Colorado church receives competitive Lilly Endowment Clergy Renewal grant

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Colorado Springs First Church of the Nazarene was among 149 churches across the U.S. to receive a National Clergy Renewal grant from the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment.

The church was awarded a $47,000 (U.S. dollars) grant for the purpose of sending senior pastor Gene Grate on a four-month sabbatical for a time of restoration, rest, and renewal. The grant also funds the congregation's plan to take its own sabbatical to discover new lay leadership in the church, embrace a fresh understanding of dependence upon God, not man, as the church's leader, and deepen the congregation's vertical relationship with God.

Springs First was one of only two Nazarene churches to be awarded a Lilly Endowment grant this year. The other winner was Living Hope Church of the Nazarene, and Pastor Kim Richardson, in Beverly, Massachusetts.

Now in its 10th year, the Lilly Endowment's Clergy Renewal program invites Christian congregations and ministers together to consider and plan a period of intentional reflection and renewal.

"Church sabbaticals are intended to renew the whole person - your emotional reserves and your spiritual focus to be more intentional," said Grate. "This extended period of time is also to deepen our appreciation for, not only our relationship with God, but His call on our life as well."

The sabbatical will span August through November, during which Grate will take a pilgrimage to sites of particular religious and historical significance in the Wesleyan and Protestant tradition in England and Germany. Afterward, he will take two months of rest and renewal in private retreat with his wife, Ronoyce, where he will read from a book list selected to give him new perspective on ministry.

"I wanted to spend time trying to understand where culture has gone today and how the church can more effectively engage a secular culture with a Christian message in a winsome way so they can hear the gospel," Grate said.

While he is gone the congregation will not be idle. Led by interim pastor Bob Huffaker, the pastoral team, and the church board, the congregation will walk through the four themes of "Reach, Restore, Renew, and Rest." The congregation will study their responsibility in global mission, seek spiritual restoration and healing, renew their commitment to live according to God's Word, and conclude with a month of focused prayer.

In November, the grant will fund a banquet at which the church will celebrate its reunion with the Grates.

"It is a special privilege for a Nazarene pastor to be the recipient of this grant," Colorado District Superintendent David Ralph wrote on the district web site. "We celebrate with him in this marvelous achievement."

Grate started his pastoral ministry leading the Church of the Nazarene in Lodi, Missouri, in 1976. In 1978 he and Ronoyce joined 45 lay people in planting Harvester Church of the Nazarene in St. Charles, Missouri, where he pastored for 16 years. In 1994, he was called to Springs First Church.

Grate has also been dean of the School of Large Church Management (the K-Church program) through the denomination's Clergy Development. He has also developed the Minister's Toolbox (realliferesources.org), a series of practical resources for pastors. Grate has taught seminars for two Nazarene universities and several districts.

The Church of the Nazarene Manual, in Paragraph 129.10, requires that every minister take a sabbatical after each period of seven-year service.

Listen to the recorded announcement and presentation of the sabbatical at Springs First Church, or read it at the church's web site: springsfirst.org/church-clergy-renewal/

To learn more, visit lillyendowment.org.
--NCN News submissions

 

< back to USA/Canada

next article >