About Michael
Leading with Ethics, Listening Across Faiths, Serving with Distinction
The Rev. Dr. Michael Woolf (he/him) holds a Doctor of Theology (ThD) degree from Harvard Divinity School. As an ordained American Baptist Churches USA and Alliance of Baptists pastor, he serves as the Senior Minister at Lake Street Church of Evanston in Evanston, IL, a progressive congregation with a commitment to social justice and interfaith dialogue. He also serves as Co-Associate Regional Minister for White and Multicultural Churches with the American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago region. Before that, he served rural and suburban churches in Massachusetts.
Michael's ministry has won numerous awards, including the Edwin T. Dahlberg Peace and Justice Award, the highest honor bestowed by the American Baptist Churches USA and American Baptist Home Mission Societies. First awarded to Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1964, the award honors outstanding work for peace and justice. In 2025, he was named the Distinguished Fellow in Ethical Leadership by the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics.
Michael's first book, Sanctuary and Subjectivity: Thinking Theologically About Whiteness in Sanctuary Movements, is part of T&T Clark's Studies in Social Ethics, Ethnography and Theologies series. His second book, Confronting Islamophobia in the Church: Liturgical Tools for Justice, is available from Judson Press in January 2026.
His writing has appeared in The Christian Century, Sojourners and The Christian Citizen, and he contributes to Journeys, a lectionary commentary and adult Bible study published by Judson Press, and his activism for immigration justice and sanctuary has been featured on CNN and The Wall Street Journal.
What I Do
Faith Meets Justice
Sanctuary
Michael is a recognized scholar and activist on the sanctuary movement and has appeared on CNN as a faith-based comentator in support of immigration justice.
Reparations
Michael's work on reparations has been featured in The Christian Century, and he is a sought-after workshop leader for white churches with complicated racial histories.
Islamophobia
Michael co-founded Challenging Islamophobia Together Chicagoland with his spouse, Rev. Dr. Anna Piela, and works to help Christians fight anti-Muslim hate.
Michael in the media
Interviews with me and news articles about what I do
Photo credit: Silma Suba
"On October 14, 2023, a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, was stabbed 26 times to his death by his family’s landlord, Joseph M. Czuba, in Plainfield, Illinois, in an apparent anti-Muslim hate crime. Seven months after Al-Fayoume’s murder, on May 19, a sunny Sunday afternoon in Chicago, over 50 community members gathered inside the stained-glass chapel of the First United
Methodist Church of Chicago to host an interfaith memorial service in Al-Fayoume’s honor. The tall skyscraper church, also called The Chicago Temple, stands at the corner of Washington and Clark in downtown Chicago."
"Leaders of the Christian,Jewish, and Muslim faiths in the Chicago area came together Monday night to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Sheikh Hassan Aly, imam anddirector of religious affairs at the Mecca Center in Willowbrook; Rabbi Brant Rozen, founding rabbi of the synagogue Tzedek Chicago and the Rev. Dr. Michael Woolf, senior minister at the Lake Street Church of Evanston, all pushed for peace in the war before Israel and Hamas."
"The war in Israel andPalestine is not only a humanitarian crisis – it is a moral, and it is a
spiritual one," said Woolf.
“In our increasingly separated and polarized society, we celebrate the prophetic and courageous witness and leadership of pastors Nabors and Woolf in leading their congregations toward racial justice and reconciliation,” said Dr. Jeffrey Haggray, executive director of ABHMS and CEO of Judson Press.
“In their pursuit of reparations and the restoration of the relationship of their two congregations, pastors Nabors and Woolf exemplify the pursuit of peace and justice that was the hallmark of the life and ministry of Edwin T. Dahlberg,” said the Rev. Dr. Jamie Washam, president of ABHMS’ board of directors.
“I know it’s tough to acknowledge some of this history,” explains Dr. Woolf, in Evanston, “but we can get past the initial sort of anger at being challenged by it; then we have an immense opportunity for white members to have a redemption arc, to be able to talk frankly about race in a way that can be useful.”
Further reporting can be found here and here.
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