Announcement

Logos Evangelical Seminary has received a grant of $10,000,000 from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish the Chinese Theological Leadership Consortium (CTLC), a strategic collaboration among five Chinese-serving theological institutions in North America: led by Logos Evangelical Seminary (LES), with Christian Witness Theological Seminary (CWTS), International Theological Seminary (ITSLA), GETS Theological Seminary (GETS), and the International School of Christian Education (ISCE). United by a shared mission, the consortium seeks to address the pressing challenges of pastoral leadership shortages, faculty sustainability, and the long-term institutional viability for the vitality of Chinese-serving seminaries and Chinese American churches.

The CTLC is being supported and funded through Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative. This initiative is designed to help theological schools across the United States and Canada as they prioritize and respond to the most pressing challenges they face as they prepare pastoral leaders for Christian congregations both now and into the future. The grant to Logos Evangelical Seminary is one of 45 that were approved in this competitive round of funding to support theological schools as they lead large-scale collaborations with other seminaries, colleges, universities, and other church-related organizations.

To implement its collaborative vision, the CTLC consortium will undertake the following key activities: (1) coordinate cross-institutional faculty deployment and training, including mentorship of junior faculty; (2) deliver joint academic offerings in core degree programs to ensure rigor and contextual relevance.

(3) establish a faculty development pipeline aimed at cultivating 20 new Chinese-speaking theological educators by 2030; and (4) launch innovative education initiatives such as a Doctor of Educational Studies, a Chinese Christian archive and research center, competency-based leadership training, and contextual theological dialogues. These integrated efforts aim to expand access, strengthen instructional quality, and build long-term leadership capacity for Chinese-serving churches in North America.

Lilly Endowment launched the Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative in 2021. Since then, it has provided grants totaling more than $700 million to support 163 theological schools in efforts to strengthen their own educational and financial capacities and to assist 61 schools in developing large-scale collaborative endeavors.

About Lilly Endowment Inc.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of about religion and lift up in fair, accurate and balanced ways the roles that people of all faiths and various religious communities play in the United State and around the globe traditions in the United States and across the globe.