We form Christian leaders to proclaim the whole counsel of God throughout a changing world
Westminster Theological Seminary
We seek to make lifelong learners of the unsearchable riches of God in Christ as revealed in the pages of Scripture.
F rom the P reside n t
T
his is the most exciting time for the seminary that I’ve known during my 30 years in association with Westminster. And, this is the most hopeful I’ve been since beginning my service as President in 2005. Of course, we have all faced great challenges due to
a volatile economy globally and financial uncertainties at every turn. But God has faithfully sustained and advanced the Gospel work of Westminster through its 80 plus years of service to Christ and His kingdom of grace. The Lord has used generous supporters like you through the years to launch over 6,000 fully equipped alumni. We have seen the worldwide impact of Westminster in recent days grow and advance with our faculty’s ministry across the nation through our Full Confidence Tours, and around the world with their teaching in Europe, the UK, China, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh to name a few. Our present student body brings the seminary into direct contact with over 60 nations and over 100 denominations on a few square miles in the Philadelphia area. Our pursuit of theological integrity has restored Westminster to Reformed and Evangelical leadership globally in terms of Biblical authority and interpretation in a post-everything world. Our worldwide outreach has been enhanced by an ever deepening engagement with the best fruits of emerging technology. Our campus bookstore—www.wtsbooks.com—now serves the whole nation. Our outreach into popular culture and the public square has brought Westminster’s professors and their message and scholarship into national prominence. Examples include our primary website, wts.edu, with 7,000,000+ hits monthly, 90,000 unique visitors and 60,000 downloads daily from our faculty’s historic and present day lectures and chapel messages. Our other websites engage real-life in real-time, like TruthAboutDaVinci.com and its prequel, TruthAboutAngelsandDemons.com, and the national debate over marriage. Our Faculty has engaged the Manhattan Declaration and has had conferences on Science and Faith, Business Ethics Today, Preaching and has even enjoyed a #1 national best seller on America’s founding father—Washington’s Sacred Fire. And we’re just getting started! Are you keeping up with our faculty’s numerous, excellent writings? We truly need you, your prayers, your support, your encouragement and your partnership. For example, we have outgrown our campus. We must continue to raise needed funds and plan wisely for the future in an economically uncertain time. We have run out of space for our library that must continue to grow and develop to support our renowned PhD programs and thorough MDiv programs. We long for a chapel where our great Sovereign God, whom we serve, know and explain through His infallible and inerrant Word, can be worshipped by our community with the glory and majesty He alone deserves. Because Westminster boldly continues to impact our changing world, with God’s unchanging Word, we invite you to stand with us. Join us today in our mission to form Christian leaders to proclaim the whole counsel of God throughout a changing world.
Dr. Peter A. Lillback, President
O U R H istory & M ission
In more than eight decades Westminster has sent out over 6,000 graduates to more than 60 countries to serve the living God in every imaginable vocation: From South Korea where Rev. Dr. Jong-Yun Lee (PhD ’71), leads over 10,000,000 members of Presbyterian churches to Rev. Lee Veazey (MDiv ’05), faithfully preaching and living out God’s call in a church plant in Edgewood, Kentucky. Rev. Dr. Harry L. Reeder, III (MDiv ‘82 and trustee), Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, Alabama, planted Christ Covenant Presbyterian Church, Matthews, NC, in 1983 with 38 members which God grew to over 3,000 in 17 years. Philip Tachin and Cephas Tushima (PhDs ’09) returned to Nigeria to church plant, grow seminaries and to launch the Reformed Outreach Initiative to proclaim the Gospel to the Northern Nigerian tribes via electronic media and personal evangelism. Dr. Laura Layer, MD – pediatrics (MA ‘94) serves at Esperanza Healthcare, a multi-cultural ministry providing holistic healthcare to the Latino and underserved communities of Philadelphia, PA. Rev. Dr. Philip Ryken (MDiv ‘92 and trustee) is President of Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL, and a Teacher for The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Applying the Gospel to the auto sales industry in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and online, Fran McGowen (non-grad alumnus) founded www.carsense.com offering a no-haggle price below Blue Book. Professor Elizabeth Matthias (MDiv – Counseling ’99), prepares future biblical counselors at Martin Bucer Seminary in Berlin, Germany. Augustus Nicodemus Lopes (PhD ’95), chancellor of Mackenzie Presbyterian University in Sao Paulo, Brazil, promotes the Reformed faith among 43,000
students and 3,000 staff and faculty, most of whom are not believers. Se Ken Igor Kim (MDiv ’11) was raised in Moscow, Russia and plans to return and serve as a church planter and seminary professor. In just the last few years we have seen the worldwide impact of Westminster increase exponentially: Since 2009, Westminster faculty have taught in Europe, the United Kingdom, China, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and beyond. And Full Confidence conferences enabled them to speak nationwide on the trustworthiness of the Scripture in 2010-2011. Up to 90,000 new ‘lifelong learners’ worldwide go to our website—www.wts.edu—for lectures, chapels and sermons monthly. Every day about 60,000 ‘regulars’ revisit our audio archives. Westminster continues to train servant-leaders of Christ for His Church: In the U.S. and abroad, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) denominations include more than 800 ordained pastors from Westminster. Other Westminster alumni serve in over 100 denominations worldwide. And beyond clergy ministry, alumni serve the Lord as artists, bankers, engineers, computer professionals, physicians, politicians, publishers, sales executives, moms, relief workers, social workers, business administrators and family care givers, just to name a few. A Westminster education offers each student the training they need to fulfill their unique calling and God-given ministry anywhere in the world.
Our living graduates and alumni number over 6,000 and are serving in over 60 counties around the globe.
Tomorrow’s generation of reformed Christian leadership comes from your investment in Westminster today.
W hat you can give
The following are assets that you can give to support Westminster: Cash Gifts of cash are the simplest and easiest to make. They can fund most gift planning vehicles, including gifts that provide lifetime income. Marketable Securities Publicly traded stocks, bonds and mutual funds can be gifted to Westminster. As long as the specific security has been held by you for longer than one year, you will receive an income tax deduction for the full fair market value of the gift while avoiding any capital gains tax on the appreciation of the security (Gifts of marketable securities held by you for a year or less will yield an income tax deduction for only your tax basis). Real Estate Westminster can assist donors with gifts of improved, unimproved, commercial, residential and agricultural real estate. Westminster can offer flexible and innovative giving opportunities for gifts of real estate. You can give your entire interest in real estate or you can contribute less than your entire interest where you and Westminster become co-owners and share in sale proceeds according to applicable ownership percentages. Westminster’s agents and staff will work closely with you and your advisors to ensure a smooth transfer and sale of the property. Retirement Plan Assets Tax-deferred retirement plans, such as IRA, 401(k), and 403(b) accounts may represent a large portion of your estate assets, and can be a major factor in your planning. If the transfer of retirement accounts to surviving family members is not handled properly, your retirement assets could be subject to both heavy income taxes and estate taxes at your death. Partnering with Westminster enables you to preserve your assets through our tax-exempt status.
Fa s t Fa ct
Our married students outnumber singles 2 to 1
Business Interests/Closely Held Stock Family businesses offer unique opportunities for giving to Westminster. Whether your business interest is in the form of stock in a C Corporation or S Corporation or is an interest in a limited liability company, general partnership or limited partnership, Westminster’s knowledgeable gift planning agents and staff may give you fresh ideas or identify solutions to business planning problems which you can then review with your advisors. Life Insurance Westminster welcomes gifts of life insurance. You may own a life insurance policy which was issued at a time in your life when you needed the insurance to provide for loved ones in case of unexpected death, and which provides no current economic benefit to you. You can contribute significantly by naming Westminster as sole owner and beneficiary of such a policy. Tangible Personal Property Westminster is pleased to accept gifts of tangible personal property, such as antiques, coins, jewelry, and valuable artwork. The seminary will normally sell such items and apply the proceeds to current need. In such cases, your charitable income tax deduction will be your tax basis (usually your cost) at the time of the gift.
W ays you can give
Westminster can assist you in using the following gift planning vehicles to facilitate, enhance and encourage your gifts to the Seminary.
Life Income Gifts
Charitable Gift Annuity – For over a century, gift annuities have been a popular charitable option for educational institutions like Westminster. They generate life-long income, paying you an annual, semiannual or quarterly fixed annuity payment for the rest of your life. Benefits include: • Partial income tax deduction at time of contribution • Fixed lifetime income • Partially tax-free income • Deferral and partial avoidance of capital gains taxes (for gifts of appreciated securities) Charitable Remainder Trust – This is one of the most versatile tools in charitable gift planning. There are two basic types of Charitable Remainder Trusts: the charitable remainder unitrust (unitrust) and the charitable remainder annuity trust (annuity trust). Unitrust Benefits • Lifetime income • Partial income tax deduction at time of contribution • Avoidance of capital gains taxes at contribution and sale of appreciated property • Tax-free investment and reinvestment of trust property in a diversified portfolio • Professional fiduciary management services
Annuity Trust Benefits • Fixed lifetime income • Income tax deduction at time of contribution • Avoidance of capital gains taxes at contribution and sale of appreciated property • Ability to remember other charities Pooled Income Fund – The Westminster Pooled Income Fund allows you to contribute smaller amounts of cash or appreciated property than would be necessary if you were contributing property to a charitable remainder trust, yet it still provides many of the same financial and tax benefits. You can contribute cash and marketable securities in exchange for units in the fund. Benefits include: • Lifetime income • Partial income tax deduction at time of contribution • Fiduciary management and investment expertise of Westminster Seminary • Avoidance of capital gains taxes at contribution and sale of long-term capital gain property • Tax-free investment and reinvestment of long-term capital gain property in a diversified portfolio
Student tuition acounts for only 60 percent of the cost of their education at Westminster. Gifts at Death
Bequests – You can leave a legacy for future generations by giving a bequest to Westminster. The term “bequest” generally refers to gifts made at your death through your Will, revocable trust, insurance policy, retirement account or other estate planning technique. Potential benefits include: • Retain control and benefit of your assets during your lifetime • Decrease size of your taxable estate • Create a legacy that will significantly impact the future of Westminster • Create an endowment that will continue your lifetime giving to Westminster Charitable Lead Trust – A charitable lead trust can be created during your lifetime or at your death through your Will or revocable trust. A charitable lead trust pays annual income to Westminster for a term of years, or for the life of an individual, after which the trust’s assets are distributed to family members. Benefits include: • Reduce or eliminate gift and estate taxes on significant gifts to family
Donor Advised Fund – Westminster created its Donor Advised Fund to help enhance your giving to the seminary and to encourage and facilitate your giving to other qualified charities. The Donor Advised Fund provides an efficient, flexible way to make gifts of appreciated property as well as cash. Benefits include: • Partnership with Westminster • One stop giving • Charity recommendation • Charitable legacy • Advantages over commercial donor advised funds and private foundations • Financial strength Remainder Interest in Personal Residence or Farm – You can give a residence or farm to Westminster, receive an income tax deduction for doing so and still retain full use of the property during your lifetime. After you make the gift, nothing changes as far as the actual use of the property. Benefits include: • Immediate income tax deduction • Lifetime use of your residence or farm
• Make significant contributions to the Seminary
Other Planning Opportunities
Charitable Bargain Sale † Flexible Endowment † Revocable Gifts IRA Charitable Remainder Trust † Charitable Investment Trust
O U R P romise
At Westminster Theological Seminary, we take seriously our commitment to be a wise steward of each and every gift entrusted to us. We regularly pray for guidance and discernment in the priorities that characterize our actions and decisions. We acknowledge our responsibility to you, our benefactors, to provide you and your professional advisors with the expert assistance you need to meet the objectives of your financial and stewardship goals. For more than 80 years, Westminster has worked with its friends and supporters in the objectives and techniques of gift planning. One of the hallmarks of the history of giving to the Seminary is the care that is taken in managing and investing what is given. You can be assured that Westminster has the fiscal strength and institutional will to manage your gift in a prudent and productive manner. As we work together in partnership to advance Christian higher education, we look forward to growing with you as we move forward in a spirit of shared dependence upon God, relying on Him to sustain and multiply all our efforts.
Westminster Theological Seminary
P.O. Box 27009 Philadelphia, PA 19118 1-800-373-0119 www.wts.edu