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A Gift for future generations
This is a message to my fellow graduates of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, its
predecessor seminaries, and friends of LSTC.
LSTC is my beloved school. I came to LSTC in 1975
and have received two degrees from this institution.
My continuing interest and involvement in
issues in the faith and science dialog is a result of
being known by the people of LSTC. It has been
my privilege to serve on the Alumni/ae Senate in
the 1980s; and now, to be a member of the LSTC
Board of Directors and the Board of Directors of the
Center for Advanced Study in Religion and Science
(C.A.S.I.R.A.S.). Of course, such a continued association
with LSTC is not the experience of all of the
graduates and friends of LSTC; but it has helped
keep the seminary among my interests and concerns.
Those who know and appreciate the ministry
of LSTC realize that it continues to face great
economic challenges. Our school needs to attract
and retain students, attend to decades of deferred
maintenance of its physical plant and student apartments,
increase contributions to the Annual Fund,
and expand its endowment. All of this it needs to
do while supporting and attracting a faculty and
staff dedicated to forming visionary leaders for the
Church in unpredictable contexts.
Creating a Charitable Remainder Trust to
help LSTC
My wife, Rita, and I have found a way to help my
beloved school, LSTC. In addition to our regular
support of LSTC’s Annual Fund, we worked with the
Rev. Robert Buschkemper, a Regional Gift Planner
with the ELCA Foundation, to establish a Charitable
Remainder Unitrust. This cost us just $250.00. Our
trust will be funded by the balance of my pension
account with the ELCA Board of Pensions (now,
Portico Benefit Services) following our deaths.
For 13 years following the death of whichever
of us survives longest, our heirs will receive annual
payments which, in total, are designed to equal
the value of the trust. However, because the principal
remains invested during the years our heirs are
receiving the funds, what could be the full amount
of the trust will—after those 13 years—be divided
among church-related causes of our choosing. Rita
has decided how to direct 50 % of these funds; and
I have decided who will receive the other 50%. The
ELCA Foundation will follow the specifications Rita
and I have spelled out in the letter it keeps on file.
We can make changes to the letter by notifying
the ELCA Foundation; however, the funds must be
directed to at least 70% ELCA-related causes or institutions.
LSTC will receive the major portion of the
funds distributed according to my direction.
This should result in what will be a major gift to
the school I love. It will not happen when I can see
it, but there have been generations of others who
have provided for LSTC and its predecessor institutions
who did not live to see the result of the gifts of
love they made. You and I are inheritors of the gifts
others have given. If this letter prompts others to
find a way to help LSTC, that could be profoundlyrewarding
for the Church in generations that come
after us.
The Rev. Gregory Nelson Davis, pastor
St. James Lutheran Church
Johnston, Iowa
P.S. Pastor Buschkemper recently retired from the
ELCA Foundation and will be working part-time
with the LSTC Advancement Office to help people
establish planned gifts like the one Rita and
I have. You may contact him through the LSTC
Advancement Office at 773-256-0712.
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