Engagement Campaign: Pilot Sermon Awards

This planning and piloting project has two principal aims: (1) to facilitate the engagement of preachers (and by extension, their audiences) with scientific and theological research concerning gratitude, purpose, and cosmos; and (2) to devise a set of mechanisms and procedures for extending such engagement to other Templetonian topics. We will amplify the impact of planned JTF engagement campaigns on gratitude, purpose, and the cosmos with a two-pronged approach to engage preachers currently in the pulpit and seminary students (preachers in training). First, we will create a web-based “shop window” with resources to incorporate the science into sermons in areas specifically for Christian preachers. We will further motivate the development of an interactive community of preacher peers to use these resources and have discussion. We will put ongoing incentive structures in place specifically designed to foster frequent and continual engagement with the web materials and to build a community of pastors around these resources. Second, to further the impact, we will refocus the award competition to seminary students. Sermons that creatively, responsibly, and effectively use scientific research to convey spiritual information will receive monetary awards, and be recognized on the website. Through the development of the website and its resources, the development of community discussion and interaction, and through administering a competition to preachers in training we expect to learn even more lessons about what does and does not work that will inform the preparation of a full project proposal. In this way, though we hope to have meaningful impact in our planning project, our aim is enduring impact and we still regard this is a pilot/planning grant.