GU professors help St. Paul's Church receive grant to explore crossroads of theology and science
Published: March 01, 2022
Professors Bob Munshaw and Ben Wayman, both of Greenville University's Bastian School of Theology, Philosophy, and Ministry, secured a $15,000 grant for use by St. Paul’s Free Methodist Church in Greenville.
St. Paul’s is one of six congregations nationwide to receive the 2021-22 John Stott Award for Pastoral Engagement. A competitive review process determined final selection for the church’s winning application. Munshaw and Wayman both serve on staff at St. Paul’s.
The annual award supports initiatives that help pastors and their congregations “live faithfully as Christians in an age of science.” This year’s awardees will engage the Christian doctrine of what it means for humanity to be created in God’s image. The project that Munshaw and Wayman will co-facilitate at St. Paul's follows this theme.
“Our church applied for the Stott Award because we are committed to following Jesus well with our friends, as we engage our hearts, hands, and heads,” said Wayman. “This year’s focus, as part of the Creation Project, is to clarify what it means to be created in the image of God, and how being so created can help us appreciate the wonder of God in every human being.”
A congregation growing and learning together
The John Stott Award provides resources and support for congregations to “grow in their understanding, teaching, and proclamation of the Christian doctrine of creation in dialogue with modern science.” The funds help congregations navigate the doctrine in ways that are intellectually rigorous, faithful to the Bible, and informed by science.
“I believe in a learning church,” said Wayman. “That is, in order to love God, others, and ourselves well, we need to learn what makes for flourishing. Christians call this discipleship.”
The Carl F.H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding, an outreach ministry of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, sponsors the award as part of its Creation Project. The Center announced this year’s winners November 1.
