LCMS receives grant for healthy youth ministry

Dec. 10, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Rev. Dr. Mark Kiessling, Youth Ministry

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

888-THE LCMS (843-5267)

youth.ministry@lcms.org

LCMS receives grant for healthy youth ministry

Lilly Endowment Inc. gives $250,000 to support the Synod’s efforts to help member congregations develop effective ministry for youth

ST. LOUIS — The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) has received a $250,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support efforts to help member congregations develop effective ministry for youth. The grant was awarded through Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative. The aim of the initiative is to encourage the flourishing of congregations by helping them deepen their relationships with God, enhance their connections with each other, and contribute to the vitality of their communities and the world.

In 2016, LCMS Youth Ministry launched a multi-year study on millennials and the church. In 2020, a summary of the study, Relationships Count: Engaging and Retaining Millennials, was released in e-book and paperback formats. From that research and conversations around it, additional resources were developed, including a book, Seven Practices of Healthy Youth Ministry. The LCMS, as a confessional Lutheran church body, holds to the Word of God as the center of its doctrine and practice. Its approach to youth ministry reflects the conviction that when that Word is shared through intentional, Christ-centered relationships, lives are changed.

The new program, “Practicing Healthy Youth Ministry,” will begin by creating a network of 35-40 facilitators across the LCMS. The facilitators will receive training and then, during a five-year period, will work to build intentional relationships with youth ministry practitioners and LCMS districts and congregations in order to share research, strategies and resources for a relationship-based approach to youth ministry.

Congregations will be invited to reflect on their ministries to young people, recognizing strengths and exploring opportunities for growth. Best practices will be identified and shared across congregations, and the wisdom gained will be used to help inspire congregations to sharpen their mission to serve young people and families and to create or enhance youth ministry resources. The ultimate goal is to encourage healthy and thriving youth ministries that lead to the retention of young people in the church.

The Rev. Dr. Mark Kiessling, director of LCMS Youth Ministry, said, “We are thankful to God that LCMS congregations intentionally care for young people in their churches and schools. This focus fits well with Lilly Endowment work to support healthy congregations and the passing of the faith to the next generation. This grant will help fund opportunities for youth ministry practitioners and congregations to learn from each other, build a network for mutual sharing and support, and provide resources to congregations that will help them make lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ.”

The LCMS is one of 105 organizations that has received grants though a competitive round of the Thriving Congregations Initiative. Reflecting a wide variety of Christian traditions, the organizations represent mainline Protestant, evangelical, Catholic, Orthodox, Peace and Pentecostal faith communities.

“Congregations play an essential role in deepening the faith of individuals and contributing to the vitality of communities,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice-president for religion. “We hope that these programs will nurture the vibrancy and spark the creativity of congregations, helping them imagine new ways to share God’s love in their communities and across the globe.”

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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.

About The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (lcms.org)

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, with more than 1.7 million baptized members in some 5,800 congregations coast to coast, is a mission-oriented, Bible-based, confessional Christian denomination headquartered in St. Louis. Through acts of witness and mercy, the church carries out its mission worldwide to make known the love of Jesus Christ.