Frequently Asked Questions

While much of our grantmaking is offered by invitation only, we do have one open application opportunity: Reflective Leadership Grants, which provide Christian leaders and teams of leaders “balcony time” to reflect on accomplishments, broaden perspectives and discern next steps. Learn more.

The Forum aims to cultivate networks of Christian organizations — bringing together denominations, schools, nonprofits and consultants — who care about congregational vitality.

We do not directly consult with individual congregations, though we nurture networks that in turn support congregational work. 

To that end, we offer the opportunity for leaders of groups of congregations to reflect as individuals and as teams. Reflective Leadership Grants provide Christian leaders and teams of leaders “balcony time” to reflect on accomplishments, broaden perspectives and discern next steps. Learn more. 

We are also committed to telling and sharing stories of congregations across the United States, with the goal of encouraging congregations and their leaders in their work. You can learn more about this effort and submit a story about your church’s work. 

No. The Forum invites participation from Catholic, Evangelical, Mainline Protestant, Orthodox and Pentecostal traditions as well as those supporting any Christian congregation that does not fit neatly into these categories. We are united by Christian theology and a focus on congregational life. 

The Forum is an initiative of Duke Divinity School, whose mission to engage in spiritually disciplined and academically rigorous education in service and witness to the Triune God in the midst of the church, the academy and the world. 

Support for the Forum is provided by a major grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., an Indianapolis-based, private philanthropic foundation created in 1937. 

The Forum is a non-degree-granting initiative of Duke Divinity School. Before the Forum was first founded as “Leadership Education at Duke Divinity” in 2008, Craig Dykstra — who was then Senior Vice President for the Religion Division of Lilly Endowment — had been looking for a home for such a center for nearly 20 years. Greg Jones, then Dean of Duke Divinity School, was eager to establish an interdisciplinary training program that was grounded in a Christian vision of leadership and institutions. Jones led the organization’s formative years and in 2010 became a senior advisor, while working on other projects. In 2011, Dykstra joined Duke Divinity’s faculty and led the establishment of a senior leadership program. 

At its founding, Leadership Education was a training center for Christian institutional leaders and did not offer grants. In recent years, our work has expanded beyond educating leaders. We discovered grants are an effective way to cultivate networks of Christian organizations, and that these networks are then able to support and nurture congregations across traditions. Rather than just being able to engage the work that is most urgent, grants give organizational leaders the gift of time to engage work that is important for the long haul. 

We wanted a name and identity that clearly reflect both this shift in our approach and our deepened sense of mission. The name “Forum for Congregational Life” emphasizes our calling to be a connection and resource point that affirms, equips and inspires networks of Christian institutions and leaders that nurture congregational life. 

While our name and the scale of our work changed, our mission, values and commitment to congregations and their leaders remained unchanged. We have continued the majority of programs that were formerly under Leadership Education while expanding our efforts that support leaders and institutions who care about congregational vitality. Learn more about the programs, grants and offerings we have paused or retired. 

These changes began to take place in April 2026. The transition to the Forum is both precipitated and made possible by a generous grant of $40 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. to Duke University in December 2025. This grant, which covers a three-year period, provided for our exponential growth, particularly in our grantmaking work – more than half of the grant was designated to be regranted to other organizations.