July 4, 2012

Heartbeat, Not Heartache

Our churches "should be the heartbeat of mission and service, not the heartache of history and loss."

Today Congregational Seasons celebrates The Episcopal Church Building Fund (ECBF) for its passion, vision, and pastoral care of congregations that seek to be both vital and viable!

ECBF, you are the quintessential mustard seed story in The Episcopal Church. You have inspired more congregational work through the efforts of two people than organizations with many more staff and team members.

In ECBF's own words:

"The ECBF has developed a process to help congregations identify their place in the community — to understand their relevance; to build mission and value in the world around them, and to use their real-estate assets to develop financial self-sustainability.

Our church buildings are more than bricks and mortar, they should be the heartbeat of mission and service, not the heartache of history and loss. As congregations find a role in their community, they can also find creative and innovative ways to sustain themselves financially. Most congregations believe their buildings are used regularly, but self-assessments of space repeatedly show that is rarely the case. From parish halls to naves, useable space sits empty, seldom used to its fullest potential."

What will ECBF do for a congregation?

  1. Develop financial self-sustainability through the creative use of buildings and property.
  2. Create relevancy by developing relationships in the outside community.
  3. Disperse or reallocate real-estate assets which are redundant or cannot be sustained.
  4. Inspire new ways to be a thriving church.

ECBF brings vitality and viability together for the benefit of the entire church.

Visit their website today.

Note: "The ECBF is financially autonomous, receiving no ongoing support from the national church budget or General Convention. All ECBF services and loans are funded entirely from its endowment and investments, which has been built up over the years through gifts and bequests and retained earnings."