As the official seminary of The Wesleyan Church, Indiana Wesleyan University’s Wesley Seminary is uniquely positioned to help foster growth within churches across the globe. While its academic offerings remain a central pillar of that mission, Wesley Seminary Executive Vice President, Yamil Acevedo, is determined to find additional ways for his team to impact the world for Christ. One new effort is the Thriving Hispanic Congregations grant, a $1.2 million Lilly Endowment grant that supports 36 churches across America.
Wesley Seminary has helped develop countless ministry leaders across the globe. A common refrain among these leaders is a lack of resources, including funding, time, energy, and staffing, many ministry leaders find themselves facing difficulties that present significant challenges to their ability to effectively engage in ministry.
Alongside a strong determination to ensure Wesley Seminary uplifts Christians outside of academics, Acevedo has wanted to positively impact Hispanic churches specifically for years. Through this grant, Acevedo and the Wesley Seminary team will promote both areas, meeting tangible needs.
The grant is a five-year commitment, with two years of development and three years of implementation. The 36 churches the grant focuses on are split into three cohorts, each consisting of 12 churches. Earlier this year, all three cohorts gathered at Wesley Seminary’s headquarters in Marion, Indiana, for a time of training, collaboration, and vision casting.
There, they discussed the ways they can impact and serve their local communities and began to develop their individual projects based on the results of surveys they had conducted in their congregations. Each church came prepared with survey data from their congregation, identifying the most pressing needs in their local communities. From there, leaders began developing customized ministry projects—each tailored to their context and capacity. Project proposals include detailed plans for leadership, resource allocation, and measurable impact.
Wesley Seminary’s grant committee evaluates each proposal and awards funding based on scope and need, ranging from $3,000 to $12,000 per project.
So far, the first cohort’s projects have been presented and approved, with the second cohort presenting in December and the third providing their proposals in April of 2026. Every project is unique, with a variety of focuses as wide as the variety of communities represented; each of the 36 churches comes from a different area across America, including the US territory of Puerto Rico.
With several churches preparing to implement their plans soon, there are several clear ways in which these projects will make a Kingdom difference in the months and years ahead.
First, the Thriving Hispanic Congregations grant allows Wesley Seminary to help develop both pastors and lay leaders outside an academic context. One of the requirements for participating churches was to submit their mission and vision statements, many of which provided perfect opportunities for the congregations to refine and consider what their goals truly were. Grant manager Arlynn Ellis saw several churches move from statements that simply said, “saving souls,” to more detailed mission and vision statements that included actionable ways they could impact their communities and share Christ with those around them.
“The training also opens their eyes to properly implement a developed project,” said Ellis. “Many small churches are accustomed to just developing and hosting events without any particular purpose or bigger goal apart from the event itself.”
Ellis compared the three cohorts’ time in Marion to a retreat, in that it gave them a break from the demands of daily ministry, instead spending time in fellowship with other church leaders and examining what needs exist in their individual communities. The variety of new perspectives shared by leaders across the cohorts also provided considerable leadership development opportunities for both pastors and lay leaders present.
Through the insights shared in the survey responses from their individual ministry communities, each leader was able to gain a better understanding of their church.
“Lay leaders and congregants were sharing information and ideas that were opening pastors’ minds and eyes,” Ellis said. “Many of them were sparking important new conversations.”
Additionally, each project provides a new opportunity to positively impact a community. Ellis pointed to a church in Puerto Rico as one exceptional example.
“They want to train translators in their community for members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, because there’s a substantial percentage who need that,” Ellis explained. “They’re limited in how they can worship and interact, and many depend on one person they know who obviously can’t always be available.”
By helping train translators, individuals who are deaf will be able to worship more fully and engage in a deeper level of fellowship with other local believers. This serves as just one example of the ways the congregations impacted by this grant will be able to help their communities.
Another important aspect of each project is pursuing partnerships and collaborations. While Wesley Seminary is able to provide substantial support for each church, they are also aware of the limited length of the grant and as such encourage church leaders to seek partnerships with local businesses, nonprofits, and civic organizations in their communities who can help provide support. While not every church has pursued partnerships, a significant portion have.
“We want to ensure that when the grant is finished, these projects can still continue and don’t fade away,” shared Ellis. “It also provides the perfect chance for congregations to get closer with others in their community who aren’t necessarily already part of their church.”
While many projects are still in the developmental stage, the first cohort of 12 churches will soon begin implementing their strategies.
“We can’t wait to see how God moves in these communities,” said Acevedo. “Wesley Seminary is proud to be able to partner with so many congregations across America as we seek to make a Kingdom impact together.”
