Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Receives Multi-Million Dollar Grant to Partner with the Oikos Institute to Showcase the Social Impact of “Hidden Congregations”
December 9, 2025
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary has received a grant of $5 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its National Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life 2025. The grant will support Hidden Congregations: Inspiring Stories of Discipleship, an effort to highlight the work of small churches throughout the country and the crucial ways they serve their communities.
Garrett is one of 60 organizations from across the United States that have received grants through the initiative since 2024. The groups include media organizations, denominational judicatories, church networks, publishers, educational institutions, congregations and other nonprofit charitable organizations.
Working with the Oikos Institute for Social Impact, this five-year initiative will identify, document, and amplify the remarkable stories of twenty small, under-resourced Christian congregations that deeply nurture their communities. The Hidden Congregations project will fill a crucial gap in how stories of Christian faith are shared in America. Small congregations—especially those led by Black, Brown, immigrant, and working-class communities—do extraordinary work that often goes unnoticed by philanthropic, academic, and policy sectors, especially when media coverage mainly emphasizes decline, scandal, or megachurches. Through professional multimedia storytelling, strategic distribution, and meaningful gatherings, we will challenge common narratives of church decline while highlighting churches that produce vital impact despite limited resources.
“Small congregations play an essential role in cultivating thriving communities. But far too often, the news only focuses on the size of a church and not the size of its social impact,” says Rev. Dr. Reginald Blount, Oikos Institute Executive Director and Co-Founder. “This project will strengthen clergy and lay leaders’ faith by helping them envision ways to expand their churches’ reach, inspired by churches that are already living out that gospel witness by nurturing abundance.” The Oikos Institute will implement this transformative storytelling initiative in partnership with Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary as fiscal sponsor, an organization long-committed to empowering parish ministry. “Part of this project’s brilliance is the ways it will illuminate how churches can partner with non-profit organizations and civic institutions to expand their efficacy,” says Garrett President Javier Viera. “Our collaboration with Oikos exemplifies this type of synergy: Together we are stronger than the sum of our parts.”
The aim of Lilly Endowment’s National Initiative on Christian Faith and Life is to help organizations identify, produce and share compelling stories with a wide variety of audiences, ones that portray the vibrancy and hope of Christian faith and life. “We’re excited to work with local and national news organizations to change the narrative in how we talk about Christian churches,” Rev. Dr. Sidney Williams, Oikos Institute Co-Founder and Board Chair, says. “Every day, I witness congregations that use modest resources to provide life-changing love. It’s time the world saw that story, too.”
About Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private 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. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of about religion and lift up in fair, accurate and balanced ways the roles that people of all faiths and various religious communities play in the United State and around the globe traditions in the United States and across the globe.
About The Oikos Institute for Social Impact
The Oikos Institute for Social Impact helps congregations strategically respond to the disorienting effects of gentrification, disproportionate unemployment, and changing local demographics by harnessing the power of their assets. Through Oikos Institute programs, congregations revisit their theological and cultural foundations to determine how they might reimagine their relationship to their communities and more fully access their Faith, Intellectual, Social and Human Capital. In partnership with seminaries, universities, and foundations, the Oikos Institute leads a participatory learning experience for congregations to explore their congregational stories, practices, and theologies in light of the changes in their local landscapes. Embedded in the design of these programs is the assumption that congregations require practices that foster alignment between congregational identity, vocation, and public witness. Congregational sustainability in changing environments also requires access to frameworks, tools and resources that help them “learn how to learn.” Website: https://oikosinstitute.org/
About Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Garrett Seminary is a graduate school of theology, ministry, and public service committed to forming courageous leaders in the way of Jesus who cultivate communities of justice, compassion, and hope. Offering a full range of masters and doctoral degrees, as well as certificates, licensing, and lifelong learning programs, Garrett prepares religious leaders and social impact innovators for service in the church and the world. The seminary is home to major research centers and institutes that advance scholarship, resource congregations and organizations, and convene global conversations on faith and social transformation. Located on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, since 1853, and historically related to the United Methodist Church, Garrett stands as a vital hub of research, training, and equipping—serving churches, communities, and social impact organizations around the world with intellectual rigor, spiritual depth, and transformative vision.
Website: www.garrett.edu
Contact:
Rev. Dr. Reginald Blount
Murray H. Leiffer Associate Professor of Formation, Leadership and Culture, Garrett Seminary
Executive Director and Co-Founder, Oikos Insitute
Reggie.Blount@garrett.edu