American Baptist College Receives Nearly $2 Million Lilly Endowment Grant for Rural and Small-Town Churches

American Baptist College has been awarded a grant of $1,999,994 from Lilly Endowment through the Endowment’s Ministry in Rural Areas and Small Towns Initiative. According to the source, the grant will help ABC turn its core values and educational priorities into a specialized curriculum that addresses leadership coaching, congregational development and community engagement for small-town and rural congregations.

The initiative aims to strengthen the vitality of rural and small-town ministries and the leadership of the pastors and lay leaders who guide them. ABC said its program aligns with the Endowment’s objectives by offering resources and direct support to congregations in these areas. The initiative also seeks to position participating churches as hubs that can help other organizations provide resources and support to rural and small-town churches.

ABC President Forrest Harris said the college was “honored to be awarded funding from Lilly Endowment for this important initiative.” He said the grant will allow ABC to create and deliver a training program that helps Black churches in rural areas and small towns connect more effectively with their communities, while preparing congregational leaders to think of new ways for the church to be more than a weekend experience. Preparing leaders to serve beyond Sunday worship reflects the call to faithful work (Colossians 3:23).

The program is aimed at Black congregations within the Baptist, United Methodist and African Methodist Episcopal denominations in small, rural towns across Tennessee and neighboring communities. Dr. William Green, ABC’s program director for the grant, will lead the work, which the college says will use new methods to strengthen congregational leadership, foster development and deepen community collaboration. The source says the program will begin by identifying emerging needs and challenges among participating congregations.

At the center of the program is what ABC calls the MARLOT Congregational Science Methodology, an acronym for Missional, Adaptive, Resilient, Liminal, Organic and Transformational. The source attributes the model to Green, citing a 2022 work, and says he developed it over a 37-year academic and pastoral career leading urban and small-town congregations. ABC says the framework will help congregations and their leaders address the needs of their communities amid contemporary faith practices.

ABC will work with five anchor organizations: Healthy Congregations, Inc.; The Kellogg School Center for Nonprofit Management at Northwestern University; the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt University Divinity School; The Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference; and the Kaleidoscope Institute. The college is one of 20 organizations across the United States receiving grants through the initiative, which also includes colleges and universities, denominational agencies, church networks and parachurch organizations.

Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion, said the grants are meant to “provide much needed resources and support to rural and small-town churches to help them address their challenges and enhance and extend the many ways that they serve their communities.” The source also describes Lilly Endowment Inc. as an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. It says the Endowment is separate from Eli Lilly and Company, though its financial foundation came from gifts of stock in that pharmaceutical business.

Source: Read the original report