2025 Impact Report
Rooted in Faith,Growing in Love
Joining What is Newly Emerging
to What is Deeply Rooted
In a vineyard, hope works quietly through grafting, which joins new vines to established rootstock, nourishing both so they bear abundant fruit. A thriving church does the same, connecting the deep, resilient roots of faith with new expressions of ministry, for the benefit of both.
At TMF, we’ve seen how tradition can anchor innovation and how new energy can renew the church. Grafting the two together fosters mutual flourishing. When rooted together, we make space for growth so the whole vineyard — the whole church — can thrive and bear fruit for generations to come.
Dear Friends,
At Texas Methodist Foundation, we believe that when people come together in faith, their love becomes action, and that action changes lives. This is the Body of Christ at work, bearing the fruit of God’s enduring love.
This year at TMF, we’ve been inspired by the practice of grafting: a beautiful process by which gardeners and farmers join a new shoot to a strong, established rootstock so both may flourish.
It’s a powerful image of what Texas Methodist Foundation strives to do: through Learning and Innovation cohorts, learning journey experiences, and convening innovative leaders from across the Wesleyan ecosystem, combined with deep investing, lending, and charitable giving expertise, helps meet the needs of churches, all to strengthen the rootstock of the church while tending the grafts of fresh ministry.
Every day, we have the honor of working with churches and nonprofit ministries rooted in scripture, rich in faithful practices, and steady in their calling. We partner with innovative ministries and courageous leaders bringing fresh energy and hope to churches and neighborhoods across Texas and New Mexico.
In 2025, TMF Impact Certificate and Equity & Bond Fund investors, borrowers, donors, and leaders like you helped make love in action possible. We ended the year with total assets of $707.6 million and our loan portfolio closed the year at $238.6 million. We received $5.7 million in new gifts to support churches and ministry and made $6.1 million in donor-directed distributions. Through our Grants ministry, we provided $2.3 million in grants to 91 churches and ministries, impacting more than 492,500 individuals. We also invested $1.0 million in Learning and Innovation initiatives and cohorts.
From the many stories of impact this year, I'll highlight just two. Rev. Dr. Paul Escamilla — long-time participant in TMF's leadership cohorts and now a facilitator guiding congregations to live the Gospel with new vision and new purpose — chose to invest in TMF's Impact Certificates as another way to strengthen the church's witness. And Scott Roberts transformed part of his IRA into an endowment with TMF, ensuring that the church that shaped him as a child will continue to form future generations in faith.
As you read our 2025 Impact Report, I hope you see your faith reflected in these stories and how your generosity is helping love continue to take root, grow, and bear fruit. Thank you for your partnership as we together tend the grafts needed for vital churches and flourishing neighborhoods.
By the grace of God, may it be so!
Rev. Lisa Greenwood
President & CEO
Texas Methodist Foundation
Mr. John Esquivel
Board Chair
Texas Methodist Foundation
IGNITING IMAGINATION FOR THE FUTURE CHURCH
Leading With Faithful Imagination Across the Wesleyan Landscape
Across dozens of cohorts, learning journeys, publications, podcasts, and experimental initiatives, the Learning and Innovation team at TMF engages hundreds of leaders — from church leaders to bishops to spiritual entrepreneurs — at the leading edge of faithful change.
Together, these efforts are sparking imagination, forging unlikely partnerships, and equipping the church to meet this moment with courage, creativity, and hope.
To learn more, we welcome you to meet the team.
Courageous Congregations Collaborate
In 2025, Courageous Congregations Collaborate (C3) expanded its reach with the launch of its first bilingual cohort, convening four San Antonio–area congregations: West Lawn UMC, Emanuel UMC, La Trinidad UMC San Antonio, and La Trinidad UMC Seguin. After nearly a year of intentional design and adaptation, C3 created a fully bilingual experience shaped by the language, cultural rhythms, and theological context of participating communities.
This work extended far beyond translation. C3 facilitators redesigned structure, practices, and relational dynamics to reflect the lived realities and leadership wisdom of bilingual congregations — expanding access to culturally attuned formation and strengthening congregational discernment.
At the cohort’s opening gathering, participants engaged in worship, Scripture, and structured practices designed to deepen discernment and strengthen adaptive leadership. In a broader cultural moment marked by fear and uncertainty — particularly within immigrant communities — the gathering created what Rev. Martha Valencia described as “holy ground,” where leaders could fully participate, discerning together in “the language and culture of their hearts.”
By investing in thoughtful adaptation and skilled facilitation, C3 is equipping congregations often underserved by traditional resources with the tools and confidence to listen for God’s leading and respond faithfully in their neighborhoods.
Conversations that ignite imagination
NURTURING STORIES THAT SPARK IMAGINATION FOR THE FUTURE CHURCH
Every movement begins with a spark — and often, that spark is a conversation.
The Igniting Imagination® podcast invites church leaders and change-makers into bold dialogue that encourages vision, connection, and renewal for the future church.
Each episode opens up a dialogue and invites listeners into new possibilities for themselves, their church, and their community.
The Captivity and the Possibility of the American Church
With Rev. William H. Lamar IV
Church Property: Key Takeaways From This Season
With Shannon Hopkins and Rev. Mark Elsdon
Reimaginingthe Church for a Changing World
Generative conversations on the Igniting Imagination® podcast this year explored how church decline and cultural disruption may open space for new forms of belonging, meaning, and spiritual community beyond traditional congregations in a rich conversation with Rev. Dr. Gil Rendle.
Rev. William H. Lamar IV discussed moral courage, justice, and the church’s role in confronting white Christian nationalism and witnessing to human dignity.
And the team at RootedGood hosted a dedicated season on reimagining church property as sacred, community-centered space, calling churches to move from survival to flourishing through courage and creativity.
Generosity Sustains Ministry
Planning for Faithful Generations to Come
Planned giving is how a cycle of generosity enables your faith to take root and grow for generations.
TMF’s Philanthropy team works closely with churches and donors to create giving plans that reflect their faith, values, and vision.
Through Donor-Advised Funds, endowments, and charitable trusts, we help maximize philanthropic impact — ensuring your generosity continues to bear fruit for years to come.
To learn more, we welcome you to meet the team.
Passing on a Legacy of Faith and Service
When Scott Roberts was ten, his father changed his life by taking him and his brothers to First UMC in La Porte, Texas. Those early Sunday mornings felt simple at first, with hymns and warm handshakes. But those mornings shaped him deeply, setting a course for his life that he is now passing on.
Inspired by his father’s quiet faith, Scott created an endowment with TMF so his church could thrive for generations to come, ensuring that the church that shaped him as a child will continue to form future generations in faith.
Grants Create Pathways to Hope
Nurturing Transformative Ministries
TMF expands donor impact by partnering with innovative churches and nonprofit ministries that transform communities across Texas and New Mexico.
TMF supports projects focused on evangelism with social impact and on programs that improve conditions for those living in poverty, bringing a cycle of generosity to neighbors and communities.
To learn more, we welcome you to meet the team.
Loving our Neighbors
Neighbor2neighbor (n2n) is a TMF program that helps churches build on their gifts to become the heart of flourishing in their neighborhoods by expanding and deepening relationships.
Through n2n, pastors and lay leaders learn to serve with and for their neighborhoods while re-energizing their congregations. In 2025, the initiative grew to include 19 churches across Texas and New Mexico.
Loans Make Ministry Dreams Possible
Helping Ministries Take Root and Thrive
Since the early 1960s, TMF has helped churches and nonprofit ministries secure affordable loans with flexible terms that meet their unique borrowing needs, sustainably grow for the long term, and realize their God-inspired dreams.
TMF Impact Certificate investors fund loans for church construction projects and their capital needs. Unlike commercial financial institutions, loan interest earned by TMF is reinvested back into churches and nonprofit ministries through learning and innovation programs, philanthropy services, and grants.
To learn more, we welcome you to meet the team.
Tending to the Heart of a Community
In 2019, a powerful storm collapsed the roof of Travis Park United Methodist Church’s youth building, flooding the entire historic facility. Yet, the damage didn’t diminish the congregation’s spirit — it revealed their resilience and commitment to their neighborhood.
Thanks in part to a loan from TMF, this historic church completed phase one of its restoration and kept its doors open. Today, the heart of Travis Park UMC beats stronger than ever. Their ministry was never about the building but about providing a home and sanctuary built on the love for their community.
INVESTORS CREATE A CYCLE OF GENEROSITY
Giving Back by Investing
Investors in Texas Methodist Foundation Impact Certificates and Equity & Bond Funds express a faith and generosity that help more people experience God’s love in tangible and transformative ways.
Investors make possible a cycle of generosity that provides loans for churches, grants for nonprofit ministries, and initiatives that embolden leaders through learning and innovation, strengthening the church’s witness today and into the future across Texas and New Mexico.
Texas Methodist Foundation's total assets in 2025 ended the year at $707.6 million, increasing $24.7 million or 3.6%.
To learn more, we welcome you to meet the team.
MEET THE TEAM
Planting Seeds for Future Miracles
For Rev. Dr. Paul Escamilla, every challenge begins with love, because where there is love, there can be miracles.
As a facilitator with TMF’s Courageous Congregations Collaborate, Rev. Dr. Escamilla helps congregations live the Gospel with new vision and purpose. He purposefully invested in TMF Impact Certificates to seed a future where grace flows through infrastructure and love fuels imagination.