Austin Seminary Receives $5M Grant to Illuminate the Christian Story and Train Transformational Storytellers.

The grant through Lilly Endowment’s National Storytelling Initiative will help Austin Seminary cultivate a vibrant network of storytellers, equipping congregations, independent leaders, and young adults to share transformative stories that express the beauty and wonder of life with God.

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary has received a grant of $5 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its National Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life. The grant will support Austin Seminary in creating a fresh wave of storytelling by building a network of trained storytellers among congregations, independent leaders, and young adults who become lifelong leaders of transformational storytelling that illumines God’s life among us. Vice President for Strategic Engagement and Partnerships Melissa Wiginton will give leadership to the project.

In this disconnecting age, our souls are starving for the nourishment of the Christian story. Through the National Storytelling Initiative, Austin Seminary seeks to uncover and uplift the Christian story to illuminate more brightly how the Christian faith nurtures abundant life and to give testimony to the love of God in Jesus Christ from age to age.

“The best stories draw us into a different world,” says Wiginton. “We want to dwell in the reality cast by the story. Austin Seminary’s project is about creating the experience of a different world for people, a world enchanted by the Spirit of God in which compassion is the theme, communities are the characters, and transformation is the plot.”

In partnership with The Hearth, a nonprofit specializing in community storytelling, and Executive Director Mark Yaconelli, Austin Seminary’s National Storytelling Initiative will make the power and revelation of the Christian story available in a variety of settings to diverse audiences, using a creative and engaging mix of methods.

The initiative begins by assembling a diverse group of “Storycatchers” – pastors, writers, filmmakers, activists, and others – to identify and amplify narratives that embody Christian faith and life. Through partnerships with congregations, independent Christian leaders, and young adults, the project will train participants in community storytelling methods, reclaiming testimony as a vibrant practice. These efforts will seek to foster more than 400 storytelling events, build bridges between churches and their surrounding communities, and establish a network for sharing compelling stories through various media. The Hearth will provide proven methods to nurture storytelling practices that inspire and connect.

Additionally, the project invites young adults to engage deeply with the Christian story through reflective pilgrimages, tracing the life of Jesus and connecting it to their spiritual journeys. Stories emerging from these pilgrimages and shared through cinematic films, documentaries, podcasts, and written works will reach broader audiences, including those outside traditional church spaces. With an emphasis on beauty, grace, and the power of testimony, the project aims to uplift Christian narratives that resonate deeply with the faithful and those seeking meaning to create a lasting impact on communities nationwide.

“The vibrancy and hope of Christian faith call us to process over product and to relationship over transaction,” says Wiginton, “We want not only to capture the stories but also to teach people how to create the containers that invite us into the enchanted moments.”

“At the end of the day,” says Austin Seminary Professor of Reformed Theology Dr. David H. Jensen, “Christian faith is not primarily about doctrine or treatises. It is not about the argument. The staying power of Christianity over time is the stories we tell. Stories shape the faithful life.”

Austin Seminary is one of twelve organizations from across the United States receiving grants through the initiative. The group includes media organizations, denominational judicatories, church networks, publishers, educational institutions, congregations, and other nonprofit charitable organizations.

The aim of Lilly Endowment’s National Initiative on Christian Faith and Life is to help organizations identify, produce, and share with a wide variety of audiences compelling stories that portray the vibrancy and hope of Christian faith and life.

About Lilly Endowment Inc.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based 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. Although the gifts of stock remain a 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 founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A primary aim of its grantmaking in religion is to deepen the religious lives of Christians, principally by supporting efforts that enhance congregational vitality and strengthen the leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment values the broad diversity of Christian traditions and endeavors to support them in a wide variety of contexts. The Endowment also seeks to foster public understanding of religion by encouraging fair, accurate, and balanced portrayals of the positive and negative effects of religion on the world and lifting up the contributions that people of all faiths make to our greater civic well-being.

About Austin Seminary

Founded in 1902, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is an institution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership. For more information and ways to support Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, visit www.austinseminary.edu.