Littleton, Colo. – Denver Seminary has received a grant of $1 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help design, develop, and deploy two new master’s programs that specifically address the needs, challenges, and opportunities of congregational leaders in predominately Black and Hispanic churches.

The effort is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative, which strives to help theological schools strengthen and sustain their capacities to prepare and support pastoral leaders for Christian churches. Pathways for Tomorrow is a three-phase initiative, and the Endowment has allocated $87.5 million towards this enterprise.

Denver Seminary will collaborate with key church and educational partners to design and deliver specifically tailored degree and graduate certificate programs for pastoral and ministry leaders in predominately Black and Hispanic contexts. In addition, the Seminary will assess how current degree programs may be required to adapt to engage the needs, challenges, and opportunities of these contexts.

“Ultimately, our envisioned outcome is that urban and Hispanic congregations will develop greater capacity to see their communities transformed through the redemptive power of the gospel and life-changing truth of Scripture,” said Denver Seminary President Dr. Mark Young. “Because of our growing relationships and ongoing engagement with these communities the Seminary is well positioned and institutionally committed to more effectively and expansively serving them through master’s degree and graduate certificate programs that address their realities.”

For more information, contact Andrea Weyand, senior director of Communications, Denver Seminary.

About Lilly Endowment Inc. – 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, the Endowment 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 American Christians, 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 Denver Seminary – Denver Seminary is a non-denominational graduate school of theology located in Littleton, Colo. The Seminary’s mission is to prepare men and women to engage the needs of the world with the redemptive power of the gospel and the life-changing truth of Scripture. Established in 1950, Denver Seminary offers on-campus, fully online, and hybrid degree programs, and has an extension campus in Washington DC and a Korean Global Program. In addition, the Seminary offers programming for lay ministry through its Hispanic Program and Black Church Program.