wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Opdyke named interim director of Mission Initiative

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Note #7930 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Jan Opdyke named interim director of Mission Initiative campaign
03383
September 11, 2003

Jan Opdyke named interim director of Mission Initiative campaign

By Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - Jan Opdyke, the west coast associate director for the Mission 
Initiative: Joining Hearts and Hands (MIJHH), has been named acting 
director of the five-year, $40 million campaign of the Presbyterian Church 
(USA).

The Mission Initiative was approved by the 2002 PC(USA) General Assembly 
and launched early this year to raise money for overseas missionaries and 
new church development and church redevelopment, particularly racial ethnic 
and immigrant congregations. So far, about $8 million has been raised.

Opdyke, a lifelong Presbyterian from Redlands, CA, assumes the post left 
vacant by the resignation of Ron Lundeen, who is leaving the MIJHH campaign 
after six months to join the faculty at Hartford Theological Seminary. He 
hired Opdyke to head up fundraising in the western U.S. last February.

After Opdyke's appointment Aug. 25 by the MIJHH steering committee, General 
Assembly Council executive director John Detterick said: "Jan Opdyke brings 
not only solid funds development experience but excellent management and 
administrative skills, having managed her own business for many years. I am 
delighted that she has accepted the responsibility of acting director and 
look forward to working with her."

Before coming to the MIJHH, Opdyke was a development consultant in her 
native California. She previously worked with Lundeen in the development 
office of San Francisco Theological Seminary, where she is completing a 
degree program. A commissioned lay pastor in the PC(USA), she works 
part-time in that capacity at Community Presbyterian Church in Redlands, 
where she resides with her husband and son.

"I am grateful that at every turn in my life there has been a Presbyterian 
congregation, ready and willing to nurture me and my family," Opdyke said. 
"I have experienced the transforming and redeeming Gospel of Jesus Christ 
first hand. It is my hope that through this campaign we will extend the 
heart of Christ and the hand of fellowship nationally and internationally."

MIJHH steering committee co-chair Bill Saul said, "We are so fortunate to 
have somebody with Jan's ability and dedication to the Church, and to the 
project, who is willing, capable, and available to fill in during this 
interim period. I don't believe that I've ever worked with anyone that is 
more capable or dedicated that Jan Opdyke. She is truly a diamond."

The next steering committee meeting is Nov. 10-11 in Louisville.

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