The Year in Review
Calendar year 2012 was a “high growth” year for the Florida United Methodist Foundation. Despite a slow economic recovery and fluctuations in the markets, the Foundation closed its books on Dec. 31 with $264.6 million in assets under management. That figure reflects growth of more than $10 million over the previous year, and helps the Foundation carry out its mission: “to strengthen ministries of United Methodist churches and agencies by promoting comprehensive Christian stewardship through education, consulting, development and financial services.”
Investment growth
During the 12-month period from Dec. 31, 2011, investment accounts showed strong performance, growing by a total of $3.2 million and producing more than $2 million in earnings for churches.
According to Foundation Treasurer Pam Hicks, “there has been strong growth in the area of planned giving. The number of trusts, donor-advised funds and charitable gift annuities increased during the period by $1.3 million, and at the same time, $1.4 million was paid out to churches and other United Methodist charities from existing planned giving instruments.” The Foundation manages a total of $35.2 million in planned gifts that benefit United Methodist institutions and $3.3 million in Foundation endowments.
Philanthropy
The Foundation received a $50,000 remainder gift from a charitable gift annuity set up by Mrs. Alice W. Lockmiller of Ft. Myers. She designated $20,000 to the Development Fund’s loan program for churches and approximately $30,000 to the Foundation’s unrestricted endowment fund.
The Foundation also received $100,000 from the Alice G. Lindstrom Trust for the Development
Fund’s loan program for churches. Mrs. Lindstrom was a long-time member of Trinity UMC, Bradenton. University Carillon Church of Oviedo will benefit from a “donor advised fund” established by a church member who wishes to remain anonymous. The gift is a tithe on earnings from the sale of a long-time family business. The donor family will provide recommendations on how the funds may be disbursed by the Foundation. Some of the money will be used as a challenge grant to stimulate giving to the church’s capital campaign.
Warren W. Willis Camp, Hyde Park UMC and the Foundation are among the United Methodist charities benefitting from the Dorothy E. Ebersbach Trust. Details of Ms. Ebersbach’s inspiring life, including her patriotic exploits in World War II, can be found in the “donor spotlight” column on page 7.
In her trust, she endowed two scholarships for Hyde Park UMC and donated $100,000 to the Together! Campaign for Kids and Camps, a gift that was matched by a challenge grant given by donors Dan and Trish Bell of Coral Gables.
Development Fund
Total funds under management in the Development Fund in 2012 were $129.2 million. Of that amount, $6.7 million was loaned to churches for capital projects, boosting the total Foundation loan Continued on next page.
portfolio to almost $107 million. Loans committed during 2012 covered a variety of needs. The smallest loan, $20,000 to Carol City UMC in Miami, was used to purchase a new HVAC system. The largest, a joint loan with the Committee for New Church Development (CFNCD), enabled Life Song UMC to purchase land and buildings it has been leasing since 2006 in the Alafaya Village shopping center in East Orlando. The church has taken ownership of the shopping center, using some of the buildings for its expansion needs and selling or leasing out the rest. See full story on page 5.
Board Chair
President
In addition to its financial services, the Foundation provided vital stewardship education programs to individuals and churches, including the annual Stewardship Summit for laity and clergy, R-10 clergy retirement seminar and an annual Clergy and Church Finance seminar. Foundation staff also met confidentially with churches regarding financial issues, counseled churches on developing and maintaining an endowment program, and met privately with prospective donors who wished to make a planned gift to their church.
Looking toward the future
Outreach
We celebrate the fact that 68 percent of the churches of the Florida Annual Conference were in relationship with the Foundation during 2012 through a participation account, mortgage or construction loan or an Investment Management Agreement (IMA).
Throughout 2012, the Foundation conducted a strategic planning process to chart its future growth. The plan will be implemented between 2013 and 2017 and places a heightened emphasis on:
• Communications
• Innovative Products and Services
• Collaborative Partnerships
• Comprehensive Christian Stewardship
$3.5 Million Loan Helps Church Take Next Step in Ministry
It takes a village to raise a child, but a village is giving LifeSong Church the space it needs to expand its ministry with families in East Orlando.
It’s called Alafaya Village, a business and retail plaza with 50,000 square feet of leasable space.
The nearly seven-year-old United Methodist church was able to purchase the complex in January through loans of $2.6 million from the Florida United Methodist Foundation and $900,000 from the Florida Conference New Church Development Committee.
The church plans to sell or lease the buildings it doesn’t need and keep the building it has rented there since launching in September 2006. It will also expand into the space next door, making it a ministry center for children and youth.
The new addition will include an indoor playground with high-end equipment left by a former tenant, space for worship and study Sunday mornings, and a coffee bar for parents and small groups.
“This is a huge blessing to us to have this kind of advantage to do ministry,” said the Rev. Lyndol Loyd, pastor of the church. “The fact that we can expand has really helped us be able to move forward.”
Framework for ministry
Loyd says renting space in the Village — with assistance from the conference’s East Central District
— gave the church a permanent presence and “the leverage we needed to make it.”
Unlike new churches that start in schools and movie theaters, LifeSong was able to use its facility all week, opening a preschool that provided revenue for the church.
“More importantly than the revenue stream has been the families it has brought to us,” Loyd said. The preschool now serves more than 100 children.
When the shopping center was foreclosed upon, church leaders offered to purchase their building, but the bank refused to sell just one of the Village’s seven buildings. In late 2011, the church, the Committee for New Church Development and the Foundation analyzed the benefits of buying the entire complex.
Selling and renting the extra buildings would generate income that could be applied to the mortgage, ultimately making the monthly payment much lower than what the church was previously paying in rent, said Andy Craske, vice president of loans for the Foundation.
And by owning its building, without financial help from the district, the church has become a chartered congregation.
“A church must show that it’s self-sufficient in order to charter,” Craske said. “The rent level … was keeping them back from that.”
LifeSong did charter and celebrated that milestone Jan. 27, 2013.
Connecting with neighbors
LifeSong’s ministry, Loyd says, is all about helping “people in East Orlando experience life in its fullness.”
Children and teens at the eight elementary and two middle schools near the church are a key focus of that mission. Avalon Middle has 1,600 students in a facility built for 900; Timber Creek High has 3,000.
“So you can see the population base is substantial,” Loyd said.
And at 46, he says he is one of the oldest people in a “very young” congregation. Of the 350 people who attend regularly, 125 are children and youth.
LifeSong ministers to them, Loyd says, by focusing on family-related themes, like finances, vocation and busyness.
“There are a lot of people out here who are striving to give their children every single opportunity … except they aren’t thinking about the spiritual well-being of their children,” Loyd said. “We’re trying to wave the flag and say, ‘We’re here to be the church for you, and we want you to think about your family’s spiritual well-being.’ ”
“That’s what we have to offer in large part in East Orlando,” he adds. “Helping people understand what Jesus was talking about when he said ‘life in its fullness,’ not what society says is living life in its fullness.”
* Tita Parham is a freelance writer, editor and communications consultant based in Apopka, Florida.
Officers & Directors of the Foundation 2012-2013
• Rev. Mark Becker – Pastor, Orange Park United Methodist Church.
• Michael L. Bell – Executive Director, Florida Council on Economic Education. Member of Heritage United Methodist Church, Clearwater.
• David Butcher – Director of Civil Engineering, BCI Engineering, Lakeland. Member of First United Methodist Church, Plant City.
• Rev. Eduardo Cortez – Pastor, Iglesia Metodista Unida Nuevo Vida, Ocala.
• Sallie Shelton Culver – Retired Assistant Principal, Spruce Creek High School, Port Orange. Member of Stewart United Methodist Church, Daytona Beach.
• Ann Eppinger – President, Eppinger and Associates, LLC. Member of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, Orlando.
• P. J. Gardner – Managing Member, AGW Capital Advisors. Member of Hyde Park United Methodist Church, Tampa.
• Charles Hackney – Manatee County Property Appraiser. Member of First United Methodist Church, Bradenton.
• Beverly Judge – Retired Executive, Odyssey Networks. Member of Coronado Community United Methodist Church, New Smyrna Beach.
• Rev. Geraldine McClellan – Pastor, Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church, Gainesville.
• Julia Mercier – Partner, Mercier and Cartland, PA, Englewood. Member of Englewood United Methodist Church.
• Rev. Walter E. Monroe Jr. – Chaplain, Bethune-Cookman University, Daytona Beach.
• Rev. Thom Shafer – Associate Vice President of Advancement, Florida Southern College. Member of First United Methodist Church, Lakeland.
• Dennis Vlassis – President and Chief Operating Officer, Gulf Stream Builders Supply. Member of Faith United Methodist Church, Boynton Beach.
• Robert White – President, White and Luczak, P.A. Member of Asbury United Methodist Church, Maitland.
Officers of the Foundation
• Chairperson: Rev. Mark Becker
• Vice-Chairperson: Julia Mercier
• Secretary: Dennis Vlassis
• Asst. Secretary: Ginny Wood
• Treasurer: Pam Hicks
• Asst. Treasurer: Margaret Cox
• President: Wee-Li Tan
• Vice-Presidents: Bonnie Ogie-Kristianson, John D. Peterson, Suzanne McGovern, Andrew Craske and J. Thomas Wilkinson
Nonvoting, Ex Officio Directors
• Bishop Kenneth H. Carter, Jr. – Bishop, Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church
• Dr. Montfort Duncan – Executive Director of New Church Development, Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church
• Milton E. (“Mickey”) Wilson – Treasurer, Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church
Donor Honors Commitment to Church and Country
Dorothy Ebersbach of Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa led an extraordinary life.
She grew up in Ohio, but moved to Tampa in the 1930s to work in a family construction business. While there, she obtained her pilot’s license. Later, she was one of only 1,100 women nationwide to be accepted as a member of the elite Women’s Air Force Service Pilots, or “WASPs,” as they were called in World War II.
These brave women served as test pilots who also helped ferry planes from one strategic location to another and frequently towed targets for service men to shoot at during gunnery practice.
After the war was over, most of the women found it difficult to find jobs in aviation, so Ms. Ebersbach went back to school and got a degree in nursing at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. She worked as a nurse for the Hillsborough County Health Department in Tampa until her retirement in 1975.
In 2010, when Ms. Ebersbach was in her ’90s, she and other surviving members of WASP were
awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest civilian award, for their service in World War II.
Throughout her life, Ms. Ebersbach was devoted to her church. Furthermore, she seemed to practice the Wesleyan adage to “earn all you can, save all you can and give all you can.”
Upon her death, she endowed two scholarships at Hyde Park and donated $100,000 to the Together! Campaign for Kids and Camps, a gift that was matched by a challenge grant given by donors Dan and Trish Bell of Coral Gables. Other beneficiaries include: The United Methodist Higher Education Foundation, Feeding America Tampa Bay and the International Women’s Air & Space Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. In true pioneering spirit, she also established an academic center for flight nursing – the only one of its kind in the United States – at Case Western Reserve University.
Her legacy will make a difference to future generations for years to come.
Dorothy Ebersbach, far right, seated on wing, was a pilot for the WASPs in World War II. Dorothy Ebersbach in full flight gear.
Florida United Methodist Foundation, Inc. P. O. Box 3549 • Lakeland, FL 33802-3549
