Convention Workbook

Report from Gary W. Spencer,
Vice President and
Rob Wickord, Assistant Vice President
The mission of the Lutheran Church Extension Fund
is:
“To support the Church in fulfilling its mission of
sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ by being a Christcentered
servant partner of the LCMS, ensuring that
funds and services are available now and in the
future.”
LCEF’S BASIC PRINCIPALS
• Church Extension is a ministry
• LCEF is a partnership between
investors and borrowers, who are
equally important to the mission and
ministry
• Church Extension is positioned to
help specialized ministries
Lutheran Church Extension Fund
• Investors support the ministry
through their investments, and receive
a fair rate of return
• God has richly blessed LCEF through
the ministry of volunteers
• LCEF is guided by “Will this decision
make a difference and further the
Great Commission?”
The 43 rd regular convention of the Pacific
Southwest District has the interesting theme
“Proclaiming the Mysteries of God”. In
the supporting bible passages, the apostle Paul
speaks in different ways about these mysteries
of the Gospel. The mysteries that have been
revealed to God’s people by the Holy Spirit
are with us today. God has made them
known to His saints through His grace and
mercy.
The Lutheran Church Extension Fund is all
about sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ
through its ministry of loans and services for
our congregations, schools, and RCW’s. The
following report is intended to highlight the
ongoing commitment of LCEF in the Pacific
Southwest District.
LCEF SERVES TODAY
The mission statement of LCEF describes our
relationship with districts and synod as a
“servant partner”. While we have a keen
sense of our fiscal responsibilities to our
investor base, we also have a keen sense of
our “ministry hearts” when making lending
and other decisions that affect the churches,
schools and rostered church workers of our
district. As an entity, LCEF is comprised of
28 separate districts that have joined together
to form a single corporation which operates
as an investment/lending institution for the
church. Today there are more than 65,000
investors (individuals and institutional) who
have combined investments in LCEF in
excess of 1.6 billion dollars. These dollars
have been used to fund the approximately 1.5
billion dollars of loans that are on the books
of LCEF. These investments provide the
funding for “space and place:”, with almost
2,800 low cost loans for our churches,
schools, and RCW’s in place. At the same
time, our investors receive interest on their
investments according to the terms of each
investment, and redemptions and withdrawal
requests have been honored promptly.
Total assets of LCEF stood at $1.8 billion at
the end of calendar year 2011, with net assets
of $162 million. LCEF continues to strive to
maintain its financial strength, while meeting
the capital needs of our congregations,
districts, colleges, and synod. It is noteworthy
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