INDIANAPOLIS (October 14, 2026) – Christian Theological Seminary (CTS) announced the public launch of RISE UP: The Campaign for Human Flourishing on Tuesday evening before a sold-out audience at Shelton Auditorium. The announcement followed a conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and presidential biographer Jon Meacham, moderated by the Honorable Myra C. Selby, former Indiana Supreme Court justice and former chair of the CTS Board of Trustees.
The campaign has secured $14,872,430—more than 82 percent of its $18 million goal—through commitments made during a quiet phase that began in 2023. RISE UP advances four commitments at the heart of CTS: Faithful Leadership, Equity & Justice, Healing & Wholeness, and Sustaining Generosity.
Meacham and Selby explored the evening’s guiding question, “Who Will Lead Us Forward?” Drawing on Meacham’s work at the intersection of history, faith, and public life, they considered the moral courage leadership requires, what past generations can teach us, and how communities of faith can help shape the future.
“For more than a century, CTS has prepared people to lead with wisdom, courage, and faith,” said the Dr. David M. Mellott, president of Christian Theological Seminary. “Tonight’s conversation asked who will lead us forward. RISE UP helps answer that question by investing in the clergy, counselors, scholars, and community leaders our city and world need, and by sustaining CTS’s work of forming them for generations to come.”
Campaign highlights
An endowed chair in African American preaching. RISE UP includes a $3 million effort to establish the Frank A. and Joyce S. Thomas Endowed Chair in African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric, the first endowed chair in the discipline. It honors Dr. Frank A. Thomas, visionary and founding director of CTS’s PhD program in the field, the first of its kind in the world. The program now includes the Compelling Preaching Initiative and the African American Legacy
Preaching Series and celebrated its first doctoral graduates in 2024. The chair will sustain this work and prepare future preachers, educators, and scholars for the church and academy.
Expanding access to mental health care. Since 1967, the CTS Counseling Center has provided affordable, sliding-scale care. It now offers more than 11,000 sessions each year, serves clients statewide through telehealth, and trains licensed counselors and therapists. In Marion County, an estimated 66 percent of residents who need treatment for serious mental illness are not receiving it. Campaign support will help fund an outreach coordinator, renew shared spaces for therapy, training, and community gatherings, modernize secure technology for telehealth and supervision, and provide resources for client subsidies that help offset fees within the Center’s sliding-scale model.
The creation of the Center for Faith & Action. For a decade, the CTS Faith & Action Project has brought faith communities, nonprofits, businesses, and civic leaders together to address poverty in Marion County. It has convened more than 5,000 participants and awarded more than $1 million in catalytic grants benefiting over 100 organizations. RISE UP will establish a permanent Center for Faith & Action at CTS, with the Faith & Action Project remaining at its core. The Center will provide dedicated leadership, sustain grantmaking, and offer a yearlong Fellowship that equips pastors and lay leaders to advance advocacy and collaboration in their congregations.
Sustaining generosity. The campaign strengthens the CTS Annual Fund, providing flexible support for students, faculty, and the daily work of the Seminary’s School of Theology and School of Counseling.
“RISE UP reflects what becomes possible when people believe in an institution and its future,” said Alana Washington and Diane Thompson, co-chairs of the campaign. “We are grateful to everyone whose generosity and leadership brought us to this moment. As we enter the public phase, we invite our neighbors across Indianapolis and beyond to join us in this work.”
Washington and Thompson lead the campaign alongside honorary co-chairs Mike and Sue Smith and Preston and Greta Adams, and a steering committee of current and former CTS trustees.
“Every gift to RISE UP reaches someone,” said Dr. Kristin Champa, vice president for advancement at CTS. “It may help a preacher find her voice, make counseling accessible to a family, or equip a congregation to address a specific need in its neighborhood. The public launch is an invitation to take part in this work of forming leaders, healing communities, and transforming lives.”
To learn more about RISE UP: The Campaign for Human Flourishing or to make a gift, visit riseup.cts.edu.
About Christian Theological Seminary
Christian Theological Seminary (CTS) is an accredited ecumenical graduate school rooted in the Christian tradition. Through theological education, counseling, community engagement, and innovative initiatives, CTS develops leaders for the church and society and equips communities to meet the world’s challenges with faith, wisdom, and courage.
