The Covenant has had the privilege of resourcing our pastoral community for over two decades because of the generous gifts from the Lilly Endowment. The Lilly Endowment cares deeply for pastors. They identify a problem and invite us to discern how we can care well and resource our pastoral community. They have partnered with the Covenant to provide resources that help pastors live well into their call.
Our first grant with the Lilly Endowment was Sustaining Pastoral Excellence. The question posed was, “What allows a pastor to excel? What does a pastor need to sustain excellence?” In response, we created learning opportunities for leadership, preaching, and teaching along with opportunities to care well for our soul through personal retreats, coaching, spiritual direction, and sabbatical grants. We also host twice a year Deeper in Christ Retreats that allow pastors to get away to spend time with God focused on spiritual practices and meeting with a spiritual director.
The next questions we addressed together were, “How do we help pastors deal with the burden of financial pressures in their personal lives? How do we partner with pastors to address the economic challenges facing Pastors?” We created the Covenant Financial Leadership Initiative focusing on how to build a budget and plan for your future and retirement. Once pastors participate in the learning opportunity, they are eligible for a $10K consumer aid grant and free financial coaching. Once a pastor feels better about their personal finances, we discern that they have the confidence to share about stewardship in their context. They can help their congregations understand and live into generosity through a year-long cohort called Creating a Culture of Generosity.
Our next challenge was, “How do we help pastors thrive? How do we deal with isolation and stagnation? What can we do to meet felt needs, and provide soul care and skills that allow them to continue to learn and grow?” Through our Thriving in Ministry initiative, we have found that virtual cohorts on a variety of topics from Sustainable Rhythms, Marriage, Entrepreneurial Thinking, Third, Third Flourishing, Going the Distance, Thriving Amid Chronic Illness, Navigating Pastoral Fatigue, and many more have helped to address pastors’ felt needs, skills, and spiritual health. Each cohort comes with the opportunity to have coaching as part of the experience.
Our newest grant initiative, Compelling Preaching, addresses the questions, “How do we engage our communities and congregations with God’s Word? How do we invite others into God’s story?” The creation narrative reminds us that we live in a Word-made world. The future of the church and the faith community it forms will continue to be shaped by compelling preaching, created in a collaborative process between the community of preachers and the congregations they serve. It is here that a fresh and embodied Word will emerge.
Preaching at its best arises from the conviction that God speaks timely and compelling good news through the life and words of preachers. In this light, a sermon is a fresh word from God for the people of God; a healthy, compelling preaching ministry reaffirms the important yet mysterious truth that God is still speaking words of life and hope for those who have ears to hear. “In the Scriptures, the preacher has heard God speak in such a way that she must say something back, first as she works on her sermon and then to her congregation that Sunday. To think of the sermon as a response takes seriously the nature of the Bible as God’s word, a living witness that still provokes a response from those who hear it.” (Rogness and Lose, Seven Marks of the Good Sermon)
We are so grateful for the partnership with the Lilly Endowment that has allowed us to resource our Covenant clergy for over two decades. Visit our website for more information about any of these ministry opportunities.
