CRC Receives New Grant for SPE Project

The Christian Reformed Church has received a second grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to continue developing pastoral excellence within its churches.

The new five-year grant totals nearly $1 million and will help to support the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence (SPE) project. The CRC launched the project in 2003 with a five-year grant of nearly $2 million from Lilly Endowment.

The intent of the SPE project is to create a culture of pastoral excellence in the CRC. It offers funding for peer learning groups, continuing education events, and mentoring. To date 56 percent of CRC pastors have joined a peer learning group and 120 continuing education events and a number of mentoring conferences have been held.

The new grant, which will commence Jan. 1, 2008, will fund peer learning groups for pastors and a number of initiatives that provide pastoral support, conferences and support groups for pastors’ spouses and learning events for pastoral couples.

“I’m pleased by what a valuable resource SPE has been for our pastors,” CRC Executive Director Jerry Dykstra says. “It’s been heartening to see the synergy occurring between SPE, other Lilly-funded projects at Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary, and existing CRC programming such as the Center for Excellence in Preaching.

SPE has also inspired a new Sustaining Congregational Excellence (SCE) program, funded by the CRC itself, Dykstra added. Together SCE and the renewed SPE project will work towards sustaining healthy CRC pastors and congregations.

Lilly Endowment Inc. launched a major initiative in 2002 that invited religious institutions to apply for grants to support good pastoral ministry and sustain pastoral excellence. Overall, 63 Sustaining Pastoral Excellence projects have been funded, of which the CRC’s project is one.

For more information about the SPE project, visit www.crcna.org/pastoralexcellence .