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From Pastor To Executive
From Pastor To Executive
(http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1840)
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From Pastor to Executive: Equipping Faith Leaders for Economic Development: Knowledge@Wharton
(http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1840)
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From Pastor to Executive: Equipping Faith Leaders for Economic Development: Knowledge@Wharton
(http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1840)
"The financing of faith-based organizations has been around probably as long as banking has, but some
banks more than others have developed expertise in lending to such organizations; they have carved out a
niche," says Thomas, noting that J.P. Morgan Chase has demonstrated leadership nationally in this arena,
as have more regional banks like the Washington D.C.-based Industrial Bank.
"The law is about community reinvestment, so the question is: Who represents the community? Is it the
mayor or some other elected official? When you need to ascertain community needs, sometimes the best
and most objective answer will come from churches because they are right on the front lines, seeing the
problems of affordable housing or lack of credit for small business," says Thomas, author ofThe CRA
Handbook: Strategies for Banks, Communities and Regulators.
Just as many banks do not perceive faith-based organizations as strong potential borrowers, so many
churches are unaware of opportunities to access credit. According to data from 1999, only 11% of
churches with community development or social services projects access outside funding. "Pastors don't
understand what's out there in terms of CRA benefits and banks that are willing to work with them," says
Thomas, noting that he believes faith-based, rather than more secular community-based organizations, do
a better job with development projects, in part because they tend to keep overhead expenses down and
have an existence independent of funding for individual projects. "There is a lot more good that
faith-based organizations can do," Thomas adds, "but first they need the right education to get together
with the banks that can serve them."
Developing the Executive Pastor
When Caldwell, a Wharton alumnus and pastor of the 15,000-member Windsor Village United Methodist
Church in Houston, was pioneering urban development projects, his education and work experience in
finance "clearly contributed" to his desire to "pursue success on a large scale," he told the Wharton
Leadership Digest last year. In the 1990s, the church's community development corporation rehabilitated
a big-box store to create the Power Center, which today offers banking, shopping, education and other
community services to residents of the underserved Fifth Ward. "When it came time for us to secure debt
and raise capital, it helped to be comfortable with the nomenclature," Caldwell says.
But Caldwell, Williams and Flake are unusual in bringing extensive financial knowledge to their
faith-based development work. Most pastors, even highly educated ones, have had to rely on informal
networks and luck to bring their projects to life.
Anderson points to the example of Leon Sullivan, the Baptist civil rights leader who secured capital in the
early 1970s to build Progress Plaza in North Philadelphia, the nation's first black-owned and developed
shopping center. "He had never had a course in accounting or banking, but he had a lot of help from
people who knew those things." The banks who invested in the project, says Anderson, "were very
nervous, but they had faith in Leon Sullivan."
Those sorts of personal relationships are not the basis for systemic economic development, Anderson
adds. "To take faith-based economic development to the next level, we've got to institutionalize the
knowledge that pastors need. Many community leaders won't have the standing of a Leon Sullivan, but if
a bank knows they have gone through an intensive academic program in community development, then it
can have more confidence that if it lends a couple million dollars, something worthwhile will come out of
it."
As Williams notes, the program is intentionally created for small to midsize churches, defined as having a
minimum of 75 members, annual revenues of $500,000 and a full-time minister. Williams estimates 25%
to 30% of Protestant churches nation-wide fall in this category. Many of them, he says, happen to already
own valuable urban real estate that they have not yet developed. Along those lines, program participants
will take courses in real estate finance, development and negotiations, and complete a workshop on how
to write a business plan. Among the speakers will be Henry Cisneros, former U.S. Secretary of Housing
and Urban Development.
Alicia Byrd, pastor of a 250-member church in Howard County, Md., will be one of the participants.
When she went ahead with a recent project to build an affordable community day care center, she needed
"to get a hold of talent from other churches, because there were some gaps in my knowledge," she says.
Byrd also relied on basic training in economic development she had received years earlier from the
All materials copyright of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Page 3 of 4
From Pastor to Executive: Equipping Faith Leaders for Economic Development: Knowledge@Wharton
(http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1840)
Byrd also relied on basic training in economic development she had received years earlier from the
Washington, D.C.-based Congress of National Black Churches.
Now her church is looking toward developing an affordable housing project. "In Howard County, the
median cost of housing is $400,000; how many teachers or police officers make the kind of money to
afford that?" asks Byrd. "What you don't know will hurt you," particularly when working with
contractors, she notes. "You are putting the faith and integrity of your congregation at risk. I want to be in
a position to make intelligent decisions."
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