Lee University has received a $970,268 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish “The Story Program: A Collaborative Community Approach to Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer.” 

“We are thrilled to have this opportunity to lead such an innovative and important project,” said Dr. Paul Conn, president of Lee University. “Our thanks to Lilly Endowment for such generous funding. We’re eager to lead this effort with several local congregations in the Cleveland area. This grant will create some exciting possibilities for all of us, and I’m glad that with Lilly Endowment’s support, Lee University can once again lead the way.”

The program is funded through Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative, a national initiative designed to help Christian congregations more fully and intentionally engage children in intergenerational corporate worship and prayer practices. 

The Story Program is a five-year program that will help congregational leaders and parents to create and integrate sensory-rich elements in worship that engage all children, including those with disabilities. Lee will collaborate with a group of partner congregations within the Southeast Tennessee community to encourage the inclusion of children in intergenerational corporate worship and prayer for the development of their faith. 

“The funding provided by Lilly Endowment will enable us to develop and initiate a multidisciplinary collaboration with an ecumenical group of partner congregations in the Cleveland area as we seek to encourage intergenerational worship and prayer,” said Dr. Lisa Long, project director and professor of practical theology in Lee’s School of Theology & Ministry, where the program is housed. “The Story Program, founded on the rich history of storytelling in our regional culture, will utilize stories and the arts as foundational program strategies for nurturing children as they learn to embrace the story of God.”

There are five key activities that will be implemented to achieve the goals of the program: an annual training conference for ministry staff and lay leaders; workshops designed to offer strategies that congregations can adapt to their contexts; an intergenerational summer camp to engage children and adults in faith formation activities with storytelling and the arts (music, visual arts, drama); an annual community worship service that models fresh approaches to corporate intergenerational worship for congregations and worshippers throughout the community; and an 18-hour interdisciplinary minor in Children’s Ministry to educate and engage future ministry leaders and parents in the practices of including children in corporate worship. 

The committee members for this program are Dr. Bob Bayles, Dr. La-Juan Bradford, Dr. Shane Brown, Dr. Luke Gambill, Long, Dr. Julie Martinez, Mary Mathias-Dickerson, Dr. Debbie Murray, Dr. Lorinda Roberts, and Dr. Ruthie Wienk. 

The program team will seek to involve multicultural congregations and perspectives in the planning and implementation, as well as children with various disabilities in all program activities. 

Lee is one of the 91 organizations being funded through the latest round of the initiative. They represent and serve congregations in a broad spectrum of Christian traditions, including Catholic, mainline Protestant, evangelical, Orthodox, Anabaptist, and Pentecostal faith communities. Several organizations are rooted in Black Church and Hispanic and Asian American Christian traditions. 

“Congregational worship and prayer play a critical role in the spiritual growth of children and offer settings for children to acquire the language of faith, learn their faith traditions, and experience the love of God as part of a supportive community,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “These programs will help congregations give greater attention to children and how they can more intentionally nurture the faith of children, as well as adults, through worship and prayer.” 

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, 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.