Grant will Provide Staff and Program Support for Youth Ministries
May 21, 2016
Maryville College, one of 63 PC(USA)-related colleges, in partnership with the Equip Mission Team, Youth Committee and John Knox Center of the Presbytery of East Tennessee, has been awarded a grant that will strengthen the youth ministries in the presbytery. The Maryville Adventures in Studying Theology program aims to cultivate young leaders for the church and the world by helping them discover and embrace the traditions of Christian faith, put their faith into practice and explore—through the lenses of Bible study and theology—important questions of our time.
The grant, part of the Lilly Endowment’s Theology Institutes for High School Youth Initiative, will provide staff and program support for high school ministry in the presbytery, through the presbytery youth council and through education and resources for church youth leaders. The initiative seeks to encourage young people to explore theological traditions, ask questions about the moral dimensions of contemporary issues and examine how their faith calls them to lives of service. Every summer Maryville College hosts a weeklong, on-campus experience called Horizons. During Horizons week, students grow in faith and leadership, study theology with college professors, discuss important and challenging ideas, create and participate in worship, play in the Smoky Mountains, build community and then return to home congregations to lead and serve in their own communities.
Kathleen Farnham, director of church relations for Maryville College
Let us join in prayer for:
Presbytery Staff:
Rev. W. Judson Shaw, General Presbyter
Rev. Dr. James W. McTyre, Stated Clerk
Bri Payne, Executive Director of John Knox Center
Dana H. Hendrix, Office Manager
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Effie Shipp, PILP
Peter Sime, BOP
T. Clark Simmons, BOP
Let us pray
Holy God, you have called us to be disciples, learners, our whole life long. We ask your blessing on all who teach and all who learn. Help us, at each stage of life, know, love and serve you in the world you love, that all people may see in our lives the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.