Foursquare Foundation was established to be a kingdom-accelerator for evangelism around the world. Since 2005, the foundation has invested tens of millions of dollars in more than 100 countries through hundreds of grants. More than 6 million people have come to know Jesus as a result of the foundation’s investments. We celebrate those accomplishments to the glory of God.
When Foursquare Foundation was established, a firewall between the foundation and International Church of the Foursquare Gospel (ICFG) was put in place as a financial safeguard. Through the years, this firewall became an unintentional challenge for the ICFG board on several fronts. Though ultimately responsible for the foundation’s decisions, the ICFG board was unable to directly effect governance changes, unable to align the foundation’s actions with Foursquare’s vision and mission, and unable to adequately respond to field concerns about the foundation’s processes and decisions.
The ICFG board of directors came to realize the existence of a growing disconnect between the field and the foundation. Many people took issue with the foundation’s narrow scope regarding evangelism, the difficulty of the grant process, and, most recently, the decision to invest in “Scandalous: The Life and Trials of Aimee Semple McPherson.” Taking the action afforded it by the Foursquare Foundation bylaws, the ICFG board of directors repopulated the foundation board with an interim board*. This is the first step toward realigning the administration of the $171 million Foursquare Foundation corpus with the vision and mission of The Foursquare Church. This interim board will work to make necessary adjustments so that the foundation can become more inclusive and more effectively steward its resources to accelerate the vision and mission of The Foursquare Church nationally and globally.
The former members of the foundation board sacrificed significant time and effort to serve The Foursquare Church. For that, we are grateful. However, establishing a different board was necessary so that appropriate review and realignment can occur. We believe that moving toward a more collaborative culture will enable us to take advantage of tremendous ministry opportunity. We will re-evaluate and refocus all of our resources toward developing healthy, fruitful leaders; multiplying healthy, reproducing churches; and reaching people groups and nations.
This restructuring will not affect current grants that are in process or decisions that have been made concerning national or international grants decided through December 31, 2012. Grant application deadlines and processes for 2013 will be announced in December.
Comments and conversation regarding the implications of these changes can be directed to a special email account setup by the ICFG board of directors.
* The interim Foursquare Foundation board members are Doug Andersen, Bill Chaney, Harold Helms, Marion Ingegneri, Stan Simmons, Burt Smith (chair), and Ken Swett (vice chair).
