Tyshawn Gardner, PhD
Associate Professor of Preaching Assistant Director of the Kyle Lake Center for Effective Preaching
Education
PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY
ThM, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY
MDiv, Beeson Divinity School, Birmingham, AL
BS, Stillman College, Tuscaloosa, AL
Research Interests
Christian Preaching
African American Preaching Tradition
Black Church Studies
Kelly Miller Smith, Sr.
Social Crisis Preaching
Courses
Preaching During the Civil Rights Era/with Dr. Jared Alcántara
Preaching I
New Testament and Proclamation
Publication Highlights
- I Heard the Preaching of the Elder: The Life, Preaching, and Ministry of Kelly Miller Smith, Sr. (Waco: Baylor University Press) under contract
- Now We See Through a Glass Blackly: The Cross and Resurrection Through the Lens of the Black Church (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic) under contract
- Social Crisis Preaching: Biblical Proclamation for Troubled Times (Nashville: B&H Academic)
- Sacred Anthropology: Prophetic Radicalism for Pulpit and Pew (Minneapolis: Fortress Press)
- “The Literature of Preaching,” Handbook of Contemporary Preaching: A Wealth of Counsel For Creative and Effective Proclamation, 2nd Edition, Michael Duduit, Editor (Nashville: B&H Academic)
Preaching Magazine, FALL Issue 2020, Article, “Call and (no) Response: Virtual Preaching in the COVID-19 Era.”
2020 Evangelical Homiletics Society, October 15, 2020, Paper Presentation, “Beginning with the End in Mind: Redeeming Social Crisis Preaching from Social Justice Idolatry”
About Dr. Gardner
Reverend Dr. Tyshawn Gardner currently serves as Associate Professor of Preaching at George W. Truett Theological Seminary, where he teaches Preaching I, Preaching During the Civil Rights Era, and courses in the PhD in Preaching program. Dr. Gardner is an ordained Baptist minister and a seasoned pastor with over twenty years of pastoral experience. His research interests include Christian preaching, Kelly Miller Smith, Sr., social crisis and prophetic preaching, and the African American preaching tradition. Dr. Gardner is a decorated veteran of the U.S. Navy and served in both Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm aboard the USS Saratoga (CV-60). He has published two books, Sacred Anthropology: Prophetic Radicalism for Pulpit and Pew with Fortress Press (2022), and Social Crisis Preaching: Biblical Proclamation for Troubling Times with B&H Academic (2023) which was named Book of the Year by Preaching Magazine in 2024.
Prior to his appointment at Truett Seminary, Dr. Gardner served as Associate Professor and Director of the Preministerial Scholars Program at Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, as Senior Pastor of Plum Grove Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, as Vice President for Student Affairs at Stillman College (2019-2022), and as the President of the Tuscaloosa Chapter of the SCLC from 2016-2019.
Dr. Gardner received a BA in Business Administration from Stillman College in Tuscaloosa and MDiv from Beeson Divinity School at Samford University, in Birmingham, where the Dean and faculty selected him as the Most Distinguished Student in 2014. Dr. Gardner served as a teaching assistant for the renowned homiletician Robert Smith, Jr. while matriculating at Beeson Divinity School. He earned the ThM and PhD in Christian Preaching with distinction from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.
Dr. Gardner is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and serves on numerous academic, social, religious, and organizations including the Academy of Homiletics, the Evangelical Homiletics Society, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Building Bridges for Racial Reconciliation, and the Ministry Collaborative. His social and community activism warrants him the opportunity to be visible and vocal in the community. It allows him to be actively engaged in intricate events and their effect on our community. Dr. Gardner has a heart for racial and social justice and reconciliation and works tirelessly to see unity and love in the community.
Dr. Gardner enjoys an active preaching, lecture, and teaching ministry that enables him to participate in conferences, churches, universities, and seminaries across the country. He is married to Shonetay Gardner, and they have four children, Coretta (Corey), Tristan, Titus, and Tyson and four beautiful grandchildren.