The five new church developments named winners of the 2011 Sam and Helen R. Walton Awards continue to receive good news. Each winning recipient will receive an additional $10,000 to engage in diverse ministry of Presbyterian mission in their local communities.
The winning churches in California, North Carolina and Georgia initially received $40,000 each when the awards were announced on April 4. The Walton Awards were established in 1991 as part of a $6-million dollar gift from the late Sam and Helen R. Walton through the Presbyterian Foundation. This gift included an endowment of $3M. The earned interest is to be used by outstanding new church developments for capital acquistions.
Tim McCallister, Associate of Mission Program Grants says “more money was available in available in the budget from earned interest – than we had estimated” when the winning churches were selected by the Mission Development Resource Committee.
Since 1993, there have been 101 Walton Awards totaling $4.11 million presented to exemplary new church developments across sixty-six presbyteries in all sixteen Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) synods.
Mission Program Grants is a ministry of Evangelism and Church Growth, in PC(USA’s) General Assembly Mission Council.