The Minnery Fellowship for Cultural Engagement is an ongoing Continuing Cultural Education program to help pastors and church leaders understand the times and know how to respond.

The Minnery Fellowship is named for author, former Vice President of Focus on the Family, and former Chairman of the Board of Center for Christian Virtue (CCV) Tom Minnery. Throughout Tom’s career, he endeavored to encourage Christians to be salt and light in culture and “not be silent” on the most crucial issues facing our churches and families.

Our Purpose

In 2023, Ohio voters passed one of the most radical abortion amendments in the nation. Despite a strong response from many church leaders opposing the amendment, an exit poll found that shockingly, more than one out of three weekly-church attending Evangelicals and Catholics voted “Yes” on this deadly amendment.

In response, CCV and our Church Ambassador Network desire to come alongside pastors and give them the resources to speak to the difficult cultural and political issues facing their members today.

The Minnery Fellowship will provide ongoing educational opportunities for pastors and church leaders to dive into the practical issues facing Christians in culture and develop, with a cohort of their peers, biblical strategies and messages to respond.

Our Structure

Much like the “Continuing Legal Education” attorneys receive on an annual basis, the Minnery Fellowship is an ongoing equipping experience for pastors, not a one-time program. The structure of The Fellowship includes:

Regional Cohorts

Meeting dates and locations for each cohort will be announced soon!

Annual Overview

  • Two (2) 4-month sessions each year

  • Regional cohorts of 6 to 18 Pastors (Fellows)

  • Highly qualified facilitators will lead the monthly in-person cohort meetings

  • Spring of 2025 will focus on Biblical Cultural Engagement utilizing select chapters of Biblical Critical Theory by Dr. Christopher Watkin

  • Fall of 2025 will focus on Biblical Identity and Sexuality utilizing Carl Trueman’s book, Strange New World

Each session includes:

  • A kick-off event

  • Monthly self-study content and assignments

  • Monthly regional in-person cohort meetings (organized by the local facilitator to best accommodate each cohort)

  • Practical local church and community application suggestions

  • Recorded livestream events with authors and experts relevant to the session topic

  • Annual exclusive gathering for current fellows at the Essential Summit each fall in Columbus

Session deliverables include:

  • A resource bank of articles, books, podcasts and other materials

  • One-page Session Summary that can be presented to key church leaders answering practical questions including:

    • Scriptures relevant to the topic

    • Policies and programs for church implementation

    • Potential sermon topics

  • An easily implementable Bible study or seminar curriculum for their churches

  • Certificate of completion from Arizona Christian University for the session coursework

Moving the Needle on Biblical Worldview

The Minnery Fellowship is partnering with with George Barna and The Cultural Research Center to measure biblical worldview of general population as well as unique links to surveys for participants and their churches so church leaders know with more clarity the worldview of their congregations. LEARN MORE.

The Cost

Thanks to the generosity of CCV donors, we are offering full-ride scholarships to fellows for the 2025 program year. The Minnery Fellowship is not free, but there is no financial cost to you because the CCV team and board—and especially our supporters—believe in and desire to bless the shepherds of our local churches in Ohio.

Your commitment for 2025 will be your time and to bring your best to each cohort meeting to challenge and encourage your fellow pastors to be who their people and community need them to be for such a time as this.

Time Commitment

Rather than create another demand on their already busy schedules, the Minnery Fellowship hopes to save pastors time by curating and providing the resources on research they would otherwise have to do on their own.

We have worked with our content partners to keep the monthly assignment expectations reasonable. Participants should plan to invest two hours per month to attend the cohort meeting, plus approximately 15 minutes per day of reading and self-study.

Ready to Join the Minnery Fellowship?

Have Questions or Want More Information?

Please contact Church Ambassador Network Executive Director Chris Lightfoot.

Modern culture is a mighty force. It is either subservient to the gospel or else it is the deadliest enemy of the gospel. For making it subservient, religious emotion is not enough, intellectual labor is also necessary. And that labor is being neglected. The Church has turned to easier tasks. And now she is reaping the fruits of her indolence.

Now she must battle for her life.

The situation is desperate. It might discourage us. But not if we are truly Christians. Not if we are living in vital communion with the risen Lord.

If we are really convinced of the truth of our message, then we can proclaim it before a world of enemies, then the very difficulty of our task, the very scarcity of our allies becomes an inspiration, then we can even rejoice that God did not place us in an easy age, but in a time of doubt and perplexity and battle.

Then, too, we shall not be afraid to call forth other soldiers into the conflict.

— J. Gresham Machen, The Princeton Theological Review, Vol. 11, 1913