The NT-NL Mission Endowment Fund (MEF) seeks to support mission projects in the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana (NT-NL) Synod. It works much like a foundation: an endowment fund serves as its core; the principal is invested and only the income from the investment is expended annually to benefit special causes that might otherwise go unfunded and unrealized.
The MEF has allotted Relief Funds to share with our congregations, rostered ministers, and organizations during this challenging time, to help ease financial hardships resulting from the disruptions of the global Covid-19 pandemic. We want to be part of a solution now to keep rostered clergy and staff in place, provide needed services, and pay necessary bills. This will be done through an adaptable Good Faith Loan application process. The use of the funds will not be restricted, and the loan may be repaid over a two-year period — in full, in part, or can be forgiven.
Perhaps your church is not facing financial hardships. If so, we are asking congregations or individuals, who are able, for contributions to help offset the cost of offering this needed relief. Donations will be greatly appreciated, particularly because the funds set aside by the MEF are being drawn from 2021 and 2022 anticipated partial grant allotments. The relief funds given now will impact the amount of regular grants that can be given over the next two years. The MEF Board feels that this is a great opportunity for ministry at this critical time of emergency needs. Donations can be received online or by mail to the Synod office.
There are a few things that we ask you do prior to applying for assistance:
- Reach out to any lender and see what programs and options you might have.
- Reach out to all utility and service providers and see if they are willing to work with you.
- Be willing to use the resources for emergency that you have on hand.
- Actively seek stewardship and consistent giving from your congregation by communicating your needs and setting up online giving.
Once you do these things, you may fill out the Relief Fund Application below. You may apply for two months at a time. You may reapply later if your needs continue. Payments will be made until the fund is depleted.
Read Bishop Gronberg’s letter.
Click here for the Application and Guidelines.
MEF’s Executive Director is Linda Ness and can be reached at MEF@ntnl.org.
MEF has a vision for the future
and
it’s all about Mission
The Mission Endowment Fund focuses on three main areas of interest:
1. Proposals that suggest innovative ways to raise up new rostered/lay leaders for effective performative ministry;
2. Proposals to assist new mission starts;
3. Proposals to assist ministries in newly organized and existing congregations that have potential but have inadequate financial resources.
How we use money is a statement of what we truly love and value. Said another way, if you want to know who someone really is at their heart and center, look at what they do with their money. What do they support?
Is there a heart for music and the arts, or educational opportunity, or political change, or travel and exploration? Is money about self or about the good of the society and the institutions that you truly want to continue to mold and influence our culture and life?
Said yet a third way, money is about where our hopes, faith, and devotion are to be found. Jesus knew that too.
When NT-NL set out to create an Endowment Fund for this mission area of the ELCA, the Fund was not about underwriting current programs, staff, or offices. The Fund was established to support mission. Mission—like congregational efforts to provide outreach activities for neighborhood kids, or helping satellite ministries get started among Hispanic people in Alvarado, Oromo people in Dallas, or in the expanding suburbs northwest of Fort Worth, or a variety of innovative outreach efforts in a dozen places.
Gifts to the Mission Endowment Fund keep on giving since only the earnings are used for grants.
In recent years, MEF has given thousands of dollars to support new mission starts around our mission area, to help existing congregations engage in missional outreach, and to enable congregations with innovative ideas be able to act on those ideas to help grow the Kingdom.
Learn more about MEF and help them make a good, valuable, and missional impact among us.
Include MEF in your regular giving, your estate planning, and your prayers.