wfn.org | Kansas church takes business-like approach to funding growth

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Sept. 8, 2000        News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville,
Tenn.     10-21-71B{397}

NOTE: United Methodist News Service did an extensive feature on the Church
of the Resurrection on April 20. See UMNS story #213, "Everyone gets
'mugged' at booming Kansas City church," at http://umns.umc.org on the
Internet.

By United Methodist News Service

The fastest-growing congregation in the United Methodist Church is taking an
unusual approach to raising money for its growth.

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kan., is
creating a commercial company and plans to offer people an opportunity to
invest in it. The company is a limited liability corporation called COR
Development LLC. The plan is to raise $16 million to finance the purchase of
47 acres around the church. About 15 acres would be given back to the
church, and the remainder would be developed commercially.
 
COR Development made a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on
July 18 for an offering of 1.6 million units, which would be priced at $10
per share. The units, though available to the public, will not be listed on
any national exchange or securities market, according to the filing. Church
officials have said they hope the offering becomes effective later this
month.

The investment offering is stirring attention for a church that already has
a reputation for new ideas. The congregation is innovative in nearly every
aspect of church life -- how it works with visitors, handles Sunday school
and Bible study classes, carries out ministries and tries to guide the
spiritual growth of its members.

Church of the Resurrection was founded 10 years ago by the Rev. Adam
Hamilton, then 25, who still leads the church as senior pastor. Since then,
the congregation has grown to 5,700 adult members, and children bring the
total up to around 8,000, according to the Rev. David Van Giesen, who
provides administrative leadership as executive pastor of the church.
Average weekly worship attendance is about 5,200, with six services held, he
said.

"We take in from 100 to 125 new adult members a month," Van Giesen said.
"We'll be in the 1,300 new member range this year as we were last year."

That kind of growth is driving the need for a larger church campus. Located
in a fast-growing corridor of Kansas City, the land around the church isn't
cheap at $250,000 an acre.

The church was already in debt and was beginning a fund-raising drive for a
new sanctuary and other additions. "The command was to figure out a way to
buy this land but not ask our church members to come up with the money,
other than to enter into the corporation" as investors, Van Giesen said. A
builder who belongs to the church suggested the idea, he said.

Once the land is paid for, COR Development will give 15 acres back to the
church, according to the SEC filing. The members of the corporation can
consider that a part of their church giving, which would be tax-deductible,
Van Giesen said. Probably 85 to 90 percent of the investors will be church
members, he said.

The other 32 acres will be developed into office, retail and parking space.
Parking will be permitted at the commercial buildings for people attending
worship services and other activities at the church, according to the SEC
filing.

COR Development will generate money by selling undeveloped pad sites during
the next three years, developing and leasing space in commercial buildings,
and probably selling commercial buildings at a later point, according to the
filing.

In addition to COR Development, a second corporation called CORnerstone
Development LLC has been created to manage the property that's developed.
The management company will remain privately owned, Van Giesen said.

"Firewalls" are being put in place to keep the church and the corporations
separate, he said. "They will elect their own officers and leaders and board
members. We will not do that through the church."

Officials with the denomination's General Council on Finance and
Administration in Evanston, Ill., are not aware of a church financing its
growth in quite this way.

"The only thing that even comes close ... is that some local churches have
sold investments like bonds to their church members to finance
construction," said Sandra Kelley Lackore, top staff executive with GCFA.
"... But I think that's very different from this.

"In this day and age, we have a new generation of people that are trying to
think out of the box," she said. They must be careful about following the
rules and regulations, but as long as they do, church law shouldn't hamper
them, she said.

No matter what the venture, "they have to do their homework," Lackore said.

The foremost thing that a church must ask is: "Is this in keeping with the
mission and ministry of the church?" said Mary Logan, general counsel for
GCFA. If it is, then the church must find ways to minimize its risk, she
said. This kind of out-of-the-box idea isn't for every church, she said. It
requires a lot of legal work, and a small church without the necessary
expertise might not find it satisfying, she said.

Such an investment offering shouldn't pose a risk for the denomination or
the annual conference, Logan said. "This is purely a local church activity."

Though geographically in the Kansas East Annual Conference, the church has
been a Missouri West Conference church since its founding. "The church was
intended to be in Missouri and it ended up two miles in Kansas," Van Giesen
said. The conferences' bishops agreed in 1990 that it would be a Missouri
church until Jan. 1, 2001, when it will become a member of Kansas East.

The Church of the Resurrection consulted with the Kansas City South
District's board of location and building about the idea for the investment
offering, Van Giesen said. After study and debate, the board approved the
idea, saying that nothing in the denomination's Book of Discipline addressed
such a situation.

Offering aside, the church is planning a fund-raising drive to raise money
for building a new sanctuary by 2004 - with a seating capacity for 5,000 to
7,000 people -- along with other facilities such as a child-care center and
a gymnasium. Initially, the church will probably have to raise about $29
million, and the long-term effort could be in the vicinity of $80 million,
Van Giesen said. "We're going to have to build a lot of things."

The space is needed. With such a large congregation, the Church of the
Resurrection has 300 or more ministries. Those include 56 Disciple Bible
study classes, with more than 1,000 adult students, and weekly Sunday school
classes that draw 1,000 to 1,200 children, Van Giesen said.

"What we try to do around here is just stand out of the way and let God do
what He wants to do in this place."

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United Methodist News Service
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