In early October, I ventured to Indianapolis, Indiana for a diverse gathering of nonprofit leaders representing organizations that shared at least two things in common: 1) a hopeful commitment to the vitality of the wider church, and 2) our institutions had all received grant support from Lilly Endowment Inc. as part of its Thriving Congregations Initiative. I was already feeling buoyant as, a week before that gathering, I had received the exciting news that the Lilly Endowment has awarded the Montreat Conference Center a second grant of nearly $1 million to continue and expand our own Thriving Congregations initiative for another five years. Our first Lilly Endowment grant, awarded in 2019, established a partnership with The Black Mountain School of Theology & Community and launched our Thriving Congregations program. At its heart, the program envisions churches as dynamic “schools for the faithful,” where …
