News & Ideas

Tuesday's News & Ideas - 1/8/2019

  • Religious decline & disaster recovery
  • We were wrong
  • Funding innovations
  • Anti-Trump political rhetoric
  • Jesus DC Comics series
  • Life, death & the church

Religious practice is declining. Here's why that's bad news for disaster recovery
Deseret News: For centuries, houses of worship have anchored communities' responses to natural disasters, but it's growing harder for faith groups to provide these services.

3 words for the church in 2019: 'we were wrong'
Baptist News Global: Too much of Christianity is built upon absolute certainty and not enough on divine mystery, says Mark Wingfield.

Funding innovations that break the mold
Stanford Social Innovation Review: How funders can support bold, emerging leaders and their cutting-edge ideas.

Rashida Tlaib's profanity about Trump is wrong -- it harms the Democratic Party's policy and political objectives
The Washington Post: Political rhetoric shapes who we are, says Michael Wear.

Jesus Christ stars in an upcoming DC Comics' series
Relevant: Jesus Christ is coming to the rescue in an upcoming series called The Second Coming, from DC imprint Vertigo.

The Spark

Let the church die, so that the church might live
Here in the dead of winter, Mark Piper, "a run-of-the-mill pew-sitter," offers a metaphor and a request at The National Catholic Reporter: Let the church die, so that the church might live.

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Lilly logo

Lilly Endowment Inc. announces Exploring Christian Practices Initiative

The Exploring Christian Practices Initiative aims to multiply opportunities and increase access to settings that help individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds explore and engage in Christian practices to address their spiritual interests and questions, find and build community with others, nourish their religious lives and grow in faith. 

In this open and competitive initiative, the Endowment invites charitable organizations to submit proposals for grants of up to $2.5 million each that may be used for up to a five-year period to develop new and/or enhance existing programs that present promising strategies for advancing the aim of the initiative and provide compelling and thoughtful responses to its guiding questions. The Endowment anticipates awarding approximately 60 grants and announcing grant awards in December 2026.

The Endowment will host four virtual information sessions (February 17, 19, 24, and 25) to discuss the Exploring Christian Practices guidelines for submitting a proposal. An Interest Form and Letter of Interest are due March 25, 2026. Complete proposals are due May 18, 2026.

Learn More and register for information sessions