Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology received a near-million dollar grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support a groundbreaking initiative aimed at reimagining seminary theological education and training for pastors and lay ministers.

The School of Theology was notified Nov. 29 it had received a Phase 2 grant in the amount of $907,179 through the Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative designed to help theological schools strengthen and sustain their capacities to prepare and support pastoral leaders for Christian churches.

A total of 84 Phase 2 grants, ranging from $500,000 to $1 million, were awarded to institutions in 28 U.S. states and seven Canadian provinces.

Mercer’s School of Theology will embark on a four-year program to comprehensively recalibrate the seminary student formational experience and radically decenter the seminary from seminary education by focusing on church-centric theological education.

“McAfee students are diverse, passionate about their calling, creative and ever eager to learn and grow,” said Dr. Greg DeLoach, dean of McAfee School of Theology. “Within all the richness of this diversity are the shared desires to ably pastor the church of today in a manner where they can fulfill a lifelong calling as they lead the church in transformative ways for the sake of the world. To do so requires an education and training that addresses the vastly different and significant challenges facing today’s post-pandemic church. They need a seminary willing to be agile and creative in education, training and methodology.”

Mercer’s Pathways for Tomorrow project will involve two separate initiatives within the School of Theology.

 First, the Center for Teaching Churches will evolve into the Center for Calling and Vocation with a full-time director tasked with reimagining the curriculum and methodology needed to address the needs of today’s pastors and churches and do so within a current ministry context.

Second, the Baugh Center for Baptist Leadership will be resourced to expand both its footprint geographically, racially and socio-economically, as well as its ability to train lay ministers. Through the Baugh Center, the School of Theology will offer satellite, contextual lay minister training, continuing education and mentoring cohorts for both longstanding and first call pastors, as well as congregational learning cohort experiences addressing the most urgent needs before the church of today.

“We expect the most significant outcomes will include healthier, better formed and more prepared McAfee graduates; healthier churches as pastors and lay ministers receive biblical and contextual church leadership training; deeper relationships between McAfee and churches; a more diverse McAfee student population; and a larger footprint geographically, ethnically and denominationally from which McAfee can recruit students, engage churches and place graduates,” said Dr. DeLoach.