David Stark earned a Doctor of Theology from Duke University with a focus on homiletics and Hebrew Bible. Prior to his arrival at Palmer Theological Seminary, Stark served as assistant professor of homiletics and co-director of the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Center at the University of the South. He also taught previously as the Styberg Teaching Fellow at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and as Visiting Instructor at Universität Leipzig, Germany.

He is the author of Singing and Suffering with the Servant: Second Isaiah as Guide for Preaching the Old Testament (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2022) and Preaching that Confronts Confederate Monuments: Religion, Anti-Racism, and United States Politics (T & T Clark, 2025). His research explores how preachers can better proclaim the liberating gospel in the twenty-first century by attending to contexts of domination and counter witness in scripture, by confronting white colonial narratives in their particular location, and by engaging with perspectives beyond their racial, cultural, economic, and national contexts. 

Stark currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief for the International Journal of Homiletics and as a member of the governing board of Societas Homiletica. He is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church with leadership experience in rural and urban congregations. In his spare time, he enjoys watching basketball, playing tennis, dabbling into most eras of Nintendo video games, and exploring new places and restaurants with his wife, Sarah, and son, Elijah.