Why the Dishmans are selling the farm...and how the Holston Conference Foundation is helping

Years ago, the Rev. Clarence and Betty Dishman inherited a large family farm in Bristol, Va. When Clarence retired in 1998, the couple began investigating ways to leave a portion of their estate to strategic Christian ministries. Though they lived on and maintained the farm, they anticipated selling it for a sizeable sum.

“The area where the farm is located is experiencing considerable commercial development,” said Dishman, referring to his boyhood home location off Lee Highway. “It could be assumed the day would come when sale of the property would be feasible and necessary.”

Dreaming of gifts that would aid ministries for decades to come, the couple consulted with the Rev. Robert Hudson, then president of the Holston Conference Foundation, and other estateplanning specialists. Finally, after much investigation, the Dishmans implemented a plan in 1999: A portion of the family farm would be deeded to a “charitable remainder unitrust,” with the Holston Conference Foundation named as trustee. Someday, when the Dishmans pass on, four organizations will be the recipients of the unitrust assets.

Clarence and Betty Dishman are smiling, welcoming, warm. They willingly traipse outside their pleasant home, through the tall grass and up to a fence where cows and a barn are visible.

Their hope is that others who inherit appreciated property or other assets may “catch a vision” of the possibilities to make “lasting gifts to Christian ministries in which they strongly believe.”

“It’s entirely possible that many Holston Conference people are sitting on proverbial ‘gold mines’ for charitable giving and don’t realize it,” says Clarence, who has more than 40 years of ministry in the Holston Conference. He currently serves Three Springs UMC in the Abingdon District.

“They could easily, with careful planning, make a significant contribution to Christian charities and ministries and never miss it.”

The Dishman farm is now on the market at an asking price of more than $2 million. When it’s sold, proceeds from the sale belonging to the unitrust will be managed and invested by the Holston Conference Foundation. The couple will receive an agreed-upon annual income from the unitrust throughout their lifetimes.

The trust agreement specifies that the assets will be equally distributed for (1) an endowed scholarship fund for Holston Conference students at Asbury Theological Seminary; (2) an endowed scholarship fund for Holston Conference students at Asbury College; (3) the Foundation for Evangelism at Lake Junaluska, N.C.; and (4) the Nehemiah Fund, an endowed fund at the Holston Conference Foundation, providing qualifying churches of the Holston Conference with funds for making strategic improvements to their church buildings and grounds. All of these ministries have special meaning to the Dishmans.

It’s the Nehemiah Fund that gets Roger Redding most fired up.

The executive director of the Holston Conference Foundation is passionate about assisting people who want to make lasting contributions to local churches, missions, conference or conference- related ministries through charitable gifts. He can spin out ideas for possible endowments for hours, chat about investments and planning giving programs for days, carry the torch for Christian stewardship for eons.

What Redding likes about the Nehemiah Fund is that it targets a ministry need and provides for it. While other conference funds provide for ministries and programming, the Nehemiah Fund – named for the Old Testament repairer of the ancient walls of Jerusalem – will assist churches with improvements to their buildings and grounds.

“Of course, it will probably be years before money from the Nehemiah Fund is available to churches,” say Redding, Foundation director since May 2000. The Foundation is supervised by a board of directors made up of clergy and lay leaders, elected by the Annual Conference. “The neat thing is, the Dishmans have done something now that will leave a lasting gift for Holston churches for years to come.”

Another example of a “gift that keeps giving” to ministries is the Margaret Loving Trust. Each year, the Loving Trust provides approximately $75,000 for educational, recreational and spiritual programming for the elderly. Beneficiaries of the trust include Jubilation, the conference’s senior adult retreat scheduled for May 2002. Recipients also include Kay Senior Care Center at Church Street UMC, Knoxville; the Senior Choir at Colonial Heights UMC, Kingsport; Keystone Adult Day Care at First Oak Ridge; and St. Luke UMC’s senior adult ministry in Chattanooga.

The Foundation can serve you and your church in many ways:

• Assist individuals in making long-range contributions to Holston related groups
  
• Provide long-range planning and development of permanent endowment funds, charitable trusts, bequests, donor-advised funds
  
• Establish planned giving programs and manage endowment funds and trusts
  
• Serve as trustee or agent for investment of custodial accounts
  
• Encourage stewardship through education and literature to increase awareness of the many available gifts and estate-planning techniques
  

All materials are free for the asking. For more information, contact:
Roger Redding
HCF, 9915 KingstonPike, Suite C
Knoxville, TN 37922,
phone (865) 690-4080
email RogerRedding@holston.org
http://www.holstonconference.com/foundation

Endowment Ideas

An endowment is money given or set aside as a permanent fund to meet special, designated, or emergency needs not met through current income. An endowment is intended to last in perpetuity and only the income or a designated percentage of the market value should be expanded each year. Suggestions:

• Provide Bibles annually to every third-grade Sunday school or confirmation student in your area
  
• Establish or support a food pantry
  
• Fund a choir retreat, sheet music, choir robes, hymnals, musical instruments
  
• Sponsor children to attend conference camps or upgrade facilities
  
• Provide scholarships to seminaries
  
• Maintain or upgrade a parsonage
  
• Establish grants to global missions
  
• Support special programs, such as Builders Club, Wesley Foundations, Legacy of Commitment campaign, Disaster Relief Fund, Change for Children, Wesley Institute
  
• Provide for area of greatest need, as determined by pastor, bishop, or church endowment committee
  
• Support drug and alcohol abuse programming
  
  

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