ELCA NEWS SERVICE

February 15, 2008  

ELCA Mission Investment Fund Announces Challenge Gift to Fund for Leaders
08-015-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Fund for Leaders announced a $1.5
million challenge gift from the Mission Investment Fund (MIF) of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The MIF gift
is the single largest cash donation ever given to the Fund for
Leaders.  It challenges the Fund to raise $3 million over a three-
year period to receive the gift.  The resulting endowment will
provide scholarship assistance to eligible students enrolled in a
qualified mission developer program at any of the eight ELCA
seminaries.
     The challenge gift was announced at a Feb. 4 consultation
here on seminary student debt convened by the Rev. Mark S.
Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop.
     The Fund for Leaders is an ELCA initiative to build an
endowed scholarship resource that provides tuition assistance to
qualified candidates studying at ELCA seminaries.  When fully
endowed the Fund's goal is to provide full-tuition assistance for
every ELCA seminary student committed to a future in parish
ministry.
     "We are delighted to receive this gift and this challenge
from the Mission Investment Fund.  Its size and scope are
transformative to our church's approach to training and
supporting those who want to start new ministries," said the Rev.
Paul N. Hanson, director, ELCA Fund for Leaders.
     "This church needs pastors who have the gifts and passion
for starting new congregations," said Christina Jackson-Skelton,
ELCA treasurer and president of the Mission Investment Fund.
"Through the establishment of the MIF Mission Developer
Scholarship, MIF is supporting the development of pastors who
will lead our outreach efforts in the coming years.  It is core
to what the Mission Investment Fund is all about -- supporting
the growth of the Lutheran church," she said.
     In 2007, the ELCA, through local and synod partnerships,
started 42 mission congregations in 27 states around the United
States and Caribbean.  There are currently 172 mission
congregations in various stages of development.
     "Mission developer pastors are uniquely qualified to enter
diverse settings and build Christian communities of disciples for
Jesus Christ, serving both the church and the world on behalf of
the ELCA," said the Rev. Ruben F. Duran, director for development
of new congregations, ELCA Evangelical Outreach and
Congregational Mission.
     "The Mission Investment Fund is constantly looking for ways
to build up and assist the ELCA in its vital ministry of starting
congregations.  We saw a unique opportunity to directly support
and encourage leaders who will start new ministries and further
God's kingdom," said Eva Roby, MIF vice president.

Fund for Leaders distributes $3 million to students
     Since 2000, the Fund for Leaders has distributed almost $3
million in scholarship support to 280 ELCA seminary students
enrolled at the eight ELCA seminaries.  Today, 38 Fund recipients
are serving in congregations and other ministry settings.
     The Fund is engaged in a three-year, million-dollar matching-
gift challenge.  The "Leadership Rising" challenge, announced in
October 2007, was initiated after several donors pledged $1
million to match 50 percent of gifts given to the Fund for
Leaders.  The goal of the challenge is to double the Fund's
endowment balance from $15 million to more than $30 million by
2010.
     Paul Hanson said the MIF challenge gift will compliment the
ongoing matching-gift challenge.  "Members of the church will now
have the option to financially support ordained and lay ministers
either through the general Fund for Leaders scholarship program
or to specifically support new mission developer pastors through
the endowed MIF Mission Developer Scholarship," he said.
     "Both opportunities remove the obstacles of seminary tuition
debt.  More than 70 percent of seminary graduates enter their
first calls with $38,000 of education debt on average.  It is
crucial that we as a church address this issue together," Paul
Hanson said.  "We have found that Fund recipients graduate with
one-third less debt than their classmates and are more able to
accept calls in the types of congregations where others cannot
afford to go," he said.
--
     The home page of the ELCA Mission Investment Fund is at
http://www.missioninvestmentfund.org and information about the
Fund for Leaders is at http://www.ELCA.org/fundforleaders on the
ELCA Web site.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
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