Meet our Speakers: Rev. Dr. Lillian Daniel

Lillian Daniel is a nationally recognized preacher, teacher and writer who cares deeply about clergy and congregations. After serving four unique congregations in the United Church of Christ, she has served as the Conference Minister of Michigan since 2022.

A graduate of Yale Divinity School, she began her ministry as an Associate Pastor at a large church in Cheshire, Connecticut. From there she became a Solo Pastor at a small urban church in New Haven, Connecticut where the choir outnumbered the congregation, but over eight years, they grew to become a vibrant, interracial, community that also became Open and Affirming. This would be the first of three churches to go through the Open and Affirming process under her pastoral leadership, which also includes extensive experience organizing for justice in politically diverse settings, serving on the boards of Interfaith Worker Justice and the Community Renewal Society. After ten years as a Senior Pastor at a large church in the western suburbs of Chicago, she moved to the beautiful driftless region of Dubuque, Iowa, where she has been Senior Pastor at an historic urban church since 2016.

In the United Church of Christ, she is a regular writer for the UCC Stillspeaking Devotionals, she was a founding member of the UCC Writer’s Group that has produced many written materials for the denomination and in Iowa, and she serves on the Board of Directors for the United Church of Christ National setting. 

Lillian Daniel is also a widely read author; her collection includes Tired of Apologizing for a Church I Don’t Belong To, When ‘Spiritual But Not Religious’ Is Not Enough, and her upcoming book, Defrocked, which will be published on April 7th, 2026. Featured in the New York Times and on PBS, Lillian Daniel’s writing has been described as “biting, hilarious, pitch perfect, tender, and often stunningly beautiful,” and her book This Odd and Wondrous Calling is taught in many seminaries.