Soul Suffering: A Virtual Conversation with Dr. Jerry Sittser
Friday, May 1, 2026
Join Online at Home or at VPC
6:30-8:30 PM Presentation & Discussion; 6:00-6:30 PM Optional Dinner
$15 for Dinner if Attending at VPC
Food will be from Plaka Grill, and will be mindful of gluten and dairy allergies
Catastrophic loss came suddenly for Jerry Sittser. In 1991, a tragic car accident claimed three generations of his family: his mother, his wife, and his young daughter—an unimaginable grief that he chronicles with profound honesty in A Grace Disguised. Drawing from the revised and expanded 2021 edition of this landmark work, Sittser will reflect on the nature of suffering and how we can know the grace of Christ that transforms it.
Join us for a compassionate virtual conversation with Jerry Sittser, with an optional dinner, watch party, and facilitated discussion at VPC. This will be a large-group Zoom conversation, not a webinar, with opportunities for shared reflection. Whether you are navigating personal loss, seeking to support others, or simply wanting to learn from Sittser’s remarkable insights, this hopeful conversation will offer both depth and practical wisdom for living through life’s most difficult moments.
This event is a partnership between our Adult Discipleship and Care Ministries, with both the online and in-person discussions guided by trusted, caring leaders. For a sample of Jerry’s content, listen to his podcast episode on Kate Bowler’s Everything Happens.
The Event at a Glance
6:00 PM Optional Dinner at VPC
6:30 PM Event Begins
Introduction and a Definition of Loss
10 Min Small Group Discussion – What is Loss?
Jerry’s Presentation
Break
Q&R Hosted by Jerry, Pastor Robert and Pastor Connie
20 Min Small Group Discussion – Conversation Based on Jerry’s Presentation
8:30 PM Event Ends
Both the online and in-person attendees will be able to participate with the Q&R and small group discussions. VPC leaders will facilitate discussions around tables in the Fellowship Hall and in Zoom breakout rooms online. Participation in the concluding discussion is optional.
“This book is not intended to help anyone get over or even through the experience of catastrophic loss, for I believe that ‘recovery’ from such loss is an unrealistic and even harmful expectation, if by recovery we mean resuming the way we lived and felt prior to the loss. Instead, the book is intended to show how it is possible to live in and be enlarged by loss, even as we continue to experience it… My aim is not to provide quick and painless solutions but to point the way to a lifelong journey of growth.” p. xvi
Meet Jerry Sittser
Dr. Sittser grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He attended Hope College and Fuller Theological Seminary, where he earned his M.Div degree. He served as an associate pastor at Emmanuel Reformed Church in Paramount, California, for five years, then as chaplain at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, for six years before returning to school, this time at the University of Chicago, to earn his Ph.D. in the History of Christianity under Martin E. Marty. He taught theology at Whitworth University until his retirement in 2021.
He sat on many committees and boards at Whitworth and in the community, including serving as chair of the Theology Department, the Certification for Ministry program, and the MA in Theology program, which he founded in 2008. He also led many theology reading groups for local pastors. In 2015 Jerry and his good friend and colleague, Terry McGonigal, secured a grant from the Lilly Endowment to found Whitworth’s Office of Church Engagement. In 2025 he retired from serving as a Senior Fellow in that office.
Dr. Sittser has won numerous awards and honors. He was a recipient of the prestigious Javits National Fellowship while he attended the University of Chicago. He was voted by senior students as the Most Influential Professor on ten occasions, and he also won both junior faculty and senior faculty teaching awards, which is chosen by peers. He has won national writing awards, too, including a Gold Medallion Award from evangelical publishers for When God Doesn’t Answer Your Prayer, the Logos Book Award for Water from a Deep Well, and an award of merit from the Christianity Today annual book awards for A Grace Revealed.
He has written dozens of articles and nine books: The Adventure, Love One Another, and Water from a Deep Well: Christian Spirituality from Early Martyrs to Modern Missionaries (InterVarsity Press); A Cautious Patriotism: The American Churches and the Second World War (University of N. Carolina Press); A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss, The Will of God as a Way of Life, When God Doesn’t Answer Your Prayer, and A Grace Revealed: How God Redeems the Story of Your Life (Zondervan), and Resilient Faith: How the Early Christian “Third Way” Changed the World (Brazos), which explores the emergence of the Christian movement. Many of his books have been translated into other languages (A Grace Disguised into 20 languages alone). He is currently working on a book on Christendom, tentatively titled Dominant Faith, and has recently completed “The Christian Faith as a Way of Life: A New Catechumenate,” which is being used by 20 pilot churches for spiritual formation, including VPC in our Way of Jesus class.
He speaks frequently at churches, Christian conferences, pastor’s conferences, as well as on college campuses; he has made two trips abroad to teach, too, one to Nairobi, Kenya, and the other to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Married to Patricia since 2010, he has three married children, two married step-children, and twelve grandchildren, whom he sees often and adores. He enjoys woodworking, gardening, hiking, travel, classical music, and exercise.
Dr. Sittser defines his calling as serving as a bridge between the academy and the church. His writing and speaking evidence this commitment.
Learn more at jerry.sittser.com.
Questions?
Kim Pattianakotta, Director of Adult Discipleship, is happy to speak with you about these events. Contact her at 703.938.9050 x130 or kim.pattianakotta@viennapres.org.
