For The Record

Submit birth, marriage and obituary records online.

Personal Ads

Meet new friends today!

Advertising

Put your message in front of 19,000 readers.

PDF documents on this site require the free Adobe Reader:

Get Adobe Reader

2010-04-06 issue:

Decade-long church building project comes to a close

Brooklyn church heals relationship with lender through MMA church loan

by Tom Duckworth of MMA

Print Article

Relationships drive our lives—for good and for less than good sometimes. In 1998, United Revival Mennonite Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., had so excelled at building relationships in its economically challenged neighborhood that it had outgrown its facility, according to Moises Angustia—now an associate pastor at the church, but who then was just the pastor's son.

"When we saw that for a whole year we kept sitting people in the kitchen area for church services on folding chairs, then my father thought it would be a great idea to build a bigger building," Angustia says. They started building in 2000.

"Since then, families have continued to come, and the church has continued to grow," he said. But there is still no bigger building. "It is a long story,” Angustia says. However, it's a story worth telling.

Lesson in communication: United Revival worked with Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM) in 1999 to secure a loan for the expansion project—and received one. In 2000, they broke ground. What followed is a lesson in how not to conduct a building program.

"To sum up," Angustia says, "there was a lot of miscommunication between the banking institution, the church, the contractors and the people running the project on the church's behalf."

Along the way a decision was made, without EMM’s knowledge, to expand the scope of the project by almost 100 feet, Angustia says. Add to that some questionable behavior on the part of the contractors then involved, and what you get is a stalled church building project.

"Today we understand how important it is to keep everyone together and informed," Angustia says. "But then? Then we just forged ahead, and as the work grew, we needed more money—and were denied that. We ended up stuck with a shell, the concrete foundation and the roof."

But the church kept growing in numbers, and it was having an increasing impact on its urban community, so walking away from the project was never an option.

"We had the shell—a visible project up and erected," Angustia says. "That gave the congregation hope. When the congregation had hope, that gave my father motivation."

Move forward a few years. Now a bishop in the denomination, Angustia's father, Nicholas, at the Mennonite Church USA Convention 2007 in San José, Calif., hears Mennonite Mutual Aid president Larry D. Miller talk about MMA's church loan program. The Angustias drafted a letter to MMA inquiring about a loan possibility.

J.B. Miller, MMA's vice president of investment products and overseer of the church loan program, responded to the letter—and to the congregation’s need.

"After San José, it took us almost two years to get a loan in place for United Revival," Miller says. "We just kept working at it and working at it. Their giving is so good; we thought they could handle it. In August 2009 we closed the loan."

Partnership with previous lender: But it wasn't just a new loan after nine years, Miller says. It was a 50-50 partnership with United Revival’s previous lender, Eastern Mennonite Missions.

"There is no question that this church is an anchor in its community,” Miller says. "MMA was committed to making this happen, and I wanted to keep [EMM] involved as well, because they are a vital partner to this ministry."

MMA has been making money available for first-mortgage loans to congregations and institutions interested in building new facilities or improving existing locations since 1980. As MMA members purchase annuities to save for their retirement or other long-term goals, a portion of those deposits supports the church loan program. In turn, repayment of loans provides additional annuity opportunities for church members. It’s a circle of giving, saving and lending within the church community.

But the dividends being paid back on this particular loan extend beyond the monetary, according to Angustia.

"The feelings of hurt that occurred during our relationship with EMM have healed," he says. "Because we reached out to MMA and because we were able to bring everyone to the table, we were able to agree that, no matter what happened, the church would be built."

More than just a building: United Revival began its project in 1998, and this summer the building will be occupied, Angustia says. "This church walks alongside people in their struggles, providing what we can," he says. "Our warmth and our acceptance of who people are is what is growing this church."

Miller agrees but sees something else at work, too. "This really reflects the tenacity of this congregation ... and is a statement to their connection to their community," he says.

Reader Comments

Add Comments

Current Stories

Articles

News stories, digests and Meno Acontecer

Columns

Births and Marriages

Readers Say

Subscribe