PASTORS!   CHURCHES!  CHECK OUT THIS LILLY ENDOWMENT GRANT

First Presbyterian Church of Philipsburg has received a grant of $45,000 to enable its pastor, Tracie Bullis, to participate in the 2008 National Clergy Renewal Program funded by the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. The church is one of 133 congregations across the country that will support their pastors in the program, which allows pastors to step back from their busy lives and renew their spirits for the benefit of their ongoing ministry.
Now in its ninth year, the program invites congregations and pastors to consider and plan a period of intentional reflection and renewal. The grant provides a time for pastors to take a break from the daily obligations and gain the fresh perspective and renewed energy that a carefully considered “Sabbath time” of travel, study, rest and prayer can provide.
Each congregation is eligible to apply for a grant of up to $45,000. Up to $15,000 of that amount can be used to fulfill pastoral duties during the minister’s absence and for expenses related to the congregation’s own renewal. The 133 grants this year total nearly $5,000,000 and represent 20 denominations in 36 states.
First Presbyterian Church of Philipsburg plans to use the grant to send their pastor and her family on renewing travel trips. Pastor Tracie Bullis will spend a week on retreat, followed by three weeks for the family in Greece learning more about the Apostle Paul’s church plantings from the New Testament. The family will then visit Pastor Tracie’s relatives in Oregon, attend a pastor’s conference, and take a retreat in Montana. From the West Coast, the family will next travel to Thailand to visit the small but growing Christian churches there with which Presbyterian churches in the central Pennsylvania have formed a partnership of support and mutual learning. When the family returns in late August, Pastor Tracie will close her sabbatical time with a final week on retreat.
The church has no intention of sitting idle in the absence of the Bullis family. They will have a seminary intern or recent graduate for the summer to provide an educational experience in small church ministry. The summer intern will be actively seeking opportunities to listen and learn from the many faithful members of the church about being a pastor.
“We have heard wonderful stories from the pastors who already have experienced these sabbaticals,” said Craig Dykstra, Endowment senior vice president for religion. “Their time away has freed them up to pursue personal interests and needs in ways that have given them new energy for ministry – and their congregations have discovered that they didn’t fall apart without their pastor around. Indeed, they too experience refreshment and a new-found sense of their own strengths.”
The Endowment’s larger goal is to bolster the good work that America’s pastors and congregations accomplish day in and day out and to reinforce and build upon important work being done on both sides of the pulpit. “In our religion grant-making, we hope to strengthen the efforts of today’s excellent pastors because it is no secret that pastors who have reconnected themselves to the passions that led them to the ministry in the first place are more likely to lead healthy and vibrant congregations,” Dykstra said.