The children of church workers often grow up in an atmosphere where they receive intangible benefits like exposure to faith, charity and moral living. Unfortunately, those benefits do not pay for college and the average yearly salary for a church worker typically does not leave much left over for saving for college expenses. To help the children of church workers cover the costs of attending college, a number of scholarships are available from a variety of sources.
Organizations
One source of scholarships for the children of church workers is denomination-specific organizations, such as the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities, which funds nearly a dozen scholarships for the dependents of Presbyterian church workers, ministers and missionaries. Other denomination-specific organizations also provide scholarships, like the Episcopal Church Center, which has established a trust fund to offer over 60 scholarships. The scholarships include several specifically for the children of Episcopal church workers, like the College Fund For Children of Missionaries and the Emily Kingsbury Rittenhouse Fund.
Churches
Scholarships for the children of church workers can be awarded by one of the thousands of churches or church associations that employ church workers. The Wisconsin Conference of the United Methodist Church funds the $3,000 Scholarships For Children of United Methodist Pastors, which is open to a dependent of a pastor of any United Methodist congregation. (See resources) The American Baptist Churches USA association also offers a scholarship program for the children of ABC-USA ministers and missionaries.
Bible Colleges
Children of church workers can find scholarships from various Bible colleges that specialize in religious and seminary degrees. The scholarships may come from non-denominational Bible colleges, such as the two church worker dependent scholarships from The Crown College of the Bible (thecrowncollege.com), both of which award $1,000 a year to the child of a pastor, missionary or other full-time Christian church worker. Scholarships may also come from denomination-specific Bible colleges like Grace Bible College (gbcol.edu), which provides two church worker dependent scholarships, one of the which goes to members of a Grace Gospel Fellowship church.
Other Schools
Scholarships for children of church workers also come from other liberal arts institutions that offer additional degree programs not related to religion. At Lipscomb University (libscomb.edu) in Tennessee, the child of a youth minister receives a 50 percent tuition discount, while children of ministers receive up to $5,000 a year in tuition assistance. Baylor University (Baylor.edu) provides two $5,000 scholarships for church worker children, including the Baptist Minister's Dependent Scholarship and Baptist Missionaries' Dependent Scholarship.
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Writer Bio
Lindsey Thompson began her writing career in 2001. Her work has been published in the Cincinnati Art Museum's "Member Magazine" and "The Ohio Journalist." You'll also find her work on websites like Airbnb, Chron.com, and USAToday.com. Thompson holds a Bachelor of Science in journalism from the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.