wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Mission-funds campaign tops halfway point

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Note #8971 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05561
Oct. 20, 2005

Mission-funds campaign tops halfway point

Pledges from Kentucky, California lift Hearts & Hands total to $22 million

by Toya Richards Hill							     
    

LOUISVILLE - At $22 million, the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands
(MIJHH) fund-raising campaign is more than halfway to its goal.

	Two new pledges - of about $1 million from Mid-Kentucky Presbytery
and $3.5 million from Santa Barbara Presbytery - pushed the campaign past its
midpoint, according to the Rev. Emily Odom, the campaign's associate for
communications.

	The funds-development effort of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was
launched in 2002 with a goal of raising $40 million by 2007 for international
mission personnel and church growth. The campaign has targeted individual
donors and focused on partnering with presbyteries for specific mission
causes.

	Mid-Kentucky Presbytery, which has 57 churches and 11,291 members,
endorsed the capital campaign on Sept. 17. One-tenth of its pledged $1
million will be used to pay administrative costs; the rest will go to MIJHH
projects.
	
	The presbytery also intends to raise an additional $450,000 for three
local projects - a $150,000 grant it already has received from the Synod of
Living Waters, and others totaling $300,000 that it hopes to receive through
the General Assembly. 

	The local projects include a new-church development in Mount
Washington, KY; a coordinated youth-and-young-adult ministry with the
presbytery's four African-American congregations; and a new ministry to its
growing Hispanic/Latino population.

	"The major city in mid-Kentucky is the city of Louisville," and "the
city is expanding" into surrounding counties and once-rural towns like Mount
Washington, said the Rev. Betty L. Meadows, Mid-Kentucky's general presbyter.
"As we see the city expand, we are mandated by scripture to teach people
about Christ." 

	"It's way past time for new church development" in the area, she
said, adding: "We're trying to be proactive ... in the areas that are
increasing in numbers."

	She added: "There was no way our committee ... would raise money just
for Anglo populations in the suburbs. That's why it became so broad, and so
balanced."

	Bill Saul, chair of the MIJHH steering committee, said campaign
staffers and representatives of Mid-Kentucky Presbytery have been in
discussions for almost a year.

"Obviously we're really, really pleased" with the presbytery's pledge, he
said. "For a presbytery that size, it was very gratifying."

	The $3.5 million pledge from Santa Barbara Presbytery in the Synod of
Southern California and Hawaii also was a major step forward, campaign
officials said.

	On Sept. 24, "we voted to officially join the campaign," said Ken
Working, executive presbyter of the presbytery. "We have been impressed by
the focus of this campaign."

	Working said the $3.5 million will be used mainly for new-church
development, on the presbytery level. Among the projects in the works, he
said, are two new Hispanic churches and another new-church development that
is expected to be multicultural.

	"Our long-term commitment in this presbytery has been church
development," Working said, and joining the MIJHH campaign "was a logical way
to connect our presbytery with some of the strong work that is being done."

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