The Fund for Theological Education (FTE) is a nonprofit, ecumenical resource for fellowships and programs supporting future pastors, volunteers, and theological scholars in North America. FTE is primarily funded by The Lilly Endowment and is headquartered on the ground floor of the Luce Center near the campus of Emory University in Atlanta, GA.
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FTE began in 1954 as a Protestant organization seeking to attract gifted young men, most of whom attended theological schools in the Northeast. It was funded by John D. Rockefeller and Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Early Trustees included Harvard President Nathan Pusey and Morehouse College President Benjamin E. Mays.
Soon FTE began to diversify. In 1960, it began its first program directed specifically to underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, and in the 1970s it expanded these initiatives significantly. After 1970, women accounted for an increasingly larger percentage of recipients. Today young women constitute more than half of FTE’s Fellows. FTE has also diversified denominationally. Early recipients were almost all members of mainline Protestant denominations. Although still heavily Protestant, FTE Fellows represent more than 30 different denominations, include evangelical, nondenominational, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic college and seminary students from 40 U.S. states and Canada.
In the late 90’s, funding by Lilly Endowment Inc. led to revitalization and renaissance of programs for students exploring pastoral ministry and theological scholarship. In recent years, FTE has expanded its programs but still has fundamental goal of strengthening pastoral ministry in North America and addressing need of local churches to find capable leaders who have graduate degrees in their field.
On the evening of October 6, 2011 FTE will host an inauguration ceremony for Rev. Stephen Lewis who will become the fourth president to take the helm since the restructuring of FTE in the late 1990's.
FTE addresses two serious challenges to congregations’ needs for qualified, gifted candidates. Only half of Master of Divinity students have interest in serving a congregation. Interest in congregational ministry seems to be on the decline. Fewer than 7 percent of clergy in most denominations are under age 35, while a wave of Baby Boomer ministers are approaching retirement.
On diversity side, fewer than 10 percent of faculty currently teaching religion and theology in higher education are non-Caucasian, according to American Academy of Religion, and about one-third of theological schools in North America report they do not have a scholar of color on their faculty.
FTE has a range of fellowships and programs including:
FTE Fellows include leaders in congregations, theological schools and the nonprofit sector. The nearly 6,000 Fellows include Walter Brueggemann, Frederick Buechner, Katie Cannon, James A. Forbes, Robert Franklin Jr. Peter Gomes, Jacquelyn Grant, William Gray, John R. Gunn, Mark Hanson, Dwight Hopkins, Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, L. Greg Jones, John Kuykendall, Gary Simpson, Barbara Brown Taylor, Linda Thomas, Emilie Townes, Jeremiah Wright and many others.