A few questions that have come up on the vote to refinance our current mortgage with Christian Investors Financial (CIF). Here is a summary of them.
Q: Who is CIF?
Christian Investors Financial (CIF) is a Christian investment company that serves as the lending arm of the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). Their mission is to be “a catalyst for the Kingdom of God.” They help EFCA churches, like First Free Church, to maximize their potential by providing Loans, Investments, and Consulting. They have been pursuing this mission to “empower people to grow their finances, engage with their communities and advance God’s Kingdom” for over 60 years. Check out their website to learn more! (quotes are from the website)
Q: Why are we refinancing with CIF?
Our current mortgage holder, Bank of the West, has requested that we find a way to pay off the loan with them. Bank of the West does not wish to be the mortgage holder anymore. We did pursue trying to find other banks to take on the loan a few years ago. None of them were willing to do it. Thus we started selling the 5237 building. After the latest round of talks with the City of Chicago, Sylvia reached out to CIF to see if they would refinance the loan. They agreed.
Q: Why are we voting on this if it’s just a refinance?
Our current bylaws do not require a vote for a refinance. We wanted to demonstrate the support of the membership to CIF in our refinance.
Q: Does this vote cancel the February 2019 vote to sell the building in order to pay off the mortgage?
No it doesn’t; this vote is just about affirming the refinance as a show of support from the membership to CIF underwriters. The wording of the vote specifically doesn’t mention the building sale because we don’t want it to change or cancel the February 2019 vote.
Q: What is our plan for the 5237 building?
The elders commit to a discernment process later in 2022, which will include reopening conversations with the members to discern God’s will together regarding the 5237 building. We hope these conversations will also include our new senior pastor! A lot has happened since our 2018-2019 conversations, both within our church and in our city and world, that might affect our direction going forward. So, let’s keep praying over this building, over the people who live in the apartments, and over our street and neighborhood. Let’s also put a pin in this topic and make time to participate in conversations later this year. The elders will not make a decision without membership involvement and affirmation. Right now, we are just buying ourselves some time so we can focus on hiring and welcoming a new senior pastor.
Q: Do we need to keep the loan for 25 years? Is that the plan of the elders?
No. CIF offered this loan as their best option. There is no penalty to pay the loan early. How to pay down the loan and time frame will be part of the budgeting and discernment process with the elders (and new pastor) later in 2022. We desire to be debt free.
If you have any other questions, please contact Sylvia at treasurer@firstfree.com. We will try to send out our answers before the MCM.
No responses yet