$5 million grant will support Center for Rural Ministry’s work

Grove City College has received a $5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support the Center for Rural Ministry (CRM) as it helps rural pastors, congregations, and communities thrive.

The funding through Lilly Endowment’s Ministry in Rural Areas and Small Towns Initiative is a game changer for the CRM and its mission to bolster the partnership between the College, the church, and the community, according to Dr. Charles Cotherman ’06, executive director of the Center.

“This funding will enable the CRM to expand our core programs to rural and small town churches in the region and beyond and extend the impact of our work by creating a hub for other colleges and universities to share and scale up programs and initiatives we develop with pastors, CRM staff, faculty, students, and communities,” Cotherman said.

“In rural communities and small towns, the local church often serves alongside schools, as one of the few remaining anchor institutions. Our desire is to harness the unique resources of a Christian college to support and strengthen rural churches as they carry on this vital mission in their communities,” he said. “Our work also helps to connect students to local churches in a way that can help members of the rising generation develop a deep and life-long appreciate for the local church.”

The CRM was established in 2023 after the success of the College’s Project for Rural Ministry, a five-year initiative that marked the beginning of the College’s regional outreach to help pastors serving rural, rust belt and Appalachian communities thrive.

Since 2019, CRM staff, College faculty, and more than 100 students, pastors, and congregations from a variety of denominations have worked together to complete service-learning projects, foster affinity group relationships, and host students for internships, ICO trips and other partnerships. Each year the CRM hosts an annual conference to share and develop ideas to improve rural ministries and support clergy.

The grant will support specific initiatives to support local congregations and the leaders, connect students and faculty to rural and small town churches, and work with other Christian colleges and universities in rural areas on similar outreach and research on how thriving churches impact small-town flourishing.

The goal of Lilly Endowments’ Ministry in Rural Areas and Small Towns Initiative – to enhance the vitality of rural and small town ministries and strengthen the leadership of pastors and lay leaders who guide them – syncs perfectly with the CRM’s efforts.

“Our hope is that these grants will provide much needed resources and support to rural and small-town churches to help them address their challenges and enhance and extend the many ways that they serve their communities,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion.

Pastors who have worked with the CRM appreciate the support they have received, and faculty members attest to the Center’s impact on students.

“Rural ministry faces the same challenges that urban ministry deals with,” said Pastor Calvin Cook, who serves two Methodist churches in Kane, Pa. But the lack of services and institutions in these areas means that churches can “become the social services for the community,” he said.

“All too often at rural churches, the pastors become the administrators, become the secretaries, become the business agents, and are expected to visit the sick and bury the dead and preach services every weekend,” Cook said. Working with the CRM and a summer intern’s help with clerical and community outreach allowed him to focus more on his ministering to his congregations’ spiritual needs.

Shannon N. Barrios, instructor of Communication Arts, oversaw students in her Research Methods class who worked alongside Christ United Church in New Castle, Pa. to explore how to engage young people.

"Working with the Center for Rural Ministry has been a wonderful learning experience for my students. Through service-learning initiatives, they have had the opportunity to engage with research in a hands-on and meaningful way. By working with pastoral clients, they get to put their faith into action by partnering with local churches to examine and bring recommendations toward solution to the challenges these church communities face,” she said.

The rural ministry outreach has had a profound impact on some students involved, with some committing to stick with the churches they worked with and others discerning a call to the ministry because of their work with pastors, according to Dr. Adam Loretto ’05, associate professor of English and assistant director of CRM.

“This all fits within our desire to equip rising generations to contribute to local churches in vocational and lay roles. We want alumni of CRM programs and Grove City College to develop a vision for a full Christian life connected to a local church—and to see that small places are just as viable for their flourishing,” Loretto said.

In addition to Cotherman and Loretto, the CRM’s staff includes Academic Director Dr. Paul C. Kemeny, dean of the Calderwood School of Arts and Letters; Finance and Operations Director Dr. Michelle McFeaters ’88, ’02, dean of the Winklevoss School of Business; Administrative Director Adelia Matson; Communications and Media Director Garrett Heath; and Pastor Liaison Bill Sukolsky.

The Ministry in Rural Areas and Small Towns Initiative grant is the latest and largest investment the Lilly Endowment has made in the College’s rural ministry program. A Lilly Endowment grant of nearly $1 million funded the Project on Rural Ministry and a second $400,000 grant helped finance the start-up of the CRM.

“We are deeply grateful for the support of Lilly Endowment,” Cotherman said. “We share a commitment to living deeper Christian lives and building stronger Christian communities. The Center for Rural Ministry is helping to make that possible for our pastors, their churches, students, faculty, and our shared communities.”

Lilly Endowment is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic 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. It is a separate entity from the company.

In keeping with its founders’ wishes, Lilly Endowment supports the causes of community development, education, and religion. A primary aim of its grantmaking in religion is to deepen the religious lives of Christians, principally by supporting efforts that enhance congregational vitality and strengthen the leadership of Christian communities.

Lilly Endowment values the broad diversity of Christian traditions and endeavors to support them in a wide variety of contexts. It also seeks to foster public understanding about religion by encouraging fair, accurate and balanced portrayals of the positive and negative effects of religion on the world and lifting up the contributions that people of all faiths make to our greater civic well-being.

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