wfn.org | Church foundation hires development director

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

June 19, 2002  News media contact: Joretta Purdue7(202) 546-87227Washington
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By United Methodist News Service

The United Methodist Church Foundation has hired John Rivas of El Paso,
Texas, to fill the newly created position of fund-raiser, effective July 1.

A certified fund-raising executive, Rivas will be responsible for developing
and managing a strategy for individual major and planned gifts, and for
identifying other funding sources on the denominational level. He will be
based in Nashville, Tenn.

Rivas will report to Byrd Bonner, the foundation's executive director in
Evanston, Ill., and Foye Webb, chief financial officer of the denomination's
Board of Discipleship in Nashville. The foundation and the board fund the
position jointly.

"We are very excited by the possibilities this cooperative staffing position
provides," said Sandra Kelley Lackore, staff head and treasurer of the
denomination's General Council on Finance and Administration in Evanston.
"It will also allow full access to valuable knowledge, experience, expertise
and relations within the staffs of GCFA, GBOD (the Board of Discipleship)
and the foundation, which will enhance its effectiveness." GCFA established
the foundation to encourage stewardship and further the missions and
ministries of the church.

"This partnership supports our mission for church stewardship and affirms
that one way Christians respond to their call to discipleship is through the
giving and sharing of resources," said Karen Greenwaldt, chief executive of
the discipleship board.

A member of the Cross of the Hills United Methodist Church in El Paso, Rivas
most recently served as director of development for the College of Health
and Social Sciences at New Mexico State University. He previously was
associate director of the El Paso Community College Foundation; founder and
executive director of Amy's House Inc. in Washington; director of
development of Community of Hope Inc. in Washington; and director of
development of the P.F. Breese Foundation in Los Angeles.

Rivas is a graduate of Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Okla., and
Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.
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United Methodist News Service
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