Ben Jones and fellow scholar Rebecca Munz. [MORE IMAGES] [2001 Academy]

PHILADELPHIA (August 2000) The expression on Ben Jones’s face just before he answered the question spoke eloquently about the first-ever Summer Theological Academy, an innovative ministry funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. to invite select high school youth to “fall in love with theology” as a way of life.

The question to Ben was: “Would you recommend participating in next year’s Summer Theological Academy to any of your friends?” Ben was one of 17 youth scholars who participated in the two week event offered by The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP) and hosted at Wagner College, Staten Island, NY.

Ben’s response in a word? Enthusiastic!

"Before the Academy, I thought of theology as something in a textbook," Ben said. "Now I see it as part of life, something you can put into practice. I feel like I have a deeper relationship with God. I feel I understand how God through Jesus suffered on earth for us in order to have a closer connection with us. Through that suffering God showed us that God knows first hand what we go through. God is not up there. God is down here with us. God seems easier to relate to now."

Ben, soon to be a senior at Shawnee High School in Medford, NJ, said the two week experience at Wagner propelled him into a deeper sense of Christian community with the other scholars. Most of them came from congregations across the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Region 7, but also included youth from the Episcopal and Mennonite traditions and Academy staff.

The Academy faculty included three from the Seminary community: Dr. Janet Corpus, Dr. John Hoffmeyer and Seminary Musician Mark Mummert, plus Dr. Walter Kaelber of the Wagner faculty. Graduate student mentors, all from the Seminary, included Kayko Driedger, Eric Lemonholm, Eric Olsen and Margaret Tyson. Academy Director , the Rev. H. William Bixby, and Program Coordinator Candace Hill rounded out the staff.

Theological Education with Youth at LTSP also includes the fostering of lively theological conversations with teen counselors-in-training at two outdoor ministry centers of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America -- Bear Creek Camp near Wilkes-Barre, PA, and Calumet Lutheran Camp in West Ossippee, NH. Funded by a $506,000 Lilly grant, both the Academy and camp programs will continue to be developed and honed over a three-year period. The Theological Education with You initiative is one of more than two dozen theological initiatives for youth funded across the nation by Lilly.

"Our goal is to celebrate and amplify the theological and leadership gifts of high school youth of our churches," Bixby says. "And the look on Ben Jones’s face says we are well on our way!"