A Virginia church has teamed with a Christian summer camp organization to offer something extra to its summer youth workers who want to pursue theological education.
River Road Church, Baptist, has established the Chester Phelps Passport Seminary Scholarship with Passport Inc., a national nonprofit student ministry providing creative summer camp experiences for youth and children, focusing on mission action and education.
The Richmond church and the Birmingham-based camping organization jointly announced the inaugural class of six scholarship recipients. All six have served on Passport’s summer staff and are pursuing careers in ministry through seminary training.
Recipients are Anna Beth Cross, Jonathan Chacko, Jonathan Hall, Luke Perrin, Milligan Burroughs, and Tori Crook.
The scholarships are funded through River Road’s budget. The fund is named for a career minister at River Road who brought many groups to Passport camps over the last 30 years.
“Passport has long wished for financial support to share with our summer staffers toward the costs of a divinity degree,” said Passport founder and president, David Burroughs. “The goal of the scholarship is to help students pursue their call to ministry through an annual gift during the three years of their degree program.”
Burroughs called the financial suppot from River Road Church an investment in the future of the church.
Daniel Glaze
Daniel Glaze, the church’s pastor, said the congregation is “deeply honored to invest in the lives, callings and education of ministers through Passport” and that the scholarship was named for Chester.
Individuals are eligible to apply for the scholarship after completing a summer of service as camp staffers, if they are entering seminary or pursuing a career in ministry.
This year’s scholarship recipients represent four educational institutions: Truett Seminary at Baylor University, McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University, Yale Divinity School, and Duke University Divinity School.