Indiana Wesleyan University has been awarded a nearly $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative. The grant will help Wesley Seminary at the university strengthen and sustain its capacity to prepare pastoral leaders for Christian congregations.
Rev. Dr. Colleen Derr, President of Wesley Seminary, said, “Wesley Seminary is thankful for the opportunity this grant will provide us to continue to serve the church and ministry leaders in tangible, practical, and timely ways through creating times of connection and resources for ministry. We are praying the Lord uses this blessing of ours to bless the Christian leaders who are following his call, building his church, and leading his people.”
The grant amount is $999,711 and will fund the implementation of a Resource Hub. The Hub is a communication platform that will provide space for content curation, creation, and dissemination of Wesleyan ministry and theological distinctives. In addition, virtual and physical gatherings will provide community, collaboration, sharing of challenges, generation of new ideas, edification and ongoing development of both clergy and lay.
The Resource Hub will become a place where Wesley Seminary can convene partners to share knowledge and experiences and create content that can be distributed to our constituency. This will strengthen the Seminary’s current standing in delivering formal theological education and equip the laity with non-formal educational offerings that benefit Christian leaders, their churches, and their communities.
Wesley Seminary is one of 84 theological schools in the U.S. and Canada that are benefiting from a total of more than $82 million in grants Lilly Endowment has made through the second phase of the Pathways initiative. Lilly Endowment launched the Pathways initiative in January 2021 because of its longstanding interest in supporting efforts to enhance and sustain the vitality of Christian congregations by strengthening the leadership capacities of pastors and congregational lay leaders.
About Wesley Seminary
Wesley Seminary prepares Christian leaders to engage in missional ministry locally and globally. With the highly innovative Wesley Seminary model, students stay engaged in their current ministry setting and apply weekly homework to one’s local ministry. Masters and Doctoral degrees are offered online and onsite in English and Spanish. Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University belongs to The Wesleyan Church.