Lilly Endowment Appoints Religious Program Director

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Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. has named Jessicah Krey Duckworth a program director in its religious division. She has been serving as an assistant professor at Luther Seminary in Minnesota.

June 17, 2013
News Release

INDIANAPOLIS – Jessicah Krey Duckworth, assistant professor of congregational and community care leadership at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., will join Lilly Endowment, effective August 1, as a program director in its religion division.

“Jessicah Duckworth is a highly respected scholar and teacher with a passion for helping to strengthen the ministries of Christian churches,” said Christopher L. Coble, the Endowment’s vice president for religion. “Her service as a pastor and seminary professor makes her deeply knowledgeable about the challenges facing churches today.

“Jessicah’s experiences include several Endowment-supported projects: She was a Fund for Theological Education Ministry Fellow, conducted extensive research for Princeton Theological Seminary's Faithful Practices Project, and participated in faculty workshops hosted by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Religion and Theology. We are delighted that she will bring her wisdom to our staff and help the Endowment advance its mission to strengthen the leadership and enrich the vitality of Christian churches.”

Duckworth is ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. Prior to her professorship at Luther Seminary, she served as assistant professor of Christian formation at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. She has engaged in extensive research that focuses on Christian practices that sustain vibrant congregational life. Her academic work also has attended to the spiritual questions of young adults and ways that Christian churches can reach out to a new generation. She recently published a book on strengthening the relationship between newcomers and established members through congregational practices entitled Wide Welcome: How the Unsettling Presence of Newcomers Can Save the Church.

http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?ID=59944

I didn't realize how heavily invested this corporate charity was in American Christianity.

RELIGION

The ultimate aim of Lilly Endowment's religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the religious lives of American Christians, primarily by helping to strengthen their congregations. To that end, our religion grantmaking in recent years has consisted largely of a series of major, interlocking initiatives aimed at enhancing and sustaining the quality of ministry in American congregations and parishes.

The Endowment has focused on supporting programs and projects that address three broad questions: How do we identify, recruit and call forth a new generation of talented Christian pastors? How do we best prepare and train new ministers for effective and faithful pastoral leadership? How do we improve the skills and sustain the excellence of pastors currently serving congregations? We also fund efforts that enhance the vitality of local congregations and that enable ordinary church members to mine the deep wisdom of the Christian faith and to take up their vocations in the life of the world as people of faith.

Convictions

Our efforts are premised on the conviction that the local congregation is the primary place where most Christians gather in community to worship God, to learn what it means to be people of faith, to teach the beliefs and practices of Christian faith to each new generation, and to reach out to others in service and witness. Strong, vital congregations play powerful roles in the lives of those who participate in them as well as to the larger civic communities of which they are a part.

Several additional convictions also shape the Endowment's religion funding. First, we believe that the quality of pastoral leadership is critical to the health and vitality of congregations. When well-prepared, thoughtful, imaginative, able and caring pastors lead congregations, they tend to thrive. Second, theological schools play a critical role in preparing pastors for their leadership responsibilities in congregations. They are uniquely equipped to provide the deep and sustained exploration of the wisdom of the Christian tradition and the practical training pastors need in order to lead their congregations and serve their people well. Third, there is a still wider ecology of institutions (including colleges and universities, publishers and communications media, denominational judicatories and independent agencies) that support congregations and their pastoral leaders as well as conduct other crucial ministries. The Endowment seeks both to support them directly and to enable them to work collaboratively to address key challenges facing local congregations and pastoral leaders. Finally, ongoing research and other forms of sustained intellectual inquiry are necessary to help all these institutions and leaders understand and address the fundamental issues facing the church and religious life in our society today.

http://www.lillyendowment.org/religion.html

[cbayer]

1. I also had no idea about their religious leanings.

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2. I'd like to see a graph correlating this to their PACs.