wfn.org | Mission Capital Grants Awarded to 164 Congregations

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2-October-1996 
 
 
96397  Mission Capital Grants Awarded to 164 Congregations 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--When officials of the National Ministries Division (NMD) 
handed out $2.5 million in grants to 164 Presbyterian congregations for 
building improvements on Sept. 28, Hazel Manning's dreams came true. 
 
     Manning, a member of Pine Shores Presbyterian Church in Sarasota, 
Fla., died in 1991, having bequeathed a $691,000 endowment to the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to be used for church construction.  Manning 
said that as a child she would drive through the countryside with her 
family and upon seeing little country churches along the road would think, 
"I'd sure like to build a church." 
 
     Now she will. 
 
     The National Ministries Division established its Mission Capital 
Grants program last spring to provide grants ranging from $2,500 to $25,000 
to churches demonstrating a need to improve their facilities in order to 
enhance their mission to their communities.  The program was funded by a 
number of endowments, including Hazel Manning's. 
 
     "We had no idea the demand would be this great," NMD chair Sandra 
Hawley told the General Assembly Council in announcing the grant 
recipients.  Between the time the grant program was announced in May and 
the deadline for applications in early September, 987 congregations 
requested a total of nearly $20 million. 
 
     "This program has turned out to be a symbol of the [biblical] story of 
the loaves and fishes," said the Rev. Frank Beattie, NMD's associate 
director for evangelism and church development, who administered the grant 
program, "using $2.5 million to feed $19 million of appetite." 
 
     Beattie, who retired at the conclusion of the GAC's Sept. 25-29 
meeting, called the grant program "the highlight of my ministry."  He said 
the hundreds of grant applications "told amazing stories of creative 
mission and powerful programs" occurring throughout the Presbyterian 
Church. 
 
     Grant proposals requested funds for such projects as expanding a 
kitchen to enable a day-care program, refurbishing a sanctuary that is used 
as a homeless shelter during the week, providing playground equipment for a 
church that has no children of its own but wants to provide a safe place 
for kids in its neighborhood, and supplying a sound system for a lounge 
area to attract neighborhood young people. 
 
     Beattie said grant seekers went to great lengths to dramatize their 
needs.  "Some sent in blueprints -- pages and pages of blueprints," he 
reported, "while others sent in penciled diagrams."  He said other 
proposals were received in the form of videotapes, audiotapes or 
photographs, including " a picture of a high heel stuck in a crack in a 
sidewalk to illustrate the church's need for a new walkway." 
 
     One church's choir created an anthem describing their proposal and 
sent in a recording of that, said Beattie with a grin. 
 
     He said the volume of grant requests confirmed what church officials 
have long known, "that deferrred maintenance has taken its toll -- there is 
tremendous need out there."  But also, Beattie added, "the proposals 
indicate that there is a great demand for positive partnership between the 
General Assembly and its congregations." 
 
     But the key benefit of the grant program, Beattie said, "is the hope 
that has been fostered in many, many congregations."  He said numerous 
churches have thanked him for the grant program because, "even though they 
know there is not enough money to go around, just the prospect of a grant 
has energized them to consider mission and ministry that they had despaired 
of ever being able to do. And many of them, having dreamed the big dreams, 
are now determined to do more." 
 
     Hawley said that "a lot of creativity is going into conversations on 
how to develop the means to meet the other needs." 
 
[Editor's note: The complete list of churches receiving Mission Capital 
Grants will be published in the next edition of "NEWS BRIEFS," after all 
the churches who applied and all the churches who were awarded grants have 
been formally notified.] 

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