“Collegiate Abbey is serving a niche in our university system that has been deeply needed for quite some time. The importance of resourcing and cultivating healthy leaders cannot be overestimated.”
-Joan Cronan Women’s Athletic Director Emeritus
-UT Ag Econ Professor
"Collegiate Abbey aims to foster spiritual health for every person at our university, not just those who are in a particular age range or belong to specific departments or organizations. They recognize service to and dialogue with everyone at the university helps foster a better university.”
-Former Director of Development
"The bridges Collegiate Abbey is building with this influential but mostly unserved population is helping to pave the way in really unique and unprecedented ways for the rest of us campus ministries and the gospel of Jesus."
-Campus Minister
I very much appreciate what Collegiate Abbey stands for as well as the action I see under its core values of “grow, shepherd and serve”. I truly feel that Collegiate Abbey is open to people regardless of where they are on their faith journey and it is reassuring to see an entity that cares about our entire campus of students, faculty, and staff.
-Former Assistant Director of the Center for Leadership and Service
The Catalyst Campaign
Through God’s blessing and favor over the last five years, CA has grown and flourished and now we find ourselves in the position of needing to expand our foundation to faithfully steward this blessing. In the next three years, we hope to not only increase the number of volunteer shepherds serving at the University but also our staff and scope to help resource these shepherds.
We are calling this new phase of growth for Collegiate Abbey our Catalyst Campaign. We are praying that God would raise up volunteers, staff, partners, and churches to help us take advantage of the unique opportunities and positions that God has given to us.
Our heart is to steward these opportunities well and to grow the ministry and impact that God has entrusted to us. The ministry of Collegiate Abbey not only impacts the faculty, staff, and administration of the University but also the students and city of Knoxville. In pioneering new partnerships and resourcing leaders, the impact of this ministry will continue to be felt throughout our community.
Our Three Year Goals
2023
Hire a Women’s Ministry Director and add a Knoxville Fellows intern to help in the further cultivation and stewardship of the opportunities presented
Launch our new Shepherd’s Abbey training
2024
Leverage our unique position and relationships with the university in developing new groundbreaking partnerships
Double the number of shepherds trained through our ministry
2025
Hire a shepherd coordinator
Build out our Shepherd’s Abbey Training
Launch Shepherd’s Abbey content into the digital space to increase and use and access to university leadership
How you can help
You can help us in three specific and strategic ways
Pray
“God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil.” — E.M. Bounds
Would you please pray for wisdom, insight, grace, and truth as we continue to develop the ministry of Collegiate Abbey.
Support
We would invite you to prayerfully consider partnering with Collegiate Abbey financially as we serve and minister to the faculty, staff, and administration at UT Knoxville.
Collegiate Abbey’s mission is to identify, train, equip, and send individuals to shepherd university communities. By 2025, we want to have 24 shepherds leading and working towards the flourishing of the University of Tennessee.
Over the next three years, we will need to hire additional staff to accomplish this goal. This would include a Women’s Ministry Director, an administrative assistant, and a Fellows Intern.
We would like to invite you to consider giving at one of the following levels:
Torchbearer gift: $100,000
Volunteer gift: $50,000
Rocky Top gift: $25,000
Smokey gift: $10,000
Your gift will help Collegiate Abbey grow into its next season of ministry while creating space for our staff to cultivate relationships with new individual donors, churches, and foundations.
During the Catalyst Campaign, we have a two-prong approach of developing large-level donors but also a second level of smaller but essential donors through our 1,000 Volunteers initiative.
Influence
Although people may not know us yet, they do know you. Would you please consider letting people know about Collegiate Abbey and our ministry at UT? Please feel free to share our resources, attend any events, and initiate a meeting or introduction.
How to give:
**Collegiate Abbey is a 501c3 nonprofit ministry. All gifts are tax-deductible and can be made via the National Christian Foundation account number 2967660, by check and mailed to our office, or by clicking the button below.