Seminary Receives $1.19 Million Lilly Grant for Equipping Future Preachers

Covenant Seminary is pleased to announce that it received a $1.19 million grant from Lilly Endowment toward equipping future preachers. This grant will further develop an emphasis on preaching as a primary means of pastoral ministry for the Seminary’s Master of Divinity students.

Covenant Seminary has long held a focus on training preachers as a central means of pastoral ministry, beginning with its founder, Dr. Robert Rayburn, and continuing through many of its faculty, including President Emeritus Dr. Bryan Chapell, whose book Christ Centered Preaching remains a standard homiletics textbook at seminaries around the world to this day.

This grant will equip preachers by enabling three primary activities: (1) preaching cohort groups, (2) preaching conferences and workshops, and (3) developing preaching resources.

The goal of these programs will be to encourage and revitalize seasoned preachers, better equip and support young preachers and those aspiring to preach, and give opportunity for preachers of all experience levels, ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities to learn from each other. This will also provide opportunities for bi-vocational pastors who may not have been able to previously access seminary-level education due to lack of accessibility and/or affordability.

Dr. Thomas C. Gibbs, President of Covenant Seminary, said, “I am very thankful to God for this grant. It will serve as a blessing to the church by equipping men to faithfully preach the Word of God. As a pastor myself, I know that preaching the Bible is one of the most vital means of Christian ministry. I am so thankful that Covenant Seminary will get to go deeper in preparing future church leaders for this great task.”

Covenant Seminary is one of 81 organizations receiving grants from Lilly Endowment through a competitive round of its national Compelling Preaching Initiative.

More information will be forthcoming as these programs develop.

Since 1956 Covenant Seminary has prepared pastors, counselors, and ministry leaders. Located in St. Louis, Missouri, Covenant is the denominational seminary of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), training men and women for the work of ministry to the PCA and beyond.