Heidi Schlumpf offers the keynote presentation, “The Spirit Still Speaks,” to begin FutureChurch’s 35th Annual Fall Event. In her presentation, Schlumpf names the current reality of disaffiliation among church-goers (and especially women), considers the ways the Spirit speaks to us as individuals and as a community of believers, and offers where she finds signs of hope for the future. After her presentation, Schlumpf addresses comments and questions from the FutureChurch community.

Heidi Schlumpf is an award-winning journalist and podcaster with three decades of experience covering religion and spirituality as well as political, social, and women’s issues. She spent 16 years with the National Catholic Reporter as a columnist, correspondent, and executive editor/vice president. She previously served as managing editor of U.S. Catholic magazine and a reporter at Chicago’s archdiocesan newspaper. Her work has appeared in Mother Jones, CNN Opinion, Commonweal and Sojourners magazine. She has made appearances on CNN, NPR, PBS and the New York Times podcast. Schlumpf has been a co-host of the Francis Effect podcast for five years. She also is a part-time faculty member in theology at Loyola University Chicago. She previously taught journalism as an associate professor of communication at Aurora University in Chicago.