The Academy of Preachers made its first (unofficial) report to the Lilly Endowment. The letter and accompanying materials were dated June 23, 2009, exactly one year after the day the Endowment invited me (Dwight A. Moody) to design and launch the Academy. It has been some year!
The report to Lilly included copies of all the press material: press release in January, web postings by dozens of sites across cyber world, newspaper articles written and distributed by national networks, and much more. We thank Peritus for their talented and professional work, especially our account representative Charissa Acree (whose father, as providence would have it, is a preacher, in western Kentucky).
We included reports of the first Preaching Camp and the on-line discussion on mentoring. Both of these initiatives are part of the Program of Certification for Young Preachers.
Attached to the report were the list of 24 Young Preachers who are already registered for the Festival of Young Preachers in January. Are you registered? Mark in on your calendar: January 7-9, 2009 at St. Matthews Baptist Church in Louisville.
And finally: we included the list of the 24 organizations and institutions that have become Founding Partners with the Academy. You can find this list on this web site; follow the link above: BE A PARTNER. And all of the registered Young Preachers are at the link: BE A PREACHER.
This report to Lilly details remarkable progress in the first six months of the Academy. We look forward to equal progress in the next six months, as we prepare for the first national Festival of Young Preachers.