Richard R. Crocker pinpoints key lessons that religious leaders can learn from the literature on the financing of American religion. Among these are the character of the so-called financial “crisis,” the impact of denominational cultures on giving, practices that make a difference, questions of pastoral competence and training in financial matters especially in a new “culture of philanthropy” as well as what pastors might do about the situation.

Richard R. Crocker, Ph.D., is pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in Montclair, New Jersey.

In sketching a broad overview of the extensive literature funded by the Lilly Endowment on mainstream Protestantism, Jim Lewis situates it in its time and context, highlights some of its major enduring insights/findings as well as issues and questions yet to be addressed, and reflects on its usefulness, especially for religious leaders and scholars.

James W. Lewis is the Executive Director of the Louisville Institute.

Dorothy Bass and Craig Dykstra consider how worshiping congregations can provide a fertile, communal context for the inculcation and nourishment of Christian practices. These practices constitute together a way of life informed by and in turn revealing a deep knowledge of God.

Dorothy Bass is the Director of the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People of Faith, and Craig Dykstra is Vice President for Religion at the Lilly Endowment.

For the past two decades, the Lilly Endowment has supported several projects among religious institutions designed to empower and serve families. This work has helped to shape discussions, policy-making, scholarship, ministries, and practices on national and local levels alike. Brad Wigger surveys several of these efforts, exploring along the way, how attention to families can affect visions of ministry, communities, and the larger society.

Mark Chaves surveys findings from recent studies on church finances. His essay includes a discussion of individual giving patterns, the factors that influence such giving, where congregations spend their funds, differences among denominations in member contributions and sources of income as well as possible directions for future research.

This essay appeared in a monograph with the same title edited by Mark Chaves and Sharon L. Miller.

Mark Chaves is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Arizona.

Anne Wimberly shares her own and other knowledgeable church and academic leaders' insights and discoveries in their quest to shape ministries that foster Christian formation and a future of hope for youth. Anne Wimberly is Professor of Christian Education and Church music at Atlanta's Interdenominational Theological Center

Jeff Woods discusses changes in congregations’ cultural environment before considering the new tasks that today’s congregations must address, factors that influence the capacity of congregations to embrace emerging trends in the church and the society, as well as the different role that congregational leaders must play if their congregations are to adapt to their altered situation. In the process, Woods also suggests future areas where research would be helpful to congregations’ understanding of their circumstances and prospects.

Jeff Woods is Associate General Secretary for Regional Ministries of the American Baptist Churches USA.

Bishop William P. DeVeaux insists that the task of theological education is to prepare Christian ministers who will be prophetic in thought, word and action. But before seminaries can accomplish this task for African Americans, considerable misinformation about the black religious experience and its participants must be corrected, and theological faculties must more skillfully assist their students in translating theology into the concrete practice of ministry. Bishop DeVeaux concludes by offering several strategies to improve theological education's ability to meet the needs of the Black Church.

Bishop DeVeaux has served as the bishop of the 18th district of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Paul J. Dovre explores key markers or characteristics of 20th century religious higher education, the challenge of contemporary academic heterodoxy as well as strategies for claiming and sustaining vibrant church-related colleges before setting out what he considers will be indicators of future promise in such institutions in the early 21st century.

Paul Dovre is the past president of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.

Reflecting on the literature concerning American mainline denominations and his personal experience as a prominent leader in one of those communions, Richard Hamm challenges those who have answered the call to leadership in such churches with thoughtful suggestions for their personal growth, for sustaining a discerning perspective and for offering a visionary ministry that at once helps their communions to clarify their mission even as they learn from historically marginalized communities of faith.

Richard L. Hamm is the former General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada.

This report provides an evaluation of the research and conversations on religion and higher education that the Lilly Endowment has sponsored. Chief among the report's findings is the emergence of a movement to revitalize religion in higher education that gathered momentum in the 1990s.

After mapping in broad strokes the major contributions of studies on the "aims and purposes of theological education," Jack Fitzmier spirals down from those utopian proposals for re-visioning theological education to a bird's eye view of the "actual doing of theological education" today. In this investigation at the ground level, he focuses on four areas of concern about contemporary theological students -- the problem of academic preparation; work, family and localism; spirituality and critical Christian theological thinking; and the triumph of functionalism.

Jack Fitzmier is Vice-President of Academic Affairs and Dean at the Claremont School of Theology.

Alice Gallin provides an overview of literature that examines what it means to be a Catholic college or university in today’s multi-cultured world as well as outlines recent efforts to foster a Catholic identity in these institutions of higher education.

Alice Gallin is an Ursuline sister who served for twelve years as the Executive Director of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.

In the books and articles on the aims and purposes of theological education, William Carl finds administrators, professors, trustees, pastors and educational specialists all feeling their way toward some elusive but edifying truth about what Ed Farley calls Theologia while at the same time bumping around in the dim light in search of better ways to train pastors and educators for ministry in the twenty-first century church. In his essay, he invites you to do some “pedagogical spelunking” as you explore together where theological education is heading these days, and what some of the best minds think about it.

William Carl is President of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Charles M. Wood has been a participant in ongoing conversations about theological education in a project developed by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. In his essay, he draws on these discussions, first, to consider what the aim, movement and structure of theological education should be and, second, to propose how theological education can and should be both confessional and public.

Charles M. Wood is Lehman Professor of Christian Doctrine at the Perkins School of Theology of Southern Methodist University.

Carol Johnston notes in this essay that " 'money' and wealth are notoriously difficult topics for most North American Christians to think about theologically." For this reason, she seeks answers to several critical questions on the topic. What is "wealth"? What does wealth have to do with that which Jesus called an "abundant life"? What do we need for an abundant life, and what does that have to do with money?

Carol Johnston is Assistant Professor of Theology and Culture at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Director of the Faith, Wealth and Community Leadership Project. For further information on Dr. Johnston's work on this topic, go to http://www.cts.edu/Community/StaffProfile.cfm and click on "Johnston" under the faculty listing.

Karen Marie Yust reviews the books and edited volumes of twenty-four scholars or scholarly collaborations, highlighting shared themes and commitments in the major literature on children, youth and Christian formation that has emerged since 2000.

Arthur Boers surveys key insights that have emerged from a rapidly expanding literature on the nature and patterns of congregational life in the United States. Then he asks what have the social sciences that have been so heavily employed in congregational studies got to do with the theology that is supposed to be informing congregational life and practice.

Arthur Paul Boers is Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology and Coordinator of the Spiritual Formation Program at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana.

William Cahoy provides a succinct overview of the literature generated by Lilly-sponsored conversations about the nature of theological education. Then recognizing that the majority of this dialogue has assumed a Protestant setting, Cahoy asks what Catholics can learn from this reflection, and in turn, from the Catholic experience teach their Protestant colleagues about this unique form of education/formation.

William Cahoy is the Dean of the Saint John's School of Theology.Seminary.