Our newest National Partner-the Ministers and Missionaries Benefits Board (or MMBB)-included with their letter of endorsement a three-year commitment to fund (among other things) 10 Festival scholarships of $500 each. This establishes our third Festival scholarship, joining the " T. L. McSwain Scholarship" (first offered at the inaugural Festival of Young Preachers in 2010) and the new "John Cephas Guthrie Memorial Scholarship" to be offered at the 2011 Festival.  More of these types of scholarships are needed because so many of these Young Preachers lack the support networks needed to underwrite their education and travels.

These recent gifts and pledges have helped make our first fund-raising effort a smashing success. During this past spring, our goal was to raise $50,000 toward the larger goal of $220,000 for 2010 and 2011. The announced intentions of the MMBB have pushed our gifts and pledges very near to $100,000 already....almost twice our campaign goal. 

We have just begun to present our case to those able and interested in our mission. Fall fund-raisers are being scheduled for Hopkinsville and Louisville, both in Kentucky. Presentations to three Kentucky-based foundations are also planned.

We need your help, and we are receiving your help.

Join our growing network of institutional partners and individual donors. Help us support these Young Preachers from all denominations in all parts of the country. Launch a scholarship for Young Preachers in your denominational network. Introduce us to a donor of significant potential. Invite us to your church, your school, your foundation.  Designate a part of your estate to support the work of gospel preaching. Send an offering.

Best of all, make plans to attend the 2011 National Festival of Young Preachers. It is unlike anything you have every witnessed. It is a glory to God and full of the Spirit. The National Festival will be held January 6-8, 2011, at the Seelbach Hilton Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky.

During the next two months, I will be traveling to schools across the country to present the work of the Academy of Preachers and to register Young Preachers for the National Festival in January. Included in my travels will be eastern Tennessee, Atlanta and Birmingham, western Missouri, Pittsburgh, and Chicago.  In addition, Lee Huckleberry will be traveling to Boston. 

All of this is in addition to continued cultivation of our original region: the 150 mile radius around our home base in Louisville (Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee). And we are open and available to add other locations and institutions to our itinerary for the fall.

In all of these places and more, we will be inviting institutions, organizations, and denominations to become National Partners with the Academy of Preachers. Many people still are unaware of the wonderful Academy programs for Young Preachers. The dean of a seminary in Kansas City, upon hearing a description of the local and national Festivals, said: "That sure sounds like something we will be interested in."  

It is a continuing thrill for me to tell the story of the Academy, to describe to professors and preachers the National Festival of Young Preachers, and to be a public advocate for the bright, talented, dedicated young people upon whom God has laid the prophet mantel. This rising generation of Young Preachers is sure to shake the world and stir the church with the gospel of Jesus. Join with us in supporting their call to Gospel Preaching.