The Center for Youth Ministry Training has received a $4,903,808 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish the Young People’s Theological Service Initiative.
The program is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s National Youth and Young Adult Initiative on Faith and Service (Faith and Service Initiative), which is designed to nurture and deepen the faith of Christian young people through intentional service and reflection about the meaning of service in their lives.
The Young People’s Theological Service Initiative aims to connect young people’s passion for service and desire for social change with transformative theological reflection, using our Holy Disruptions methodology.
Its goal is to engage young people in Christian service in a way that moves beyond simple acts of charity and integrates faith with action, fostering a lasting impact on both the individual and the community. The initiative will inspire young people to see their service as part of God’s larger mission in the world.
“The Young People’s Theological Service Initiative aims to inspire youth and college students guided by their theological convictions to become catalysts for service in their local communities and incorporate Christian service into their lives.”
Rev. Dietrich Kirk, CYMT Founder and Executive Director
Our primary objectives to accomplish this goal are:
The Center for Youth Ministry Training is one of 12 organizations funded through this invitational Faith and Service Initiative. They represent a broad spectrum of Christian traditions that includes Catholic, mainline and evangelical Protestant, Orthodox and Pentecostal faith communities and communities rooted in Black Church and Hispanic traditions.
“The projects being funded through the Faith and Service Initiative hold the promise of helping young people grow spiritually by drawing on Christian traditions to reflect on the meaning of service,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “They also will strengthen their ties to faith communities and help those faith communities understand more fully the needs and perspectives of young people.”
Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private philanthropic 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. The 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.
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