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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodists together |
September 2006 |
New endowment supports education of tomorrow's church leaders
By Scott Hall
INDIANAPOLIS - An innovative new charitable endowment offers an opportunity for United Methodist congregations in the South Indiana Conference to help develop the next generation of church leadership.
Established by the South Indiana Foundation of the United Methodist Church, the endowment will generate income to provide scholarships and special studies funding for students in the United Methodist Youth Leader Scholars program at the University of Indianapolis.
Foundation Executive Director, the Rev. Marie Lang, hopes churches with their own scholarship programs will consider dedicating some or all of their endowments or resulting income to the new UMYLS Legacy Endowment. Such a move would relieve the congregations of their management responsibilities and ensure that the money is put to good use.
Often, she noted, individual church scholarship programs are established with guidelines so specific and restrictive that the money sits unused for long periods of time.
"Sometimes churches may have a scholarship that is difficult to distribute in a given year," said Lang, whose foundation manages $32 million in investments for member churches in the conference.
Although the foundation manages other scholarship endowments connected to seminaries or specific churches, the UMYLS Legacy Endowment may be the only direct collaboration with a university.
"In that way, it's like the first step in a new partnership, so that's exciting," Lang said.
"We think of this as preparing future lay leaders as well as future clergy."
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The University of Indianapolis created the Youth Leader Scholars program during the 2002-2003 academic year in conjunction with The Crossings Project, a Lilly Endowment-funded venture that provides vocation exploration opportunities as students plan their careers. Lilly Endowment has provided supplementary funding to continue the UMYLS program for three more years, but the university must also increase the funding it contributes each year. Beginning in 2009, the church and the university will have to generate $50,000 annually to continue providing $2,500 scholarships to 20 students each year.
Although UIndy offers a major in youth ministry as well as a pre-theology program for students seeking ordination, the UMYLS program is open to students in any major who plan to be active in their churches. The program requirements include enrolling in at least one Christian vocations course each year, participating regularly in the life of a United Methodist congregation, completing at least one service project each year and getting involved in at least one of the Christian ministries on campus.
"We think of this as preparing future lay leaders as well as future clergy," said the Rev. Dr. Michael Cartwright, dean for Ecumenical & Interfaith Programs at the UMC-affiliated university.
One UIndy student who has benefited from this sort of support is junior Laura Steed, an Illinois native who came to Indianapolis initially to study athletic training and physical therapy. By the end of her freshman year, she had decided to change her major to youth ministry, but the decision was affirmed the following summer when she worked as a staff member for Appalachian Service Project, a Tennessee-based home repair ministry that uses volunteer labor to improve housing in poor, rural areas.
Steed was awarded a $1,250 stipend to supplement her modest staff salary, making it financially feasible for her to spend the summer working with high school-age volunteers. She found the experience even more rewarding than she expected.
"That sealed the deal for me," she said. "Now I know that I'm supposed to work with youth."
Cartwright described Steed as an "adventuresome and engaged" student whose experience already makes her stand out among peers.
"Laura is an example of someone who has taken advantage of the leadership opportunities that we have to offer," he said. "She is becoming a mentor to other students in the process."
Given the church's ongoing need to cultivate future leaders, partnerships with higher education make sense, said Cartwright, himself an ordained elder in the South Indiana Conference.
For more information about the UMYLS Legacy Endowment, contact the Rev. Marie Lang, executive director of the South Indiana Foundation, at 317-788-7879.
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008