wfn.org | Grant Elected to Head Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program

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17-October-1996 
 
 
96416          Grant Elected to Head Presbyterian 
                   Investment and Loan Program 
 
                         By Julian Shipp 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--The Rev. Kenneth G.Y. Grant has accepted a call to be 
president and chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
Investment and Loan Program, Inc. (PILP). 
 
     Grant, who takes the helm of the fledgling corporation following an 
extensive search for a new leader, was unanimously elected Oct. 6 during 
the PILP board of director's meeting here. 
 
     Grant was previously associate director of Churchwide Partnership 
Programs in the National Ministries Division (NMD). Before that, he was 
executive presbyter for the Presbytery of Boston and was a pastor in Boston 
at Hartford Street Presbyterian Church and the Federated Church of Ashland, 
Mass.  Grant also holds a Master of Business Adminitration (M.B.A) degree. 
 
     Grant assumes his duties from the Rev. John M. Coffin, who served as 
PILP's interim president.  PILP's previous president, the Rev. Robert D. 
Curtis, was dismissed in April by PILP's board of directors roughly six 
weeks after taking office, due to "differences in [his and the board's] 
vision for the direction of the program," officials said. 
 
     Grant told the Presbyterian News Service that while the PILP board 
searched for a new president, he and a number of confidantes prayerfully 
"tested his role in the denomination." 
 
     "It's a call," Grant replied when asked what prompted him to accept 
his new position. "You and I [as church servants] are not engaged in 
occupations, we have a vocation. We live to the glory of God.  Time will 
tell if we discerned the Spirit's prompting correctly. The board and I 
believe we acted wisely." 
 
     Among other functions, PILP seeks investments from members of 
Presbyterian churches and then extends loans to congregations for capital 
construction for new church development and renovation to existing 
structures. PILP lends construction money to churches at rates lower than 
those charged by commercial banks. 
 
 
     Moreover, PILP provides Presbyterians with a safe investment 
opportunity that pays CD-comparable rates while charging less for borrowing 
than the going commercial rate at banks. 
 
     According to church officials, PILP presently has assets of roughly $8 
million and commitments for an additional $10 million. The corporation, 
which has a 13-member board and a five-person loan review committee, has 
already received more than 13 inquiries and is currently pursuing them. 
 
     The General Assembly Council has committed $5 million to PILP. Other 
church leaders and Presbyterian corporations have indicated that they are 
also ready to invest. Coffin said that by Jan. 1, 1997, it is hoped that a 
general investment certificate offering, available to all Presbyterians, 
will be launched. Roughly $283,000 has been invested or pledged personally 
by  PILP's directors and staff members. 
 
     "I thought this was a significant step for the board to take," Coffin 
said. "It showed the board's confidence and trust in the program and I 
thought it was a good way for us to launch it." 
 
     Grant described PILP as  "unique in Presbyterian mission," a program 
that meets the denomination's longing to be effective evangelists and 
"build the churches of the next generation." Done well, Grant said, PILP's 
result will be "energetic Presbyterian churches designed to meet the needs 
of those who haven't yet heard the good news." 
 
     "PILP is a `between the parties' program," Grant explained. "It moves 
resources between investors and borrowers, growing dollars dedicated to 
building and rehabilitating churches. The investor enjoys real financial 
reward and tangible participation in the hard and exciting work of church 
development. She or he does well while doing good. 
 
     "Likewise, the session that borrows from PILP gets a great mortgage 
rate plus people across the church who are pulling and praying for a 
congregation's success, "Grant said. "Spiritual formation meets capital 
formation, resulting in community formation." 
 
     Yet, at a time when church leaders are clamoring to reestablish 
churchwide trust and a connectional system of communication, how does Grant 
hope to obtain the confidence of synod and presbytery executives, who are 
surely the linchpin of a successful investment program? 
 
     "I believe that [trust] starts with the trust of the leadership 
community and particularly the executive community," Grant said. "It is 
from this community that I have come and to which I return again and again. 
I look forward to strengthening existing [relationships] and building new 
relationships within the ranks of synod and presbytery executives. 
 
     "I am sure that as important as my trustworthiness is, the 
corporation's trustworthiness is also," Grant said. "PILP must build trust. 
It is a new program, as yet untested. With the excellence of PILP's board 
and the commitment of sessions, middle governing bodies, and the General 
Assembly, I believe that it will build a track record worthy of trust." 
 
     With the addition of Grant, PILP is now fully staffed. In September, 
the corporation appointed Jerie Britton of Houston as its new marketing 
director; and Eric A. Moore of Syracuse, N.Y.; as director of loan 
operations. After a career spanning 17 years in the banking industry, Moore 
spent the last 12 years as associate for finance for the Synod of the 
Northeast. 
 
     Britton has worked as a regional consultant with The Bicentennial 
Fund, as director of administrative services with Houston Metropolitan 
Ministries and as business administrator for Central Presbyterian Church of 
Houston. 
 
     According to Coffin, nine states have approved a limited offering for 
investors in which up to $30 million can be invested immediately. They are: 
New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, 
Arkansas, Texas and New Mexico. 
 
     Individual investors and session who do not reside in one of these 
nine states are not yet able to do business with PILP.  But for those in 
the eligible states, Coffin said, PILP sells both term and adjustable-rate, 
congregation friendly notes, with terms from one to five years and with 
rates that are competitive with the nation's top 100 banks. 
 
     Congregations considering a building project should contact PILP for 
information on loans.  Program information and applications are available 
at 1-800-903-PILP. The loan committee and staff are processing loans now. 
 
     Synods and presbyteries can invest now, too. They are not confined by 
the limited offering and can call PILP's 800 number to obtain an offering 
circular. Again, investments can be at fixed or variable rates from one to 
five years. 
 
     Officials in the denomination's financial circles -- like the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Foundation,  PILP's Board of Directors and 
Corporate and Administrative Services (CAS) -- say Grant's background and 
experience with the denomination made him an ideal choice for president. 
 
      For instance, Larry Carr, president and C.E.O. of the Presbyterian 
Church (U.S.A.) Foundation, told the Presbyterian News Service that Grant 
has a reputation as a "fine administrator, a strong proponent of 
partnership and an effective practitioner in partnership in the work of 
General Assembly agencies with middle governing bodies and congregations." 
Those qualities, Carr said, are vital for PILP's leader. 
 
     "I think [Grant] will do a wonderful job and he will have my 
wholehearted support and the support of the whole Foundation," Carr said. 
 
 
          "[Grant] has a background that will help him make the contacts 
and establish the relationships to make this a successful venture," said 
G.A. "Pat" Goff, CAS director. 
 
     "I think the contacts [Grant] has across the church, particularly with 
synods and presbyteries, are a definite asset," Coffin said. "[Grant] also 
brings an M.B.A. degree to the task and I think the two are a winning 
combination that will create trust across the church in terms of selling 
this program." 
 
     So opined Alvin N. Puryear, PILP board chair of the Bronx, N.Y. 
 
     "[Grant] has the skills to hit the ground running and to go into the 
churches and the presbyteries and talk about the program the church outfits 
with the mission," Puryear said. "To get a new program up and going, we 
needed someone who really had an understanding of the church, which is a 
very complex body." 
 
     Yet despite his qualifications and experience, Grant's election comes 
at a time when several GAC members have openly questioned the 
denomination's diligence and consistency in interviewing and hiring racial 
ethnic minorities and women for middle and upper-level management 
positions. 
 
     Responding to this, Puryear said a five-member search committee 
launched a nationwide hunt for presidential candidates this summer for the 
board's review. He said the committee emphasized locating women and racial 
ethnic minorities, but, including Grant, there were a total of four 
finalists--all of whom were Caucasian males. Puryear said two of the 
candidates were clergy, one was a bank executive, and the other a financial 
executive for a utilities industry. 
 
     During September, the search committee conducted two interviews and 
whittled their selection process down to Grant. PILP's board then elected 
Grant as president. Puryear said when  PILP conducted its own search last 
December for a potential president, they received more than 100 
resumes--none were from women and "very few" were from racial ethnic 
minorities. 
 
     "One of the problems, quite honestly, was that most potential 
candidates at this point in their careers were already making well up into 
six-figure [incomes]," Puryear said. "And they're not ready to come to the 
church for a considerable pay cut. We made the effort to locate [women and 
racial ethnic minorities] but it was not surprising to me or the board that 
the finalists were all white males." 
 
     "I know and affirm the need for consistency and diligence in the 
interviewing, hiring and professional development of racial ethnic 
minorities and women for executive positions," Grant told the Presbyterian 
News Service. "I will work for an inclusive leadership table at which the 
voices of racial ethnic folks and women are heard, not from the community's 
edges, but from positions at the core." 

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