榮獲「驅動人心的講道專案」基金

Logos Evangelical Seminary has received a grant of $1,000,000 from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish “Center for Compelling Preaching” (“the Center”) to help aspiring preachers (seminary students) and practicing preachers among Chinese Christian communities in America.

The Center will use three strategies to achieve its purposes.

• Strategy 1: The Center will conduct research on the needs and challenges facing Chinese preachers in America and methods of more compelling preaching. This will make the design and pedagogy in training aspiring preachers based more on research and resources.
• Strategy 2: The Center will offer continuing education to active preachers. The core of the Center’s offering is a Certificate program. Besides taking classes on cutting-edge preaching methods, participants will have individual attention from preaching coaches to give them guidance in their own ministry contexts. Their progress and improvement will be tracked by requiring them to regularly solicit feedback from their audiences. The results will be reported to the Center both as research data and as data for assessing the program’s effectiveness.
• Strategy 3: The Center will create mentoring group communities of preachers, building on the same methodology of “Dream-12 Communities” implemented by the seminary. These communities, formed with Certificate program participants, will be led by mentors. The mentors not only coach the group members in preaching, but also foster spiritual formation by mutual peer support.

The project is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Compelling Preaching Initiative. Logos Evangelical Seminary is one of 32 organizations receiving funding in an invitational round of grants for the initiative, which is designed to help Christian pastors strengthen their abilities to proclaim the gospel in more engaging and effective ways.

“We are excited about the work that these organizations will do to foster and support preaching that better inspires, encourages and guides people to come to know and love God and to live out their Christian faith more fully,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “Their programs will serve a significant number of aspiring and current preachers who are working to reach and engage increasingly diverse audiences both within and beyond congregations.”

The Compelling Preaching Initiative is part of the Endowment’s longstanding interest in supporting projects that help to nurture the religious lives of individuals and families and foster the growth and vitality of Christian congregations in the United States.

About Lilly Endowment

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff, and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment

supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. The principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. In addition, the Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.