Our Daily Bread Ministries (ODBM) has been awarded a $1.25 million grant from Lilly Endowment to support its Thriving Black Church Initiative—a multi-year, multi-state, cross-denominational effort to help Black congregations and communities not only grow but thrive.
The project is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative. The aim of the initiative is to encourage the flourishing of congregations by helping them deepen their relationships with God, enhance their connections with each other, and contribute to the vitality of their communities and the world.
The Thriving Black Church Initiative will develop and implement programs that address sustainable solutions that meet the needs of Black churches and communities for thriving in a post-COVID environment. Strategic partners for this initiative include the Global Summit, a national network of Black American churches and Christian nonprofits; African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ), one of the longest-standing Black Protestant denominations; the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), the largest Black global denomination; the Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC), an African American Baptist denomination born out of the Civil Rights Movement; and PastorServe, a national network dedicated to mentoring, coaching, and equipping pastors and church leaders. Together these strategic partners and ODBM will collaborate to design, develop, and implement community-based, multimedia programs.
ODBM is one of 105 organizations that has received grants through a competitive round of the Thriving Congregations Initiative. Reflecting a wide variety of Christian traditions, the organizations represent mainline Protestant, evangelical, Catholic, Orthodox, peace church, and Pentecostal faith communities.
