Giving to capital campaign becomes part of legacy

By Rachel L. Toalson
Managing Editor
Pam Kilpatrick remembers breaking the news to her aunt that she was called into ministry.
She was afraid of startling her family, she said, because the call came back in the early 1980s, when only a handful of women were in pastoral positions. So she told her aunt. But her aunt’s reaction—turning “deathly pale”—made her momentarily second guess her decision.
Then her aunt explained how Kilpatrick’s grandmother, in earlier years, would visit the Concho River in San Antonio, where children played, and invite them to Sunday school. She would sew them shirts and dresses and give the new clothes to them when they showed up at the church.
All her life, Kilpatrick said, her grandmother had prayed that a minister would be raised in their family to continue the work she had done.
“She had an outreach ministry to children for the future of her church,” said Kilpatrick, pastor of First UMC, Gonzales. “She did that as long as she could sew and as long as she had sight. Her prayer was that the children of the future would be blessed by the ministry she did today. But she knew she would not live to see that.
“The mantel has been passed to me. It gave me a deep longing for how children will come to the church in the future.”
That longing led Kilpatrick to personally pledge to the Offering Christ Today for Tomorrow capital campaign, slated to raise $5 million to help with new church development, clergy member training and support, land acquisition and new church startup kits.
In June 2006, the Southwest Texas Conference voted to begin the capital campaign. The first phase began in January 2007, and the campaign is in its last stage now.
Kilpatrick said the decision to give was easy.
“When this capital campaign came along, I thought, here is a chance to do something exactly like my grandmother did,” she said. “I can give to something I may never see, but when I’m gone, God will still use it. This is God’s tool for the future.”
Her church also gave to the campaign, Kilpatrick said.
The Rev. Mike Lowry, executive director of New Church Development and Transformation, said donations toward the campaign are vital to the future of The United Methodist Church.
“A church that steps up and makes a significant sacrificial commitment is making a statement about its desire to advance the kingdom of God and share the Christian faith with those who do not know Christ,” he said. “It is also saying that it wants to reach the next generation, that it thinks the faith ought to continue.
“What is really at stake here is will our children and grandchildren be Christians.”
“What greater thing do we have to care about than the children?” Kilpatrick added. “They are precious and vulnerable. They are a picture of all the wonder that we hope for our tomorrows. They are gifts from God, and they represent that God’s grace is still going forward through the ages.”
Lowry said a good amount of churches have responded to the congregational challenge of giving money toward the campaign.
First UMC, Mission, is holding its own capital campaign and tithing off whatever amount members raise, said the Rev. Charles Baskin, pastor of the church.
Leaders expect to raise between $500,000 and $550,000 for its capital campaign, which will help update the church facilities. That would mean a gift of $50,000 to the conference capital campaign, he said.
“In any (fundraising effort), we always need to have an outward focus,” he said. “What we do always has to have an element of outreach and mission, some outward focus so we don’t become inwardly focused. We don’t want to be navel gazers.”
He said the Mission area has plenty of needs on which the church could have focused, but leaders chose the capital campaign because they believe establishing new congregations in the growing areas of the conference is important for the church’s future.
The Mission and McAllen area is one of those growing areas, Baskin said, and his church is not able to reach all of the people moving in. The possibility of a new church plant in the area was enough to make members open their checkbooks.
“I so wanted us, as a church, to be in on the establishment of (a new) church because I didn’t want some of us to see it as potential competition,” Baskin said. “Our purpose is to look with kingdom vision. There may be a few who start going to (a new church). But look at how many more people we will be reaching in Mission. It’s hard for people to respond to that negatively.
“The bottom line is that it’s absolutely imperative that people come to know Christ. That’s why we’re offering Christ today for tomorrow. It’s important that we participate in that, even if it stretches us a little bit.”
The Rev. Phil Steinbach, pastor of Yoakum UMC and Hope UMC, Yoakum, said he’s challenged the 29 members of Hope UMC—a one-room, 160-year-old church that has no bathrooms—to collectively raise $5,000—and they are thinking about it.
“We’re all painfully aware of (The United Methodist Church’s) situation and circumstance,” Steinbach said. “These folks understand that. They’re not blind, so if this is something that they can participate in that will help church growth, they’ll do it. They’re good people. They know something has to be done.”
Members of Yoakum UMC “recognized the wisdom of it” and made a pledge, too, he added.
Karen Horan, pastor of Gruene UMC, a church plant that started in September 2006, said her congregation gave $4,000 each to Journey UMC, Kyle, and Hope Community UMC, San Antonio, when they were planted last year.
She believes in the work of new church plants, Horan said, and knows that money given to the campaign will help leaders with up-front expenses—like sound and video equipment, rent for a building, the pastor’s salary—that seem overwhelming when churches first begin.
“This is giving tools to people so they can do the job they need to do,” Horan said. “And it’s giving the pastor and the pastor’s family the security of a steady income as things are being built.”
Lowry said the capital campaign funds will be used by every district in the conference—so those churches that feel they’ll never see the results of what they give can rest assured.
“It’s about offering Christ to all,” Lowry said. “And all really means all. As Wesleyans, we’ve always believed that the world is our parish. Churches got where they are because people somewhere who had nothing to gain believed the Gospel and tried to reach people.”
“Here’s a chance to do something for people you might never see,” Kilpatrick said. “You’re a part of a legacy. And when you’re gone, your life’s work doesn’t just stop.”
Kilpatrick said her grandmother didn’t live long enough to see her finish the ordination process.
But she believes her grandmother knew, deep down, that Kilpatrick would carry on her legacy to reach the children of the future.