Kenda is an ordained United Methodist pastor and the Mary D. Synnott Professor of Youth, Church and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary.

She is the author of numerous books on faith and young people, including Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church; The Godbearing Life: The Art of Soul-Tending in Youth Ministry; and, most recently, Under the Dragon Scales: Restoring Joy to Youth Ministry, with Wesley Ellis, Justin Forbes, and Abigail Visco Rusert.

A graduate of Miami University (Ohio) and Wesley Theological Seminary (Washington, DC), Kenda served as a pastor and campus minister in the DC suburbs and New Jersey, and co-founded (with Mark DeVries) a consulting and education group that promotes missional innovation. Kenda and her husband Kevin’s two children have “grown and flown,” so they now borrow the neighbors’ kids for the fun stuff.