FOUNDATION FOR EVANGELISM

The Foundation for Evangelism promotes, encourages, and provides resources for Wesleyan evangelism, inviting all people into a life-transforming relationship with Jesus Christ. We define a transformed life, or disciple of Jesus Christ, as a person so changed through a relationship with Jesus that they cannot stop themselves from serving as Christ served or sharing WHY JESUS in all aspects of their lives.

We have successfully proven our ability to be a catalyst to impact the Church through the E. Stanley Jones Professors of Evangelism initiative. Through our efforts to successfully raise and manage an endowment that supports foundation-vetted professors who are on faculty at 10 US, 1 German, and1 Russian, The professorships are recognized globally for their academic accomplishments, and the chairs are regularly challenged to publish and defend their work on the world stage.

Now, the Foundation is leveraging this success to move the Church to next-level leadership preparation. We are uniquely positioned to work beyond the denominational boundaries to encourage engagement and training of laity through ordination, thereby filling the leadership needs of newly emerging expressions of the Church while continuing to serve smaller but vital local churches in the Wesleyan tradition.

The Foundation for Evangelism is a Wesleyan-tradition grantmaking organization. We focus on strengthening leaders, laity, and congregations to be resilient faith communities sharing the Gospel and inviting others into the Body of Christ. But this work doesn't look the same as it did 25 years ago - or even three years ago. The ministry landscape is constantly changing, but our call remains the same: Be a Catalyst to Equip Disciples to Share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

We accomplish this mission through three grant focus areas:
1. Engaging the Ministry of the Laity - An active, empowered laity is crucial for a thriving evangelistic faith community. These grants focus on helping church members Find Their Voice, Share Their Faith, and Invite Others.
2. Equipping the Local Church - An annual grant cycle starting each January, these grants support the synergy
of pastoral and lay leaders working together in small local churches, with 250 or fewer participants, toward a culture shift for invitational evangelism, missional ministry, and discipleship engagement. The grants allow these churches to launch an experiment or initiative to share the Gospel and invite others into a relationship with Jesus, providing an opportunity to be creative and take risks.
3. Raising Up Gospel Leaders - The Foundation's most prominent and longest-running grants support the FULL spectrum of Christian leadership, from lay ministers to seminary-prepared leaders, preparing them and the churches they
lead for the ever-changing ministry landscape. Building on more than 40 years of endowed seminary professor funding, these grants meet today's vocational church leaders where they are with scripturally sound, actionable evangelistic information and tools.

We enjoy relationships, ministry, and partnerships with various Wesleyan-tradition seminaries, churches, and organizations. Historically, recipients of most of The Foundation for Evangelism grants were connected to The United Methodist Church (UMC); however, in the last three years, our grant programs grew to impact up to seven denominations in the US, Eurasia, and Africa.

Through our donors' generosity and keeping with the doctrine, discipline, and spirit of John and Charles Wesley, The Foundation for Evangelism endows and invests resources entrusted to us, so these funds will forever be used to invite all people into a life-transforming relationship with Jesus Christ. Organizations that share our vision, values, and mission are invited into conversations to explore potential partnerships.

The Foundation for Evangelism manages more than $30 million exclusively to support the mission.

UPDATE: In November 2022, The Foundation for Evangelism Board of Trustees built upon the efforts of the CATALYST 2024 initiative to announce that 2023 would be the first year the Foundation funded grants in all three grant focus areas. Grant funding remains above $1 million/year, with Equipping the Local Church grant funding up 40% in 2023 over 2022.

The Board of Trustees has added representation from the Global Methodist Church and the African Episcopal Church Zion to its membership.
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2019, the Foundation launched CATALYST 2024 - a five-year strategy for implementing and creating awareness of our grantmaking focus. This work includes an in-depth study of the most extensive and longest-running grant program, the E. Stanley Jones Professors of Evangelism located at 12 seminaries in the US, Germany, and Russia. A year-long independent assessment of impact and ROI study will be received in November 2021 by the Board of Trustees. It will serve as the basis for the completion of impact analysis and an updated strategy for grant implementation.

As part of the CATALYST effort, The Foundation reaffirmed its vision to be a catalyst to equip disciples to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. The governing board ensured that its mission and values supported its constituency focus areas: Wesleyan-tradition, global, evangelistic leaders. Upon naming three strategic grant focus areas - Raising Up Gospel Leaders, Equipping the Local Church (primarily those under 100 in attendance/engaged), and Engaging the Ministry of the Laity - the Foundation retooled its organizational structure and grant processes to support this work, completing the restructuring and hiring of our six-person team in 9/2021.

Governing board membership reflective of the Foundation's expanded constituency as a Wesleyan-tradition, Pan-Methodist grantmaking organization continues as an intentional effort. Since 2019, members from the Church of the Nazarene, the Korean UMC, and the Brazilian Methodist Church have been. Ex officio trustee positions were offered and accepted by the senior executives of the United Methodist Foundation of the Tennessee/Memphis Conferences and the World Methodist Evangelism Institute.