Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves recently received a $10 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., and leaders say the money will be used for a “Momentum for Ministry” initiative.
Eden, of the United Church of Christ Protestant denomination, plans to launch the initiative by creating the Progressive Christian Ministry System for Congregational Vitality.
That’s a long title to describe a group of people who Eden officials say will ultimately work together to prepare leaders for ministry and foster collaboration among seminaries nationwide.
Beginning next year, Eden leaders said they’ll be working with the United Theological Seminary in Minnesota, two schools of the Saskatoon Theological Union in Canada, the Memphis Theological Seminary in Tennessee and the BSK Theological Seminary in Kentucky.
A portion of the five-year grant will be used to support courses that teach congregations how to thrive in the digital age, as well as other programming ideas that emerge from the collaborations, said Mary Schaller Blaufuss, vice president for advancement and strategic partnerships at Eden Theological Seminary.
The money will also help fund tuition debt reduction and retirement benefits for some leaders who are in the grant, which helps incentivize participation in ministry, she said.
Eden’s President Deborah Krause said they were awarded the funds because their goals align with Lilly’s mission to see congregational life in North America thrive.
“Eden has been a school that, through our 175-year history, has been committed to supporting congregations and other ministries of the church to participate in God's mission in the world,” Krause said. “That's our calling. We’ve been really, really gratified to be able to propose these projects that (the Lilly Endowment sees) as worthy of investment.”
The grant to Eden is one of 45 that the Lilly Endowment recently awarded through its Pathways for Tomorrow initiative.
And this isn’t the first time Eden received money from the Lilly Endowment.
In 2022, the Webster Groves seminary received a $5 million grant during the first phase of Lilly’s Pathways initiative, called the “Network Model of Theological Education.” At that time, the focus was on building the infrastructure for collaboration among theological schools. It also aimed to share resources and control costs among the schools, Eden officials said.
The $10 million grant that Eden recently received is part of the second phase of the Lilly initiative, which Krause said will build on the first.
Blaufuss said while the goal is to increase partnerships and programming ideas through the expanded collaborations next year, Eden is already elongating its reach.
“Our students are in the St. Louis region (and) they are also in 21 different states,” Blaufuss said. “Our students can choose, even if they're in the St. Louis region, to come to campus or to join class on Zoom, class by class. And that kind of flexibility has enabled a lot of students to be able to participate fully in ways that they may not have otherwise.”
The school currently has about 100 online and campus students, as well as eight faculty members, Krause said.
“We are small, but when we come together in these consortium meetings and talk about educating leaders for transformational ministries in the world – it is so exciting to share our ideas, to share our expertise, to imagine how we're going to teach in new ways,” Krause added.
Groups within the United Church of Christ that are already collaborating on the project include the UCC Pension Boards, United Church Funds and the Southern New England Conference UCC.
The Lilly Endowment, based in Indianapolis, was founded in 1937 by the owners of the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Company.
