Lipscomb receives $475,000 Lilly Endowment grant to launch theology program for high school students
Kim Chaudoin | 615.966.6494 |
Lipscomb University has received a $475,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to create a theology program specifically designed for high school students. This is the first grant Lipscomb University has received from the Endowment.
Lipscomb’s College of Bible & Ministry will use the grant to launch the Lipscomb Institute for Student Theologians in summer 2017. The grant is part of Lilly Endowment Inc.’s High School Youth Theology Institutes initiative, which seeks to encourage young people to explore theological traditions, ask questions about the moral dimensions of contemporary issues and examine how their faith calls them to lives of service. The grant funding is for four years.
Based in Indianapolis, the endowment is giving $44.5 million in grants to help a select group of private four-year colleges and universities around the nation to create the institutes. The grants are part of the endowment’s commitment to identify and cultivate a cadre of theologically minded youth who will become leaders in church and society.
“This is a significant recognition of the quality of theological education that is offered by Lipscomb’s College of Bible & Ministry,” said Leonard Allen, dean of Lipscomb’s College of Bible & Ministry. “This summer program will provide opportunities for high school youth to engage their own Christian heritage, especially as it relates to the challenges of racial reconciliation facing us today. It will offer a unique experience that will help students discern the connections between Christian theology, the call of vocation and the task of racial reconciliation.”
Lipscomb is one of 82 private four-year colleges and universities, representing a variety of faiths, across the country selected to participate in the initiative. Some of the other institutions receiving high school youth theology grants are Azusa Pacific University, Baylor University, Canisius College, Loyola University of Chicago, Morehouse College, Pepperdine University, Seattle Pacific University and Saint Johns University.
“The colleges and universities are well-positioned to reach out to high school students in this way,” said Christopher L. Coble, vice president for religion at Lilly Endowment Inc. “They have outstanding faculty in theology and religion who know how to help young people explore the wisdom of religious traditions and apply these insights to contemporary challenges.”
Allen said the Lipscomb Institute for Student Theologians will be a 10-day summer event for up to 24 high school students that will be based on the texts, hands-on experience of a Civil Rights tour, exposure to the history of social witness in the Churches of Christ among other activities. The curriculum is comprised of three main courses: “Christian Theology, Vocation and the Task of Reconciliation,” “Churches of Christ, the Bible and Social Ethics” and a “Civil Rights Study Tour.” The study tour will focus on the writings of civil rights attorney Fred D. Gray, who represented Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and is the author of Bus Ride to Justice.
Students preparing to enter their junior or senior year in high school are eligible to apply.
“These students will have the opportunity to visit places that played key roles in the civil rights movement, to walk where civil rights activists walked and learn more about society at the time,” said Allen. “It is an experience that will have a profound impact on these young students as it brings to life what they’ve read about in history books.”
The grant will fund the operation of the institute, tuition for institute participants, and study materials for each summer event. The grant will cover these summer experiences for four years, beginning in summer 2017.
Allen said in addition to providing a unique learning opportunity to young people, it also helps the university “in its effort to encourage and facilitate racial reconciliation” as well as to recruit future Bible majors for the college.
Lipscomb University’s College of Bible & Ministry offers six Bachelor of Arts concentrations as well as interdisciplinary majors in worship ministry and a second major in vocational ministry for students who are majoring in another academic discipline. The Lipscomb University’s graduate Bible program was established in 1983, and is one of only two programs in Middle Tennessee accredited by the Association of Theological Schools. It offers a Doctor of Ministry degree as well as a Master of Divinity, a Master of Theological Studies and a Master of Arts in Christian Ministry.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by three members of the Lilly family - J.K. Lilly Sr. and sons J.K. Jr. and Eli - through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly & Company. The Endowment exists to support the causes of religion, education and community development. Lilly Endowment’s religion grantmaking is designed to deepen and enrich the religious lives of American Christians. It does this largely through initiatives to enhance and sustain the quality of ministry in American congregations and parishes.