What’s Going on with the Fund Currently?

To answer that question… A LOT!

We are SUPER-THANKFUL to Antioch Christian Church for overseeing and being the brainchild of this project. Wow! But few of us probably imagined what it would take to actually DO!

So – here’s a brief of what’s been done – and what then YOU can do!

Establish a board. The board was chosen by Evan & Kourtney Strickland. Antioch Christian Church (ACC) stipulated that three of their members must be on the board as well. The three members of ACC are Evan Strickland, Bo Clark, and Cheryl Ferguson. Cheryl is the ACC treasurer and thus serves as treasurer of the Scholarship board as well. Additional members include Kourtney, Nathan Strickland (Chrmn), Mark Hand, and Greg Strickland.

Decide a bunch of stuff. Who is eligible for the scholarship? When? How? Why?, etc, etc. What should be on an application? Who will make the application? How can we get word out? How can we collect money? How can we best be stewards of money before it is awarded? How should we caretake money to make the fund last longest (indefinitely or short-term project)?

So we did! Board established. Meeting held. Stuff discussed. Decisions made. Next meeting scheduled. In brief, here is our current plan(s).

We desire the Fund to be an ongoing, perpetual thing that lasts indefinitely. This will require a large sum of money to be collected, on-going collections, and just making awards off of a small percentage of gifts for a while until awards can be given simply off interest. In the meantime, the lion’s portion of gifts will be held in other funds that help Church congregations in various ways while drawing above-average interest! (We have a few reputable funds in mind that we will discuss in our next meeting.) In this way, the money – your money – will always be doing something.

At the same time, the smaller portion of money will be held locally to begin a “farm system” approach to training preachers. In the coming Summers (2022, 2023, 2024) we will be recruiting 13-19 year old young men for Summer Preaching Camps and paying the way for them and their sponsors to attend. These camps are your basic “Church Camp” – but with a unique emphasis on training these young men in Bible study and preaching and most importantly affording them opportunity to be in the pulpit on a Wednesday night of that week in a local congregation. In the future, we hope three things will come of this: a) we will one day (2025?) be able to host our own preaching camp(s); b) we will raise up a generation of preachers from this area to send to a Bible college or preaching school (hopefully with larger funds now raised and grown in the bigger accounts); c) we might have the opportunity to establish and fund a preaching school of our own in Mississippi.

To accomplish these first steps: a) we have this webpage and blog to keep folks up-to-date and now receive donations online; b) we have a Facebook page that folks can also find information and easily share with friends/family; c) we have printed cards to help direct folks to these avenues of information and giving; d) the elders of ACC and others will be scheduling times to visit every Christian Church in our state and region to: inform them of who we are/what we are doing and aid in the recruitment of campers for 2022.

WHEW!

That’s what we’ve been doing… what can you do?

Pray!
Pray for the fund. Pray for the plans. PRAY FOR YOUNG MEN TO HEAR GOD’S CALL TO PREACH! OBEY SCRIPTURE and pray for God to send out workers into His harvest field!

Spread the News!
Share this page. Share the Facebook page. Talk to your congregation. Talk to young men about preaching.

Give!
Make the money go further and last longer.
October is “Preacher Appreciation Month“! If you appreciate your preacher, help another congregation enjoy what you have – help us train preachers with a financial gift.
Thanksgiving! Are you thankful a preacher shared the Good News of Jesus with you? Be thankful with a gift.
Christmas is coming up!…how ’bout a Christmas gift?
A new way to start a new year? Atlas’ birthday (August 5)…
Give generously; Give often.

Thank you for your interest and your money. It means a lot to keep the dream of a little boy alive.