DURHAM -- Duke Divinity School has received a $14 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to establish an initiative that to help Christian leaders combine theological insight and business practices to meet real-world challenges.

In addition to providing resources for leaders of key Christian institutions, the initiatve will develop a variety of programs that focus on leading and managing Christian institutions, offering some programs on an open-application basis and customizing others for specific groups.

The initiative also will convene Christian leaders at Duke and across the country to address pivotal issues, and will develop a website where leaders of Christian institutions can interact to share resources and ideas.

Goals include helping Christian leaders analyze the important issues they face, pursue new opportunities, collaborate with one another in creatively addressing systemic challenges, and support and encourage one another in their work.

Divinity School Dean L. Gregory Jones said the initiative advances the Divinity School's work in cultivating pastoral leaders, building on the extensive work of Pulpit & Pew, a Lilly Endowment-funded series of research and other programs that began in 1999.

Duke will develop this new effort in cooperation with Lilly Endowment, denominations, seminaries and other partners involved in earlier projects. Colleagues from Duke Corporate Education and the Fuqua School of Business also will be key partners.

The leadership initiative is an opportunity for the Divinity School to serve the church by strengthening Christian institutions across the country, Jones added.

"Pastoral ministry and congregations, along with Christian institutions that support them, are as important now as ever," Jones said. "This is a great time to focus on their work in Christian ministry with creativity, energy and a renewed sense of mission."