Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Dunedin, FL
The church’s sanctuary is an exquisite, carpenter gothic building overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, but it and other church buildings had fallen into disrepair. Normally the vestry would have tapped the church’s endowment to cover the $850,000 projected costs, but the endowment was already funding half of the church’s annual budget, and it had dropped from $2.4 Million to $1.6 Million. It didn’t take an MBA to see that the endowment, and perhaps the church itself, was headed toward extinction on the church’s current trajectory. Although the congregation was undergoing a renaissance under the leadership of a new rector, the financial challenge before it seemed daunting. The congregation had become too dependent upon its endowment and was unsure that it could raise the money it needed itself. Faced with the challenge, the vestry decided to conduct a capital campaign. Jeff Newlin led the congregation through a campaign based on God’s powerful vision for the church and rooted in prayer and sacrifice. The church raised nearly $665,000 in three years, 3.83 times its annual income, enough to fund the bulk of the needed repairs. More importantly, the congregation had discovered a new joy and confidence in giving. No longer was it afraid of extinction. Instead of being crippled by the generosity of previous generations, it was now being inspired by these previous generations to be generous in its own time. (Spring 2013)