Four new institutional partners sent letters of endorsement in the last two week of March. This enabled the Academy to reach one of its goals for the first 15 months of our work: 50 Founding Partners.
The first came as a result of a phone call from California. Shantha Ready Alonza is the (interim) executive director of New Fire Young Adults, a fresh initiative of the National Council of Churches. “I have heard about what you are doing,” she said, “and we want to be a part of it.” Her letter was a follow-up to that intention. New Fire became Founding Partner #47.
Then came the phone call with Doug Low, professor and dean of the Chapman Seminary at Oakland City University in Oakland City, Indiana. I had visited their campus last year and two of their students preached in the inaugural festival of young preachers in January. Their partnership letter took a long way around, through multiple administrative channels, before reaching my possession. They became Partner #48.
Same story with Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Four of their students preached at the festival and a professor was the leader of our worship team. Now two of their professors are engaged and more of their students will be at the festival next January. But we welcome the school as Founding Partner #49.
Finally, on my sixtieth birthday, professor of ministry Stephanie Paulsell of Harvard Divinity School sent me their letter of endorsement and association. Dr. Paulsell was one of three featured preachers at the festival in January and two of their students were among the 92 young preachers at the festival. They are planning to offer a preaching course built around the next festival, scheduled for January 6-8, 2011 in Louisville, Kentucky.
We welcome these, and we thank all 50 of the Founding Partners; see the complete list elsewhere on this website. You have helped us get established as a viable, credible organization. While we anticipate working with many more organizations and businesses over the years, only these 50 will have the distinction of being a Founding Partner.
This was the second of our three goals to be reached. The first was: register at least 100 young preachers for the inaugural festival–which we did. And now we turn our attention to the third goal: fund-raising. Over the next three months we are seeking to raise $50,000. You will read more about this very soon.