A lot of good ideas start with the question “What if…?”

    Pastor Dennis Taylor, First Baptist Okmulgee, tossed this type of question to a group of business men in his congregation as they planned to update their church and renovate a room for their youth.

    “What if instead of raising money to pay for construction, we challenged our church to raise a million dollars to put in an endowment and let the endowment pay for the construction?” he asked.

     This wasn’t the way it had always been done, though.

     “I told them that I know it’s a new way to think about things, and I know it’s never been done this way before, but to just consider it. At first I think they thought I’d taken leave of my senses,” Rev. Taylor said. “In a couple of weeks, though, they came to me and said that they loved the idea. So we began to put feet to the idea and started a three-year pledge program just like you would do for construction of a building.”

    The church created its endowment through The Foundation and took out a $250,000 loan because “we knew that any interest paid to the Foundation would go back into ministry,” Rev. Taylor said.  “Then we let the returns off the endowment pay the loan back.”

First Okmulgee paid off its 15-year note with the endowment in just under five years. Although the church did not meet its goal of raising a million dollars, the endowment continues to grow today and is on its way to $900,000.

    A major benefit of the endowment is that the principal is never touched, and the money can be used for ministry long after the building project is complete.

    “Our younger families in the church bought into the endowment idea more quickly than the older people in our church did,” he explained. “I think the reason was because it was new; it had never been done that way before.”

    Kary Neal, 41 years old, grew up in First Okmulgee. He and his wife Jennifer, both teachers, have two children, Ashley, 16, and Taylor, 13, who are enjoying the new youth room addition to the church. The couple says creating an endowment helps a church to “dream big.”

    “When Dennis first shared the idea of the endowment we were excited,” said Neal. “We thought it was a good idea from the beginning. It is a way for us to help provide more for our church and church family at the present time, and it is also a way to make sure there is money available for the future of our church.”

      The money will allow the church family to go on mission trips and help in the community, across the state, and internationally, Neal said.

     “The most exciting vision for the future of our church is, ‘If we can dream it, we can do it.’ This endowment is a tangible way for people to see ‘God-sized’ dreams. Often money is what hinders people from dreaming big. God will be able to work through us, our talents, and abilities to touch lives …and money will not be an issue,” Neal said.

    But there were concerns, including: What the money would be used for after the building was finished, as well as what constraints should be placed on the funds and how it will be managed for future generations.

    The concern resulted in this conclusion, “God has led us to be good stewards. We are going to have to leave this as unrestricted as we can and let the next generation be responsible to God in how they handle it,” Rev. Taylor explained. “We want it to be available to future generations to manage and use…    They will give an account as to how they use it just as we have to give an account for God’s leadership for helping us to establish it.”

    Whoever gives to the endowment will serve the Lord in this community, in this church, and to the world for as long as it endures, he said.

    This type of investment is one that is truly selfless in that it is made with no expectation of return in the form of profit or gratitude.  Thankfully there are Christians surrounding us who are willing to invest themselves in our future.  Paul assisted Titus, a Gentile, in this way by introducing him to a relationship with Christ and helping him prepare to minister in Crete.  Paul wrote in Titus 1:4 “To Titus, my true son in our common faith:  Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.  The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.  Paul must have known that he would not return to Crete to see Titus’ progress as he wrote but yet he was still willing to mentor him. 

    I am often reminded of those Christians who have helped me as I work with endowment donors at the Foundation.  These committed believers have made arrangements for gifts that will minister beyond their own lives.  An endowment gift is unique in that it is a perpetual fund.  The principal gifts are invested for long term growth while also providing income now for the ministries that benefit from them.  As the value of the fund grows, the income available to these ministries also increases.  Over time, it is not unusual for these funds to distribute more than the original gift.  For example, if a $100,000 endowment was established in 1988 from an estate, that fund would have distributed over one and a half times the original gift by the end of 2007.  More specifically, the ministry benefiting from these distributions would have received $178,656 and the fund would have been valued at $263,584 at the end of 2007.

    I encourage you to consider what lasting impact you want to have on God’s kingdom.  In addition to the personal investment you make in other believers, you can also make a lasting financial impact on ministries you love.  An endowment gift, as part of your estate plan, is a simple way to provide a future gift of a percentage of your estate.  Your gift does not have to be $100,000 as the example above.  The initial value of the gift is not as important as the knowledge that your gift has a lasting impact on every generation touched by the ministries you love. 

    My wife and I have made similar arrangements in our estate plan for our church and several Baptist ministries that are special to us.  We have even talked to our 13 year old son about these future gifts and why we value these ministries.  For us, our estate plan served as a teaching opportunity with our son.  After we are gone, we trust that our gifts will minister to others and serve as a testimony of our life of service in Christ.

    If you already have a will or revocable trust you can add this type of gift through a codicil or an amendment.  If you have not planned your estate, then the desire to leave an endowment gift is one of several reasons you should take care of this important step of stewardship.  For more information on how you can make a lasting impact please contact us at 800.949.9988.