By Tim Lubinus, BCI Executive Director/Treasurer, and Mike Carlson, Foundation Committe Chairman

The Foundation Committee had a very busy year. Upon observing that some of the funds haven’t been accessed in over a decade the committee worked toward a major overhaul of the funds by creating the Iowa Ministry Fund (IMF). The IMF is designed to support the best organization in ten categories of ministry. Below are the categories and the 2016 recipients:

Crisis pregnancy centers: Informed Choices of Iowa
Addiction recovery ministries: Teen Challenge of the Midlands
Ministries that support youth in crisis: Wildwood Hills Ranch
Adoption/Orphan/Foster Care ministries: No applicant this year
Ministries that provide emergency and transitional housing: Hope Ministries
Ministries that provide prison ministry and aftercare: Way, Truth, Life Ministries
Ministries that impact public policy: Two ministries: The Family Leader and Alliance Defending Freedom
Disaster relief ministry: BCI Disaster Relief
Ministries serving poverty impacted communities: The Friendship Baptist Center and Freedom for Youth Ministries
Cross-cultural ministries: No applicant this year.

To get things started for the IMF in 2016 the committee recommended and the executive committee approved that the IMF will be funded through 50% of this year’s Iowa Mission Offering (the other 50% goes toward seminary tuition scholarships and collegiate ministry interns for new campus ministry) plus allocation of BCI’s reserve funds in order to allocate $10,000 for each group.

In the future the recommendation of the Foundation Committee and BCI Executive Board is that the IMF is funded through:

10% of Cooperative Program Funds
50% of Hyde Iowa Missions Offering
Use of income from BCI’s Foundation Funds

The foundation committee offered twenty-five seminary tuition scholarships for full-time seminary students from BCI affiliated churches. Additionally, the foundation committee funded five collegiate interns in 2015-2016:

Creston, SWICC, Crest Baptist Church – Aaron Young
Indianola, Simpson College, New Heights Church – Kira Klepel
Cedar Falls, UNI, Candeo Church, – Christina Redd
Cedar Rapids, Coe College, Kirkwood College, Veritas Church – Jenny Calsyn
Ankeny, DMACC, First Family Church – Timor Nesbitt

Instead of initiating and servicing church building loans, the Foundation committee decided to partner with the Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma (BFO) to handle future church loans. The BFO has already made at least one loan to a BCI affiliated church. At the time of this decision the BCI had two church loans: to Veritas Church in Cedar Rapids and to Crossroads Church in Red Oak. These loans are scheduled to both be paid off in 2020.

The market value of BCI trust funds with High Ground on October 21, 2016 was $698,789.19. This includes the corpus funds listed below: