Churches that THRIVE for Racial Justice, a partnership between Davidson College and the Alliance of Baptists, will begin a $2 million project supported by the Lilly Endowment, including $1 million in direct funding and $1 million in matching funds.
The project aims to advance racial justice in Christian congregations.
Davidson College received the new grant from the Lilly Endowment through its Thriving Congregations initiative. This is a different program than Lilly’s Pathways for Tomorrow grants recently reported by BNG.
After a successful five-year pilot, the funding expands the initiative from 27 to 50 congregations over the next five years. It will double annual in-person learning gatherings, introduce regular online cohorts and add pastoral retreats that address key issues identified in the pilot phase — ranging from leader isolation and issues of church polity to tensions around inclusivity and the burden of consensus. Each year’s work aims to deepen the denomination’s theological and practical capacity to “thrive” by embodying justice and reconciliation at the congregational level.
Nearly all original participant churches instituted new ministries, liturgical practices, reparative initiatives and sustained relationships across lines of race and difference. Many leaders report these experiences reshaped their understanding of Christian community and revealed persistent challenges that require deeper structural and spiritual engagement.
The project is led by William R. Kenan Jr. and Gerardo Martí of Davidson along with Mark Mulder of Calvin University and Kevin Dougherty of Baylor University. It brings academic expertise in the sociology of race, religion and congregational life to a robust collaboration with the Alliance of Baptists, a progressive denominational body of about 120 congregations committed to social justice.
Together, the partners cultivate learning communities where clergy and lay leaders examine how racialized structures operate within their congregations and develop theologies and practices that affirm dignity, accountability and equity.
“THRIVE exemplifies Davidson’s mission to inspire just action rooted in intellectual rigor and ethical conviction — translating scholarly inquiry into lived transformation,” Martí said. “For the Alliance of Baptists, it marks a decisive move from aspiration to implementation in dismantling racialized systems within church life. Together, this partnership models how academic research, theological reflection and local ministry can align to pursue the moral and communal flourishing of faith communities.”
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