KANSAS CITY, Mo—Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Midwestern Seminary) has received a grant of $1.25 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish the Midwestern Institute for Preaching and Preachers.
The effort is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Compelling Preaching Initiative. The aim of the initiative is to foster and support preaching that better inspires, encourages, and guides people to come to know and love God and to live out their Christian faith more fully.
The Midwestern Institute for Preaching and Preachers will provide an array of resources to equip, support, and encourage preachers of God’s Word. The resources will include workshops, hosted both on Midwestern Seminary’s campus and in the surrounding regions, where current and aspiring preachers will gather for training and mutual sharpening. In addition, Midwestern Seminary’s For the Church resource site and For the Church Institute video course platform will offer expanded content on the subject of expository preaching.
“I am very grateful to announce the new Midwestern Institute for Preaching and Preachers,” said President Jason Allen. “Thanks to the generosity of Lilly Endowment, we will be able to equip and encourage even more pastors and preachers. The Church needs more faithful expository preaching, and I am excited to see how the Lord uses this new institute for the Church’s good for years to come.”
Jordan Wilbanks, who serves as Vice President of Church Partnerships at Midwestern Seminary, will lead the Midwestern Institute for Preaching and Preachers as Director.
Reflecting on the importance of robust expository preaching for the Church today, Wilbanks shared, “The people of our day and culture are bombarded by a host of messages, many of which are confusing and fear-inducing. We need a clear presentation of the unchanging, powerful, saving, inerrant, authoritative, sufficient Word of God with perceptive application for trying and volatile times. And we need preachers who do so from a Scriptural foundation: one of love for the eternal triune God, a pattern of godly living and Christlike compassion, and a primacy of mission.”
Wilbanks added, “We want to see preachers grow not only in right interpretation and skillful communication of the message of God’s revealed Word, but we also want to see them grow in their love for the God of the Word. Additionally, we want to see them refreshed and encouraged by a community of co-laborers in the preaching task. And we want to see more godly men raised up who desire that task.”
Midwestern Seminary is one of 142 organizations that are receiving grants through Lilly Endowment’s Compelling Preaching Initiative. Reflecting the diversity of Christianity in the United States, the organizations are affiliated with mainline Protestant, evangelical, Catholic, Orthodox Christian, and Pentecostal faith communities. Many of the organizations are rooted in Black church, Hispanic, and Asian Christian traditions.
About Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff, and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education, and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.
