The Concordia Story: A Fifty-Year History of Concordia Lutheran Church 1951-2001

gage. And it was not the kind of project that
would have excited conventional commercial
bankers. But early in the process the Lutheran
Church Extension Fund expressed interest in
underwriting the project.
Thompson recalls a conversation with Art
Haake, president of the LCEF, at the
MegaChurch Conference in January 1995, shortly
after the congregation had voted to proceed
with the land purchase.
“We were at a reception and Art came across
the room and said to me, ‘Bill, I want to do that
job.’ At the time we were anticipating a $10
million project and he assured me that would
be no problem.”
Seale also recalls discussing financing of the
project with Haake.
“I went to him and laid out the numbers—
that we were going to need about $15 million. I
told him we were taking a big step of faith here
and that we were all concerned about it. He said,
‘David, I know you guys in Texas went through
the recession of the 80’s, and I know you are
looking at your cash flow, and that’s a blessing.
But let me tell you something. We are not building
a business here. We are building the kingdom.
We’re not concerned about our return on
investment. We’re concerned about our return
on lives.’ That was a great inspiration to me.”
The $14 million mortgage written by the
LCEF for Concordia was, by far, the largest ever
✦
Above: The 30-foot-high cross is set in
place atop Concordia’s bell tower,
marking the church as a place of
worship of the Savior of mankind.
Left: On moving day dozens of
volunteers and Concordia’s staff loaded
up furniture, fixtures and supplies and
moved them to the new campus.
Chapter IV ✦ 59