection as God’s reset button—always within reach, always capable of opening a future where none seems possible.
Harold Recinos, professor of church and society at Perkins School of Theology, spoke Thursday morning with disarming candor about his childhood in the South Bronx, his descent into addiction, and the pastor who welcomed him into his own home. That act of costly hospitality, Recinos said, revealed a gospel he could trust.
Faith, he reminded the audience, is not an abstraction. It is what happens when someone chooses to move toward another person’s suffering.
In the closing plenary, Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, returned to Jesus’ command in John 13: “Love one another as I hav
e loved you.”
The test of Christian faith, he argued, is not how loudly we claim the name of Jesus, but whether our lives bear the marks of his love.
Learning to Tell the Story
The conference offered a broad array of learning experiences on biblical storytelling, poetry, advocacy, family history, narrative therapy, moral injury, and digital media.
Conferencewide teach-ins introduced participants to the craft of biblical storytelling. Dr. Tracy Radosevic, Dr. Kathy Maxwell, Rev. Terry Wildman, Rev. Dr. Judy Fentress-Williams, Dr. Brian Bantum, and Dr. Jonathan Fung demonstrated ways to internalize Scripture so it is spoken as a living word rather than read as static text.
For chaplains and spiritual caregivers, the conference theme resonated deeply. Their ministries often begin with close listening to the stories others entrust to them. Workshops explored bilingual spiritual care, solution-focused narrative therapy, and practices for addressing trauma and moral injury.
Stories in Motion
Throughout the conference, Friends of the Groom Christian Theater Company brought the theme to life in dramatic form.
One performance retold the story of three trees whose modest destinies became sacred when they were used in the life of Christ. Another portrayed the Holy Spirit revealing hidden moments of grace in an ordinary man’s life. On the final morning, “The Parable of the Lifesaving Station” challenged churches to remember why they exist in the first place: to rescue those in danger rather than become preoccupied with their own comfort.
The performances were imaginative and often humorous, yet their message was unmistakable. Ordinary stories, faithfully told, can reveal extraordinary grace.
Honoring Those Who Carry Others’ Stories
During the Spiritual Caregivers Luncheon, Rev. Dr. Patricia Murphy, ecclesiastical endorser and director of spiritual caregivers at ABHMS, presented the 2026 Spiritual Caregivers Merit Awards, recognizing excellence in military chaplaincy, institutional chaplaincy, pastoral counseling, network leadership, and ecclesiastical endorsement. The five honorees, whose ministries have helped others find healing and meaning, were Ch. Lt. Kwee Say, Rev. William “Bill” Davis, Rev. Dr. Patricia Wilson-Cone, Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Garland, and Rev. Dr. Janet McCormack.
Luncheon speaker Ch. (Dr.) Brig. Gen. John Painter, USAF (Ret), described chaplaincy as a ministry of story-bearers. By listening carefully and compassionately, spiritual caregivers help people interpret their experiences and discover hope.
Later that evening, Haggray presented the ABHMS National Treasure Awards to Dr. Susan Gillies, Rev. Donald Ng, and Rev. Dr. Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins. Their decades of leadership have left a lasting imprint on American Baptist life and the broader Christian community.
Making Space for Every Story
In Innovators Hall, storytelling moved from the platform to the community. Selected attendees took the stage to share personal stories before an enthusiastic audience. Some were humorous; others were deeply moving. All reflected the conviction that every calling is shaped by experience, memory, and hope.
Elsewhere, participants found quieter ways to engage. The Prayground invited adults to rediscover childlike pathways to prayer. A chapel room, a reflection room, and daily Grace Space periods offered opportunities for silence and stillness.
These spaces reflected the values at the heart of the conference: inclusive hospitality, attentive listening, and the belief that when people make room for one another, grace has room to work.
The Story Continues
In his welcome message in the program book, Haggray described Space for Grace as “a community marked by hospitality, belonging, and holy listening.”
By the time the conference concluded, participants were preparing to return to congregations, hospitals, counseling offices, classrooms, and military settings across the nation and beyond. They carried fresh ideas, renewed friendships, and, perhaps most importantly, a clearer sense that God is still writing on human hearts.
The stories shared in Cleveland did not promise easier ministries. They offered something steadier: the assurance that grace continues to meet us in the stories we tell, the stories we hear, and the stories we are still becoming.
The next chapter is already in view. In April 2028, the Space for Grace & Spiritual Caregivers Conference will gather again in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where faith leaders will once more come together to rest, listen, and discover what new stories the Spirit is preparing to write.
Space for Grace Plus
Those who were unable to attend Space for Grace in person—and participants who want to revisit favorite sessions—can access Space for Grace Plus (S4G+), an on-demand collection of recorded plenaries, worship services, and learning experiences from the Cleveland gathering.
All videos will be available until August 28. The cost of the video bundle is only $39.99. Access is free for conferencegoers.
American Baptist Home Mission Societies partners with American Baptists to promote Christian faith, cultivate Christ-centered leaders and disciples, and bring healing and transformation to communities across the United States and Puerto Rico.
American Baptist Churches USA is one of the most diverse Christian denominations today, with approximately 5,000 congregations comprised of 1.3 million members, across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged in God’s mission around the world.
