Lilly Endowment Inc. has awarded a bridge grant of $909,000 to Higher Education and Leadership Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to provide five additional years of operating and development expenses for the Bethany Fellowships program.

First funded in 1999 as part of the Endowment's transition-into-ministry program, the Bethany Fellowships provide support for ministers in their first four years of congregational leadership. Fellows participate in a pair of five-day retreats each year to learn classical spiritual disciplines, visit exceptional congregations, exchange ideas with national church leaders from many backgrounds, and study recent scholarship. They work together to be accountable in their ministries, both with the other Fellows and in monthly conferences with gifted, established Disciple pastors who serve as their leaders and mentors.

"When we began the Fellowships five years ago, we didn't know if it would be helpful to these young pastors as they make the tough transition from seminary life to the congregation," said Rev. Don Schutt, Director of the project. "We know now it works very well. National statistics show that across all denominations, over half of the ministers who graduate from seminary are not in congregational ministry five years later. During the last five years, we have worked with about 40 young Disciples ministers. Only three of these have left congregational ministry, and one went on to get a Ph.D. so that she could teach in a seminary."

Dawn Weaks, pastor of First Christian Church in Rowlett, Texas, is one of the Fellows. "I am a 'nose to the grindstone' worker," she writes. "Because of the Bethany Fellowships, I look up from my stone at least twice a year and see what other churches and other clergy people are doing to live out their callings. I am inevitably enriched and challenged."

The Bethany Fellowships is an outgrowth of the Bethany Project of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and began six years ago with a grant to the Office of the General Minister and President. Former General Minister and President Dick Hamm and Gay Reese were the architects of the initial project. Kim Gage Ryan, Bob Hill and Kris Tenny-Brittian, Disciples pastors from Columbia, Mo., Kansas City, Mo., and Seattle, Wash., join Don Schutt in leading the project.

As grantee for the project, HELM will manage finances and oversee financial and program reporting. "We are delighted to have the opportunity to work more closely with the Bethany Fellowships," said HELM President Dennis Landon. "It is a program that is doing a truly effective job of helping young ministers make the move from seminary to parish ministry. This project fits one of the major foci of HELM: The development of gifted and effective congregational leadership for the Disciples.

HELM works to nurture transforming leadership for the church in partnership with Disciples congregations, higher education institutions, campus ministry programs, regions, general ministries, and other agencies of the church.

The Indianapolis-based Endowment supports a variety of initiatives, but recently its religion grant making has been focused on major, interlocking efforts aimed at enhancing and sustaining the quality of ministry in American congregations and parishes.

• Bethany Project: www.bethanyproject.org
• Lilly Endowment Inc: www.lillyendowment.org