Most of the funding covered on this site pays for a building, a program, or a piece of equipment. This one pays for something different: time. The Lilly Endowment National Clergy Renewal Program funds structured leave for pastors — real weeks away from Sunday prep, hospital visits, and committee meetings — and it's one of the few grant sources in the country built specifically around clergy burnout rather than a facility or a service population.
The National Clergy Renewal Program, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. and administered by Christian Theological Seminary, awards $15,000 to $60,000 to Christian congregations in every U.S. state except Indiana, plus Puerto Rico, to fund a pastor's renewal leave. Up to $15,000 of the award can cover interim pastoral coverage and renewal activities for the congregation itself while the pastor is away. It's Christian-only, requires an ordained pastor with an established relationship with the congregation, and runs on an annual cycle with the next Request for Proposals typically published in the fall.
Clergy turnover and exhaustion aren't a new problem, but they're an expensive one for congregations — a pastor who leaves mid-tenure costs a church far more than a sabbatical would have, in search costs, lost momentum, and disrupted ministry. Lilly Endowment built the Clergy Renewal Program on the theory that a genuine, extended break — not a two-week vacation squeezed between Sundays — meaningfully extends a healthy pastor's tenure and, by extension, a congregation's stability. That's a different rationale than most of the grants on this site, which fund a specific deliverable. This one funds prevention.
Award range: $15,000–$60,000 per grant.
Administered by: Christian Theological Seminary, on behalf of Lilly Endowment Inc.
Eligible geography: Christian congregations in all 50 states except Indiana, plus Puerto Rico. (Lilly Endowment funds a separate set of Indiana-specific religion initiatives directly, which is why the state is carved out of the national program.)
Eligible faith tradition: Christian congregations only — this is not an interfaith program the way FEMA's security grants are.
Cycle: Annual. The RFP for the following program year is typically published in the fall, with the application and award process running well into the following year.
The pastor's own use of the leave is the core of the grant — travel, study, rest, time with family, a return to a spiritual practice long since crowded out by ministry demands. What makes this program different from a personal vacation fund is the second piece: the congregation side of the budget.
A meaningful share of weak applications treat the entire award as the pastor's travel-and-study budget and stop there. That's a mistake, because up to $15,000 of the total grant can be earmarked for the congregation's own needs during the leave — most importantly, interim pastoral leadership, but also renewal-oriented activities for the congregation itself, like a retreat, a guest preaching series, or a lay-leadership development effort that keeps the church healthy while its pastor is away. A proposal that only plans for the pastor's absence, without a funded plan for who fills the pulpit and handles pastoral care in the meantime, reads as unfinished to reviewers — and it leaves the congregation scrambling in practice, regardless of whether the grant gets awarded.
Build both halves of the budget from the start: a renewal plan for the pastor with a real itinerary (not "travel and rest," but where, for how long, and toward what purpose), and a coverage plan for the congregation with a named interim arrangement and a rough cost estimate. Reviewers can tell the difference between a proposal that's thought through both sides and one that's an afterthought on the second half.
| Category | Typically Fits | Typically Doesn't Fit |
|---|---|---|
| Travel | Pilgrimage, sabbatical travel tied to a defined renewal purpose, family travel that supports rest | Travel unrelated to any stated renewal theme |
| Study | A course, retreat, or program that feeds the pastor's spiritual or intellectual life | Continuing education required purely for credentialing or denominational compliance |
| Rest | Genuine time away from all pastoral duties, including email and pastoral emergencies | A "sabbatical" where the pastor remains on call or checks in weekly |
| Congregation portion | Interim pulpit supply, pastoral care coverage, a congregational renewal retreat | General operating costs, building repairs, or programs unrelated to the leave |
The through-line reviewers look for is a real, bounded plan with a stated purpose — not a stipend with no structure behind it. A proposal built around "the pastor will use the time to rest and travel" without specifics tends to score lower than one that names a destination, a study focus, or a spiritual practice being renewed.
Our free eligibility review looks beyond clergy renewal at the full range of programs your church may be eligible for.
Check Your Grant Eligibility →This isn't a grant to start thinking about the month before you want the pastor to leave. The RFP cycle runs annually, with the following year's proposal guidelines typically published in the fall — congregations serious about applying should plan a full year ahead of the intended leave date. That runway matters because a strong application needs more than a good idea: it needs board approval, a drafted interim coverage plan, and enough conversation between the pastor and lay leadership that the "trusting relationship" the program requires is documented, not asserted.
Congregations that wait until the RFP opens to start these conversations are almost always rushing a proposal that needed months of groundwork. Start the internal planning conversation as soon as leadership is open to the idea, well before the formal application window — even if that means having the conversation a full cycle before you intend to apply. For general guidance on structuring any grant budget, including one with two distinct spending categories like this one, see our how to write a church grant budget guide.
Because this program is Christian-only and excludes Indiana, some congregations that would otherwise be strong candidates simply aren't eligible for it. If that's your situation, a few other paths are worth checking: many denominational bodies run their own clergy sabbatical or continuing-education funds independent of Lilly Endowment, and some regional judicatories or synods maintain smaller renewal grants with less national competition. See our denominational grants for churches guide for how to find funding specific to your tradition. Congregations weighing a sabbatical against other capital priorities — a security upgrade, a building repair — should also see our grants vs. loans for churches guide for how to sequence competing funding needs realistically. For the full landscape of programs FaithGrants tracks, see our grant programs overview, and read common church grant application mistakes before you draft any proposal, clergy renewal or otherwise. And if the real need isn't a block of weeks away but ongoing peer support or counseling access for your pastor, that's a different funding channel — see our clergy wellness and mental health grants guide for how that money actually reaches pastors.