The Church

WHY the Church?

The Problem. The North American Church is losing ground in attendance, influence, credibility and virtually every other category that really matters. In this day and age, many see the church as the hope of the world only as it “proves” itself in practical ways that touch the everyday needs of everyday people. But that’s not a cry for more random acts of kindness or the missionary model of the past 200 years.  In fact, more and more people, from Millennials to Boomers, are looking for churches that are willing to embrace the complexity of what it really means to help someone, even whole communities, in need. They are looking for churches that have moved from simply doing good things to solving real problems in lasting ways. There is an authenticity in that kind of helping that would suggest the church really is a different kind of community in the world.

Engage Businesspersons. There are, sitting in churches all across North America, men, and women whom God has gifted with exceptional “business sense.” They know how to do business, how to create jobs and the power of work to lift people out of poverty. But the church’s definition of mission work has never risen high enough to include these people and their gifts.

Lead the Charge. Our hope is to spark 1,000 churches to step into this space and begin to discover what “business as mission” could look like for the average congregation. The story is still unwritten. But in the same way the church wrote the story of Rescue Missions, hospitals, schools and most all of the early forms of social services it can write the story of business as mission.  Our SAT Catalyst Fund is simply an incentive to encourage churches to take the risk and lead the charge. We can write the story of how God uses business as a lampstand for the gospel even as it lifts people out of poverty.

The SAT Catalyst Fund is meant to be a catalyst for churches, businesses and business-minded individuals to work together on enterprise solutions THROUGH THEIR CHURCH.  Its two-fold purpose is to:

• Unleash the practice of Impact Investing through local congregations
• Connect the business-minded and many Millennials to the mission work of their church

The SAT Catalyst Fund enables churches and their members to use charitable dollars as loans and start-up capital.  Funds are recycled, allowing you to re-deploy the same dollars over and over again as projects pay back.

First, a church picks or designs a project that fits their priorities. Next, we set up a Church Impact Account that functions much like a donor-advised fund.  The project is then funded as follows:

1. The church invests one-third of the needed capital for the project
2. Business-minded donors from your church invest another one-third and…
3. The SAT Catalyst Fund invests one-third