Safiyah Fousa

Safiyah Fousa

Director of Invitational Preaching for the General Board of Discipleship

Thursday evening Preacher; workshop leader




Rev. Dr. Safiyah Fosua, Director of Invitational Preaching Ministries with the General Board of Discipleship, will open this year’s School of Congregational Development as our featured preacher during the Thursday evening opening worship celebration.

A clergy member of the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference, Rev. Dr. Fousa’s pastoral experience includes ministry in the large downtown church, the unique ministry of the rural circuit, and the ministry challenges of the small inner-city congregation. Safiyah is well known for her weekly lectionary-based preaching helps and articles on the General Board of Discipleship’s worship web page (http://www.umcworship.org/). She has written for Upper Room publications, Cokesbury’s Daily Bible Study, and Urban Ministries, Inc., and contributed to the Women of Color Study Bible. Among her published works are Mother Wit: 365 Meditations for African-American Women (1996), Jesus and Prayer (2002), and a tract titled Learning New Habits (2005). Safiyah also serves as the associate editor of the Africana Worship Book series (2006-2008) and the Companion to the Africana Worship Book.

In addition to preaching on Thursday evening, Safiyah Fosua will also lead two preaching workshops on Friday afternoon: “Invitational Preaching” and “Holy Imagination in the Development of a Sermon.”

Safiyah Fousa is married to Rev. Dr. Kwasi I. Kena, who will also be with us to lead two workshops: “Beyond Words: Meaningful Cross-Cultural Ministry” on Friday afternoon and “Evangelism – a Fresh Look” on Saturday morning. Safiyah and Kwasi spent a number of years as missionaries in Ghana, West Africa. They have two adult sons and two grandchildren.