Gifts may be "outright gifts," such as cash, stocks and bonds, real and tangible personal property, or they may be "Planned (Deferred) Gifts," such as bequests, revocable living and charitable trusts, life estate gifts and insurance policies, and gift annuities. Gifts may be undesignated or designated for a specific project that has been approved by the committee.

The conference committee has a marvelous track record of managing and expending funds entrusted into its keeping. In the early 1980s the conference established a three-year capital funds campaign to help new churches finance the construction of their first units, and approximately $6.5 million was raised. A policy was established that the principal would be used as a loan fund with one half the interest earned returned to the corpus and one half deposited into a grant fund.

Today, the corpus has grown to more than $9.5 million. Fifteen-year loans up to $750,000 at 7 percent are made to new churches for first units. The additional one half of interest earnings are deposited into the New Church Grant Fund, which currently totals approximately $1 million and from which grants are made to purchase sites, refurbish discontinued church properties, renovate store front facilities and build permanent first units for new churches.

In addition to the permanent loan fund, several trusts have been established through the Florida United Methodist Foundation to benefit Church Development’s work.

One is the McMullan Estate Trust created at the death of the Rev. W. O. McMullan, a longtime clergy member of the Florida Conference who retired in 1955. The earnings from that trust have enabled the conference committee to conduct the three-year Local Church Pilot Revitalization Program, which has involved 21 congregations in redevelopment. The learning gleaned from this program, which ends December 31, 2000, will help guide the conference in its redevelopment of declining churches.

There are a number of areas where your gifts can make a significant difference:

The Cities Ministries Initiative, which is designed to create new faith communities in major cities of our conference;

The Florida Conference Hispanic Plan, which is designed to intensify the creation of new faith communities to serve our rapidly growing Hispanic population;

Funds directed to assist one or more of the 34 newer congregations; and

Funds designated to help revitalize established churches.