Rev. Roger Speer (he/him)

The Rev. Roger Alton Speer Jr. is an artist, minister, maker, and designer who lives at the crossroads of story, sacrament, and play. An Episcopal priest formed at the School of Theology at the University of the South (T’25) Roger currently serves Methodist and Presbyterian congregations. Roger was awarded the Woods Leadership Award and Gessell Fellowship in Social Ethics for his work exploring how churches engage their communities and imagine new forms of congregational life. Roger has spent decades working with children, youth, and intergenerational congregations, helping households discover that faith is something we tend, not something we attend. He is the author or co-author of several formation resources, including I Serve at God’s Altar: The Ministry of Acolytes, The Pilgrim’s Way, and The Order of Saint Nicholas, a story that helps children move from “getting presents” to claiming a vocation of generous love at Christmas. As a game designer, Roger co-created Ealdsmyth, a cooperative tabletop role-playing system that recovers the “lost art of communal storytelling” and is used in classrooms, counseling spaces, and church retreats to foster empathy, imagination, and emotionally honest play. His Episcopal Evangelism Society project, Saving Throws: A Dungeons and Dragons Retreat, leveraged story-rich gaming as a tool for evangelism, discipleship, and community-building on a college campus with young adults. Roger hopes to bring to the WINKS Fellowship these woven threads—art, liturgy, making, and gameful storytelling—to help communities commit to God’s dream, nurture children’s spiritual lives, and imagine worship where every generation has a voice in their story.