Indianapolis – Marian University is excited to announce the appointment of Susan McGurgan, D.Min., as the new director of the Preach All Ways Initiative. This initiative aims to revitalize Catholic preaching and engage today’s youth. It is supported by a $1.16 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. as part of its Compelling Preaching Initiative.
Marian University’s Preach All Ways Initiative aims to address youth disengagement from the Catholic Church through the development of innovative preaching methods. Dr. McGurgan will spearhead these efforts to:
- Conduct a national research project to identify effective preaching styles for youth.
- Create an online preaching certificate program to form lay preachers for non-Eucharistic preaching.
- Organize a national youth and young adult preaching challenge, culminating at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in July 2024.
“Marian University is thrilled that Dr. Susan McGurgan agreed to the Preach All Ways Initiative as a part of our new Franciscan Leadership Institute,” said Adam Setmeyer, Marian’s chief mission officer and director of the Franciscan Leadership Institute. I’m excited to see her use her experience from Mt. Saint Mary’s School (Cincinnati, Ohio) to empower the laity to share the Good News of Jesus Christ and fulfill the call at the end of Mass to ‘Go and announce the Gospel of our Lord.”
Dr. McGurgan brings extensive experience and academic excellence to her role. At Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary and School of Theology, she significantly contributed to forming future church leaders as Director of Lay Ecclesial Formation and Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology. She has been a member of the Catholic Association of Teachers of Homiletics (CATH) since 2001, serving as President from 2016 to 2018, and is also active in the Academy of Homiletics, serving as Convenor of the Theology of Preaching Work Group. Her homiletics experience includes forming seminarians and lay preachers at the University of Notre Dame as a Visiting Professor and at United Theological in Dayton as an Adjunct Instructor.
Her publications include chapters in significant publications like Living in the Light of the Word (2024) and Preaching as Spiritual Leadership (2021) and numerous articles in respected journals. She founded Preaching Hope, a platform offering resources for effective preaching, and has held adjunct positions at Mount St. Mary’s School of Theology and United Theological Seminary.
Dr. McGurgan’s appointment as the Director of the Preach All Ways Initiative underscores Marian University’s commitment to transformative education and leadership in service. Her leadership will play a crucial role in ensuring that the Gospel message remains accessible and inspiring, particularly to the youth, a key demographic for the Catholic Church.
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About Marian University
Founded in 1937, Marian University is the only Catholic university in Indianapolis and central Indiana, serving more than 5,100 students, including 4,000 undergraduate and 1,200 graduate students, earning degrees in the arts, business, education, engineering, math, medicine, nursing, ministry, and the natural and physical sciences. The university's high-impact, experiential curriculum provides hands-on, collaborative learning opportunities. Marian University has earned the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as a national doctoral/professional university. In 2013, Marian University established its College of Osteopathic Medicine, the first new school of medicine in Indiana in more than 100 years, and in 2023, opened the new E. S. Witchger School of Engineering as part of the university’s continuing efforts to graduate students that help meet the Midwest’s growing STEM workforce needs. The university also provides undergraduate nursing education at Marian University’s Ancilla College in Plymouth, Indiana. Marian's national champion varsity athletic programs include the 2012 and 2015 NAIA Football Championship, the 2016 and 2017 NAIA Women's Basketball Championship, the 2019 NAIA Women's Volleyball Championship, various track and field events, and nearly 50 USA Cycling national championships. Follow Marian University on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tik Tok and Twitter.
About Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.