Site
Contents
 |
General Information about the Area Office
North Indiana Conference Office
South Indiana Conference Office
Prayer Guides
(Courtesy of the NIC Prayer Team)
Area United Methodist
Foundation
For resources to assist your congregation in welcoming guests,
click here
Seashore District Volunteer Center VIM project -- Completed
Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
History
Mission Statement
The Indiana Area Foundation of the United Methodist Church seeks to fulfill God's mission by promoting missional giving among local churches and their membership and by administering, investing, and distributing funds for missional causes and outreach ministries in the name of Jesus Christ through the United Methodist Church locally and throughout the world.
Vision
The Foundation seeks to encourage persons to grow spiritually by appropriate acts and gifts of love that will have both an immediate impact and a positive benefit and influence on future generations.
It helps people love and trust those things in the future that they have valued and given themselves to in the past, thereby discovering the joy of giving and deep appreciation of philanthropy beyond what they thought they could do for a share in Christ's mission.
The Foundation looks to the future by committing itself to growing and an ever-larger involvement in the Church's outreach and global witness. To this end, it will create corporate and individually directed trusts which support missional programs that have specific focus and wide appeal, and that are encouraged and planned with appropriate energy and resources.
Foundation Assets
As of December 31, 2007, the Foundation has over 1.75 million in net assets, inclusive of charitable remainder and individual trusts, and unrestricted and board designated funds. Funds are pooled and allocated among seven managers for investment purposes. A national brokerage firm, Salomon Smith Barney, serves as the Foundation's Investment Broker/Consultant/Administrator. A local CPA firm, Larry E. Nunn and Associates Inc. provides monthly financial accounting and reporting services and performs as annual independent audit.
Management and Governance
The Foundation employs the services of a part-time Executive Director who administers the day-to-day operations through the policies and guidance of a 21-member Board of Directors, consisting of the Bishop of the Indiana Area, his Executive Assistant, the Executive Director of the Corporation, seven lay persons of the South Indiana Conference, seven lay persons of the North Indiana Conference, and four lay persons at-large.
Rev. James E. Gentry, Executive Director, can be reached at 1100 W. 42nd Street, Suite 210, Indianapolis, IN 46208 or 317-924-1321 or e-mail address jgentry@inareaumc.org.
Board Members
Program Emphases
A program ministry of the Indiana Area of the United Methodist Church, Operation Classroom was founded by Bob Bowman and John Shettle in 1987, Lay Leaders of the South and North Indiana Conferences respectively, with the administrative assistance and support of Bishop Leroy C. Hodapp and his Executive Assistant, Dr. Marcus J. Blaising. From its inception, the Indiana Area Foundation has been a conduit and source of funds for this ministry of upgrading United Methodist secondary education in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
From its earlier roots, Operation Doctor has become an Indiana Area medical mission in Liberia and Sierra Leone, West Africa. This program ministry was recreated for Indiana United Methodists in response to the invitation of the Sierra Leone and Liberia Annual Conferences of the United Methodist Church to jointly develop an interactive medical mission program to help meet the public health needs of West Africa. Current focus is the UMC Kissy Urban Maternity and Health Center in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and the Ganta United Methodist Hospital, Ganta, Liberia.
Established by the Foundation's Board of Directors in 2001 in response to vision of Bishop Woodie W. White, it is the goal that every new pastor entering the Order of Elder or Order of Deacon within the North and South Indiana Annual Conferences will receive the gift of journey to the Holy Land or other approved trips (Wesley Heritage Tour or Journeys of Paul), in accompaniment of the resident Bishop, as a capstone to their formal education and preparation for full-time ministry. A $100,000 unrestricted bequest received from the estate of H. Wilber Hardacre has been directed by the Board in support of this new program. Monies debited to this trust represent contributions of individuals and churches throughout the Indiana Area. To date, 61 ordinands have accompanied the Bishop on one of three approved trips. Forty-two ordinands are eligible to accompany Bishop Michael J. Coyner on the next scheduled trip to the Holy Land in February 2009.
Earnings from investment of the assets of individual trusts are used to fund grants made by the Indiana Area Foundation. A listing of individual trusts and their designated purposes is provided elsewhere under this web site. The earnings from unrestricted assets supplement those from individual trusts and are used primarily to fund grant requests in the area of missions and higher education scholarships.