Duke Chapel dean Sam Wells

The recession and church disputes over sexuality are two recent examples of challenges that cry out for leadership.

Those situations -- and leadership in difficult times more generally -- will be the topic of discussion for Duke Chapel dean Sam Wells during an online "Office Hours" session Friday, Oct. 23, at noon on the Duke University Ustream channel.

Wells will answer questions from viewers of the webcast. To submit a question in advance or during the session, send an email to live@duke.edu, post a comment on the Duke University Live Ustream page on Facebook or tweet with the tag #dukelive.

In a 2006 sermon on the biblical Book of Esther, Wells addressed the subject of leadership (read the full sermon).

"Perhaps you have been given these skills and experiences, these privileges and deprivations, so that just at this very moment you could do what no one else could do, you could be what no one else could be," he said. "God made you just as you are because he wanted someone just like you. Maybe all this happened and you came to be here for just such a time as this."

This year, Wells will take up the topic of leadership in the Chapel's Deans' Dialogue series, in which Wells hosts public interviews with university deans on questions of meaning and common good.

Wells, dean of the Chapel since 2005, is a priest in the Church of England and author of six books, including his most recent "Speaking the Truth: Preaching in a Pluralistic Culture." He is a research professor of Christian ethics at Duke Divinity School.