{"id":8335,"date":"2004-12-09T17:59:02","date_gmt":"2004-12-09T22:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=8335"},"modified":"2011-07-06T08:28:37","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T13:28:37","slug":"4002","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2004\/12\/09\/4002\/","title":{"rendered":"Seminary Awarded $2 Million Lilly Grant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CHICAGO, IL (December 9, 2004)\u00a0 &#8211; North Park Theological Seminary has been\u00a0 awarded a $2 million implementation grant from the Indianapolis-based\u00a0 Lilly Endowment Inc. as part of the endowment&#8217;s Making Connections\u00a0 Initiative, a national effort to expand and energize collaborations that\u00a0 will foster excellent clergy and engaged congregations.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div>&#8220;Making Connections is the latest endowment initiative to address issues\u00a0 facing many Christian denominations in recent decades,&#8221; states the award\u00a0 notification from Lilly Endowment. Those issues include &#8220;declining\u00a0 numbers of young people entering the ministry, the &#8216;dropout&#8217; rate among\u00a0 young ministers and the often-felt &#8216;isolation&#8217; of practicing pastors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>The North Park grant will fund three programs that over the next five\u00a0 years will focus on effective connections between the seminary, North\u00a0 Park University and the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). The programs\u00a0 are part of a seminary effort &#8220;to call a new generation of promising\u00a0 young people into Christian ministry, improve the seminary&#8217;s programs of\u00a0 theological education and enhance the ministry of pastoral leaders,&#8221;\u00a0 according to a seminary spokesperson. Highlights of the three programs\u00a0 are as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Youth Nexus: the Center for Youth Ministry Studies will oversee a\u00a0 project that brings high school juniors and their youth pastors to\u00a0 campus for week-long summer institutes called &#8220;Youth Nexus,&#8221; to engage\u00a0 both groups in theological reflection, worship, experience learning\u00a0 projects and community building recreational activities.<\/li>\n<li>Connecting the Seminary and University Ministries: the grant will\u00a0 facilitate additional collaboration between the seminary and the Office\u00a0 of University Ministries, which engages undergraduates in worship, small\u00a0 groups, spiritual formation and a variety of ministries within the\u00a0 community, the city, the nation and the world. &#8220;The seminary&#8217;s resources\u00a0 in theological studies and spiritual formation, the leadership potential\u00a0 of seminary students and the future ministry potential of these\u00a0 undergraduates makes this a collaboration that promises to be\u00a0 particularly fruitful, both for seminary students and for undergraduates\u00a0 who should consider theological study and ministry,&#8221; the spokesperson says.<\/li>\n<li>Pastor in Residence\/Professor in Residence: the grant also provides\u00a0 funding to expand significantly the seminary&#8217;s Pastor in Residence\u00a0 program to connect the seminary more fully with ECC pastors and, as much\u00a0 as possible, to involve them more effectively in the seminary&#8217;s\u00a0 educational process. Funding also will allow implementation of a program\u00a0 that will send selected faculty to key congregations to learn from them\u00a0 how best the seminary can serve them and their developing ministries and\u00a0 to present the resources of the seminary to congregations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>&#8220;The schools receiving grants in this initiative (20 to date) have, for\u00a0 the most part, decided to focus their attention on several key issues,&#8221;\u00a0 says Craig Dykstra, the endowment&#8217;s vice president for religion,\u00a0 including &#8220;establishing and strengthening connections with\u00a0 congregations, creating programs for beginning pastors to benefit from\u00a0 the wisdom of established ministers, involving congregations in both the\u00a0 calling of young people to ministry and of supporting young seminary\u00a0 graduates, establishing or expanding programs for urban or rural\u00a0 ministries, and setting up denominational cooperative programs.<\/p>\n<div>&#8220;We anticipate that the partnerships established or enhanced through the\u00a0 Making Connections Initiative will strengthen the ecology of\u00a0 institutions necessary to call and equip a new generation of church\u00a0 leaders, just as it seeks to sustain excellent ministry going on today,&#8221;\u00a0 Dykstra continued. &#8220;We are pleased to offer resources to help forge the\u00a0 partnerships needed to strengthen ministry in congregations in this\u00a0 country. It is an exciting journey.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>Copyright \u00a9 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=8335&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CHICAGO, IL (December 9, 2004)\u00a0 &#8211; North Park Theological Seminary has been\u00a0 awarded a $2 million implementation grant from the Indianapolis-based\u00a0 Lilly Endowment Inc. as part of the endowment&#8217;s Making Connections\u00a0 Initiative, a national effort to expand and energize collaborations that\u00a0 will foster excellent clergy and engaged congregations. Report This Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Seminary Awarded $2 Million Lilly Grant - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2004\/12\/09\/4002\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seminary Awarded $2 Million Lilly Grant - Covenant Newswire Archives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CHICAGO, IL (December 9, 2004)\u00a0 &#8211; North Park Theological Seminary has been\u00a0 awarded a $2 million implementation grant from the Indianapolis-based\u00a0 Lilly Endowment Inc. as part of the endowment&#8217;s Making Connections\u00a0 Initiative, a national effort to expand and energize collaborations that\u00a0 will foster excellent clergy and engaged congregations. 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