Sometimes money is used in a way that expresses caring. This happened for Ben and Cindy Lattimer, co-pastors of Stone Church of the Brethren on the edge of the campus of Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.
Seven years ago, Cindy was on the pastoral staff of the Lancaster Church of the Brethren and Ben was serving as a hospice chaplain. They were both ready for a change and wanted to serve a church as co-pastors. The District Executive of the Middle Pennsylvania District invited them to consider Stone Church. The Lattimers were drawn to the congregation, which in turn voted to call them.
As Cindy and Ben planned their move to Huntingdon, they needed to find a home that was big enough for their family. The Lattimers ended up living in a parsonage in Lancaster, and the church gave them a housing allowance that enabled them to put aside a small sum that could be used for buying a house. They found a house in Huntingdon that was perfect for their family, but it was at the top of their price range, and they had high expenses since all three of their children were in childcare.
The church happened to be in a position to make a creative offer to Ben and Cindy. Some years before, the congregation had sold their parsonage and put the money aside, creating a pastor’s mortgage fund. The Lattimers secured a mortgage from a local bank, and the congregation loaned them an additional amount from the fund so they could increase their down payment.
The congregation set the rate at .5 percent below the bank’s rate, and deferred the first payment until Cindy and Ben’s children were all in school, and they would no longer have the expense of childcare. The loan did one more important thing, it increased the down payment to a high enough level that the Lattimers did not have the added expense of mortgage insurance.
“Talk about something that makes you feel loved and welcomed into a community” Cindy commented. “They wanted so much for us to be a part of their lives, and for us to be happy in that and comfortable in that. They took a risk in investing in us. It was a good place to start the relationship.”
The money for the loan to the Lattimers was taken from the pastor’s mortgage fund, and their payments on the loan are going back into that fund. Stone Church is in the process of consolidating their various funds and investing them with Eder. Church treasurer Jamie White, who is a physics professor at Juniata College, is in discussions with Dan Radcliff, Eder’s Program Director of Organizational Investing, Deferred Gifts, and Client Services to determine which of Eder’s investment funds they will use. Brethren Values Investing offered by Eder is very important to the congregation.
“One of the things we’ve appreciated in working with Eder and Stone Church,” Ben observed, “is the thoughtfulness of the church around these financial partnerships. Whether it is pensions, mortgage support, or insurance — there are ways in which they have structured the financial relationships with us as pastors that have had real material benefits for us, that have made a real difference in our ability to raise our family. It’s been a real gift to us.”
