The “Timothy Scholars Program,” is a new scholarship initiative to support doctoral training of future seminary professors focusing on youth and young adult ministries.

The “Timothy Scholars” program (named for I Timothy 4:12, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example for the believers”) is part of the Foundation for Evangelism’s efforts to strengthen youth and young adult ministry in the United Methodist Church. Timothy Scholars will be women and men whose doctoral education will prepare them to teach in seminaries.

The Foundation is piloting the scholarship program at Princeton Theological Seminary, which is also home to the Princeton Theological Seminary Institute for Youth Ministry.  Rev. Kenda Creasy Dean, Ph.D., a United Methodist clergywoman and Associate Professor of Youth, Church and Culture at Princeton, serves in the capacity of program mentor.  The pilot program will provide five years of funding for four Ph.D. students, with two starting in each of the next two academic years.

The Timothy Scholars Program marks the Foundation for Evangelism’s first steps in helping prepare the way for making education in youth ministry more available for pastors and other church leaders, especially in United Methodist seminaries.