Our Daily Bread Ministries awarded $5M grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. for Witness & Wonder initiative
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Our Daily Bread Ministries (ODBM) has received a grant of $5M from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support its Witness & Wonder: Everyday Encounters with God initiative – a four-year storytelling initiative designed to help young adults (ages 18–34) encounter, know, and love God through real-life stories of vibrant faith. The project is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s National Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life 2025.
“The gap between faith and everyday life for young adults continues to widen,” said Dr. Matt Lucas, CEO of Our Daily Bread Ministries. “Witness & Wonder steps directly into that gap with honest, emotionally resonant stories that show how God meets people in the middle of real questions, struggles, and hopes. Our desire is to help a new generation see that Christian faith is deeply relevant and spiritually transformative in today’s world.”
As part of the initiative, ODBM will produce and distribute more than 200 original multimedia storytelling resources and more than 600 social media resources. These will include short-form videos, podcasts, thematic Bible content, digital Bible engagement tools and derivative media designed for platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Featuring people from a wide range of backgrounds, ages, life experiences, and cultures, each resource is crafted to reflect the questions, struggles, and spiritual hunger of today’s young adults.
“Many in this generation are navigating big questions about meaning, purpose, and truth,” said Dave Gavette, Vice President of Media Programs. “With innovative media and multi-tiered content journeys, Witness & Wonder features everyday people whose faith shapes their choices, relationships, and daily rhythms. These stories reveal how God is at work in ordinary moments and invite young adults to encounter Him in meaningful, personal ways.”
ODBM is one of 60 organizations from across the United States that have received grants through the initiative since 2024. The groups include media organizations, denominational judicatories, church networks, publishers, educational institutions, congregations and other nonprofit charitable organizations.
The aim of Lilly Endowment’s National Initiative on Christian Faith and Life is to help organizations identify, produce and share with a wide variety of audiences compelling stories that portray the vibrancy and hope of Christian faith and life.
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About Lilly Endowment Inc.: Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A primary aim of its grantmaking in religion is to deepen the religious lives of Christians, principally by supporting efforts that enhance congregational vitality and strengthen the leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment values the broad diversity of Christian traditions and endeavors to support them in a wide variety of contexts. The Endowment also seeks to foster public understanding about religion by encouraging fair, accurate and balanced portrayals of the positive and negative effects of religion on the world and lifting up the contributions that people of all faiths make to our greater civic well-being.
About Our Daily Bread Ministries: Our Daily Bread Ministries is a donor-supported, global Bible engagement ministry with a staff of 700 serving in 32 offices to distribute more than 60 million resources each year in 58 languages throughout 150 countries. Often known for its global devotional, the ministry produces long- and short-form Bible content across print, video, audio, and digital platforms to help people connect with God every day in every way. For more than 87 years, the ministry’s mission has remained the same: to make the life-changing wisdom of the Bible understandable and accessible to all.
Contact:
Jennifer VerHage
Our Daily Bread Ministries
jennifer@bookedpr.com
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