2025 Winners
Ann Crews Melton
Cultivating prophetic imagination through strategic reflection — discerning personal calling and organizational direction amid shifting political landscapes and funding threats to sustain restorative justice and consensus-building work.
Ashley Updegraff
Strengthening leadership capacity and congregational culture — developing sustainable models for shared ministry, lay empowerment, and stewardship to meet the challenges of a changing church context.
Benjamin Lowe
A season of strategic renewal enables healing and reflection, aligning individual transformation with organizational retooling for sustainable mission amid internal pressures, societal disruption, and environmental upheaval.
Brady Radford
Developing an integrative clergy wellness framework — translating pastoral, clinical, and consulting experience into a sustainable model that equips clergy to prevent burnout and reimagine healthy ministry.
Christy Smucker
Investing in sustainable leadership and wellness — equipping the Executive Director to guide The Mom Community’s growth with clarity, infrastructure, and wholeness to support young families.
Cynthia Daniels
Exploring sustainable leadership through reflection, rest, and renewal — integrating advocacy, caregiving, and spiritual grounding to faithfully lead justice work with resilience, clarity, and courageous compassion.
Daris Bultena
Creating space to reflect and reset — aligning personal vocation with emerging ministry demands to faithfully lead amid competing priorities and guide the development corporation into sustainable fruition.
David Chao
Engaging intentional reflection to renew vocational integrity, refine strategy, and model sustainable leadership—strengthening the Center for Asian American Christianity’s impact and future direction.
David Hahn
Shifting from entrepreneurial launch to strategic discernment — renewing vocational clarity and theological grounding to sustain, adapt, and expand lay formation through the evolving LiVE Project.
Dennis Edwards
Engaging strategic reflection to guide Seminary-University integration — strengthening faculty collaboration, expanding hybrid cohorts, and developing 3+2 pathways that align with emerging opportunities in theological education.
2024 Winners
Adam Fronczek
Strengthening the relationship between neighborhood churches and schools in a time of changing public influence and stretched resources
Aimee Laramore
Prayerfully reflecting on the creation of fresh resources and written ministry tools to support, transform and radically inspire ministries
Aizaiah Yong
Navigating an intergenerational shift, the center is welcoming fresh perspectives and approaches to the study, teaching, and cultivation of compassion across diverse cultural and social contexts
Amanda Drury
Reflecting on the past and engaging in experimentation to discern what the next faithful step might be
Amy Brown
Growing our services to include housing and creating a campus culture of inclusion and radical hospitality that will profoundly impact our campus and downtown Detroit long into the future
Anthony L. Riley
Embracing innovative and transformative leadership for historic African American congregations in Saint Louis to lead in the community and invest globally
Anwar Smith
Two years after replacing the founding Executive Director, I find myself searching for answers that will lead to a clear path forward for myself and the organization
Asa Bell, Jr.
Our goal is to explore methods and practices to address current and future ministry needs in eastern Wake County, specifically in the areas of affordable housing, gentrification and family development.
Beth Ludlum
Cultivating institutional and personal sustainability by reconnecting with God’s creativity, abundance, and joy
Bonnie Gatchell
Creating intentional time for rest and reflection to reimagine ways to grow and sustain a multi-site organization to more effectively bring healing to women and better equip Church leaders
2023 Winners
Adriana Schellhaas
Understanding the type of leader I am and the importance of standing firm on solid ground
Bethany Rivera Molinar
Creating intentional time for rest and reflection to reimagine innovative ways to move from a place of reactivity to proactively fulfill mission and vision
Daniel Lee
Reflecting on leading a multigenerational church and developing skills necessary to promote healing in our community
Daniel Prieto
Researching innovative ways to steward organizational growth
Debra Bronkema
Understanding connection points to learn what it means to lead a nonprofit into new creative and innovative opportunities
Greg Yee
Listening to God on how to move forward with organizational and strategic changes
Hannah Bonner
Strengthening the connections of those integral to one’s story, while knitting together journeys that will make the picture more complete
Hilary Burgin
Leaning into the pivot of analyzing programs to be more faithful to what God asks of us in 2023
John Terrill
Discerning how to approach opportunities for missional and geographic expansion and how historical lessons from the Chautauqua Movement can inform our local and national Christian Study Center work
Jonathan Brooks
Reflecting on leadership skills that assist in reevaluating oneself and one’s context
2019 Winners
Amanda Grant-Rose
Developing new leadership capacities for an organization that has moved from surviving to thriving
Argrow “Kit” Evans-Ford
Exploring models of infrastructure and capacity for scaling a successful social enterprise
David Bailey
Preparing to scale a decade of reconciliation and cultural intelligence work beyond the organization’s founder
Doug Pfeiffer
Discerning best practices for missional community engagement in rural churches
Eliza Cortes Bast
Discerning vocational shifts and role expansion in a denomination in transition
Ginger Morgan
Building capacity and connection for a wellness-centered campus ministry that is responsive to marginalized students
J. Lee Hill, Jr.
Crafting a theology and spirituality of jazz to match a growing ecumenical experience of faith formation
Jeffrey Dove
Expanding a ministry with formerly incarcerated people from a local to a global scale
Jennifer and Seth Moland-Kovash
Discerning new leadership and ministry models after the merger of congregations and a non-profit
Nathalie Nelson Parker
Navigating the integration of funding models, leadership strategies and social media competencies to scale a growing organization
2018 Winners
Alexis Carter
Exploring practices to increase the number of black women in ministerial leadership while supporting their flourishing
Brittany Caine-Conley
Creating a public witness ministry for clergy toward faith-rooted justice organization and systemic change
Carolyn Graham
Discerning next steps to help teen mothers aging out of the child welfare system become spiritually centered, economically empowered change agents
Charisse Gillett
Developing new leadership capacities to move a seminary from crisis to innovation and sustainability
Eric Lindh
Investigating sustainability models for a mission movement that has grown rapidly from regional to national
Greg Jarrell
Should an intentional Christian community move with those being displaced by gentrification or reinvent its work?
Jeff Biddle
Identifying strategies for a multicultural and justice-oriented sports ministry in a high-trauma environment
Kimal James
Imagining a financially stable, faith-based assisted living senior community in a rapidly changing context
Laurie Day
Developing visionary leadership in a new denominational conference to unite diverse groups in a shared identity
Liza Cagua-Koo
Discerning a sustainable growth pace from leading women of color working on urban issues & racial justice