2026 National Clergy Summit — See You in Washington D.C..

Today Donald T. Eason brings in Torrey Snow, CURE's National Clergy Director, to examine one of the most consequential gatherings of the year for America's urban pastors — the National Clergy Summit. In a searching conversation, Eason and Snow reveal why this three-day gathering in Washington has become the centerpiece of CURE's clergy program. They describe how pastors from across the country — many leading congregations in communities marked by poverty, family breakdown, and entrenched government dependence — arrive weary and leave strengthened. Surrounded by peers who share a similar biblical worldview, they gain hard data, policy access, legal resources, and the quiet assurance that they are not standing alone. The discussion ranges from the rare appearance of HUD Secretary Scott Turner during a government shutdown — an official who told pastors plainly that the goal is independence, not perpetual subsistence — to the success sequence that keeps 97 percent of those who follow it out of poverty. They examine the calculated pressure placed on Black pastors who refuse to trade biblical conviction for political favor, and the culture of intimidation that seeks to isolate them. Snow and Eason confront the gap between programs that foster dependence and the older American promise of personal responsibility, education, work, marriage, and family. At stake is more than one conference. It is whether the most trusted voices in urban America will continue to preach independence and dignity, or whether they will be steadily isolated, intimidated, or co-opted. This is the story of a summit designed to make certain that does not happen — and of the pastors who return home stronger because of it.