Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, 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,” Midwestern Seminary noted.
The Midwestern Institute for Preaching and Preachers, the seminary added, will provide an “array of resources to equip, support, and encourage preachers of God’s Word.”
More about resources
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.
Wilbanks noted, “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.
To read more about endowment, click here.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written and originally published by Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
