Lansing, MI—Some fortunate pastor is going to win $10,000 next summer, simply for following his calling to teach the Word of God! The Amy Foundation, founder of the prestigious Amy Writing Awards has just announced the First Amy Pastor Awards.

Fifteen cash awards totaling $30,000 will be given to winning pastors simply for submitting ten sermon outlines, based on each of the ten components of Christ-centered disciple making as defined by the foundation’s comprehensive brochure, Becoming A Christ Centered, Disciple-Making Church, available free from participating Christian bookstores or via the Amy website.

The Amy Pastor Awards is the idea of Jim Russell, successful businessman and cofounder of the Amy Foundation, intended to motivate pastors to focus on helping the people in their pews move from their “over-busy stuck-in-a-spiritual-rut believer status” to heart transforming spiritual maturity. In other words the goal is to help pastors more intentionally disciple their congregations from the pulpit. 

The Foundation encourages the use of this definition of a disciple:  “A disciple is an obedient follower of Jesus Christ who is actively engaged in making disciples by teaching obedience to everything Jesus commanded in self, family, congregation, and neighborhood.”  As one pastor said, “The program gets people ‘deep’ and builds spirituality.”

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