The “Beautiful Stories Project” receives grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.

Western Theological Seminary (WTS) has received a grant of $5 million dollars from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its National Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life. The grant will support “The Beautiful Stories Project: collaborative imagination, curated publishing, and cinematic storytelling – sharing the beautiful stories of Christian life.”

WTS is one of 61 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.

The Beautiful Stories Project is a multidimensional storytelling initiative bringing together many partners and gathering Christian leaders nationwide to uncover and share the overlooked beauty of the Christian faith and life. The Project will continue a sacred Christian storytelling tradition shaped over millennia, conveying faith in Jesus Christ. The Peterson Center and our partners hope to inspire renewed cultural and spiritual imagination for three key audiences: the spiritually disenchanted who are at the margins of the church, the spiritually weary who are committed to the church, and burdened leaders serving those who are disenchanted and weary by identifying and raising up stories that celebrate the beauty, complexity, and hope of Christian faith and life.

The Project’s goal is to help spark a renewed cultural and spiritual perception of Christianity by sharing beautiful stories that highlight faith, hope, and deeply human spiritual journeys. We have developed a collaborative, multi-platform initiative to elevate less-heard voices and invite broader audiences into thoughtful considerations of the Christian faith. We strive to create and share hundreds of stories in collaboration with ten partner organizations, publish feature stories in a nationally distributed digital literary journal, and produce a four- episode cinematic documentary series to deepen public awareness of underrepresented, faithful expressions of Christianity and invite viewers into more contemplative and compassionate engagement with their communities and churches.

“We hope our project will re-awaken hearts and imagination to how God really is filling the world with more beauty and goodness–and how God is doing this work through ordinary people, right now” says Rev. Winn Collier, Ph.D., Director of The Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination, Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology & Christian Imagination.

The aim of Lilly Endowment’s National Initiative on Christian Faith and Life is to help organizations identify, produce and share with a wide variety of audiences compelling stories that portray the vibrancy and hope of Christian faith and life.

About Lilly Endowment Inc
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic 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. Although the gifts of stock remain a 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 founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A primary aim of its grantmaking in religion is to deepen the religious lives of Christians, principally by supporting efforts that enhance congregational vitality and strengthen the leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment values the broad diversity of Christian traditions and endeavors to support them in a wide variety of contexts. The Endowment also seeks to foster public understanding about religion by encouraging fair, accurate and balanced portrayals of the positive and negative effects of religion on the world and lifting up the contributions that people of all faiths make to our greater civic well-being.