wfn.org | Church Extension directors celebrate record pace of

["Communication Ministries" <wshuffit@cm.disciples.org>]

new church starts and loan approvals
Date: July 9, 2002
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Melinda Mains
Phone: 317-713-2496
E-mail: mmains@cm.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

INDIANAPOLIS, IN, July 9, 2002  -- A celebration --
complete with grass skirts and makeshift musicians --
seemed appropriate at the close of Disciples-related Church
Extension's Board of Directors meeting here in mid June.
Board members learned loan approvals and new church starts
each are moving at a record pace.

New church starts among Disciples likely will exceed the
2002 goal of 38, with 33 new congregations already up and
running at the year's halfway point. The current pace of
about one new church per week promises to surpass a 50-year
record of 40 new starts set in 2001, according to Rick
Morse, team leader for New Church Ministry. Further,
fund-raising for the New Church Ministry Annual Fund is
also ahead of projections with 46 percent or $122,545 of
the $265,000 goal already met as of May 1, said Ellen
Mitchell, vice president for development.

Meanwhile, loan approvals have set a record pace for the
first six months of 2002, with $19.07 million approved in
the first six months of this year, helping finance 51
projects.

By the time the board meeting reached the staff/board
celebration, directors had learned of other solid signs of
continued health for Church Extension, despite the recent
economic downturn. As of April 30, reports showed loan
balances of $111.28 million, while Church Extension's
assets stood at $133.56 million. Investments placed with
Church Extension, a primary source of loan funds, totaled
more than $110 million.

The group spent portions of two days in conversation around
vitality, not only for Church Extension, but also for
Disciples at large. Guest speakers included Richard Hamm,
general minister and president, James Johnson, Christian
Church Foundation president, and Raymond Brown, Homeland
Ministries interim president. The three leaders addressed
congregational vitality as a quality to be nurtured by all
church manifestations.

Later, leaders from three Indianapolis Disciples
congregations, sharing their congregation's stories of
vitality, illustrated the importance of intentional
leadership development, taking risks and giving permission
to leaders to encourage their success.

This year, five seminary-trained leaders will emerge from
Light of the World Christian Church to be sent out for
ministry elsewhere. Another 45 are in one stage or another
of intentional training, one of Light of the World's
pastors, Deborah White, reported.

Randy Spleth, Geist Christian Church pastor, said
congregations that seek vitality will take risks. They may
sometimes fail, but they should "fail forward," he said.

How much risk are you willing to take to fulfill the gospel
and how much risk are you willing to allow others to take"
to accomplish that ministry, Spleth asked.

At Southport Christian Church, the ministry blooms in part
because of intergenerational connections of people who
"like to be together," said Jennifer Steele-Lantis. In her
ministry at Southport, she has experienced the congregation
as particularly permission-giving to all people.

In other action:

 The board approved the call of ordained Disciples
minister and former missionary William J. Singer, Jr., as
assistant treasurer, joining Mary Beight, assistant
treasurer and Erick Reisinger, executive vice president and
treasurer, in the Financial Resources Leadership Team.
Singer starts in August, leading Church Extension in the
areas of securities compliance and generating new investors
and investment vehicles, according to James Powell,
president. Singer, who has more than a decade of financial
and investment planning experience, serves as president of
Florida Financial Institute Inc., in Naples, Fla., a
mortgage brokerage business.

 Church Extension board members received a report that the
Board of Directors of the Pension Fund of the Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ) plans to provide health care
for new church pastors in their first three years. The plan
is established on a gradually increasing cost basis,
beginning with no charge the entire first year, according
to Arthur Hanna, Pension Fund president. The program will
provide essential health insurance for pastors and their
families called to start new Disciples churches.

                                     -- end --

Church Extension
Contact: Erick D. Reisinger
317-635-6500
bce@churchextension.org

02-64