2025 Impact Report
Tending the Graft, Growing Love in Action
Nourishing What is Newly Emerging And What is Deeply Rooted
In a vineyard, hope works quietly through grafting that joins new vines to established rootstock, nourishing both to bear abundant fruit.
A thriving church does the same, connecting deep, resilient roots of faith with new faithful expressions of ministry, for the benefit of both.
At Wesleyan Impact Partners, we’ve seen how tradition can anchor innovation, and how new energy can renew the church. Grafting the two together is for 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 Wesleyan Impact Partners, 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 Wesleyan Impact Partners, 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 Wesleyan Impact Partners 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 the United States.
In 2025, Wesleyan Impact Partners Impact Certificate investors, borrowers, donors, and leaders like you helped make love in action possible. We ended the year with $TK million in investments and total assets of $TK million, and our loan portfolio is now at $TK million and steadily growing. We also invested $TK in Learning and Innovation initiatives and cohorts for church leaders and $TK in courageous spiritual innovators across the country through the Locke Innovative Leader Award.
Among the many stories of impact this year, two stand out. Rev. Dr. Ron Swain, a Board member inspired by the work of courageous Locke Innovative Leaders building new faithful ministries, became a donor to the Locke Innovative Leader endowment. And Parker UMC in Parker, Colorado, with help from a loan from Wesleyan Impact Partners, built a new sanctuary that connects neighbors, so they know they are loved, they matter, and they belong.
As you read our 2025 Impact Report, I hope you see your faith reflected in these stories and that you see 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
Wesleyan Impact Partners
Mr. Wayne Moy
Board Chair
Wesleyan Impact Partners
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 Wesleyan Impact Partners 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.
Attention as a Sacred Act
In 2025, Wesleyan Impact Partners advanced the Phygital Preaching Fellowship by convening nineteen innovators from across the country for continued exploration of how the Gospel takes shape at the intersection of the physical and digital. Designed and guided by Wesleyan Impact Partners and supported by Lilly Endowment’s Compelling Preaching Initiative, the fellowship cultivates leaders who are experimenting with new technologies and delivery systems for preaching and ministry.
Through curated learning journeys and theological reflection, Wesleyan Impact Partners equips these leaders to engage emerging technologies with spiritual depth and pastoral imagination — helping the church meet people where they are, online and in person.
This year, the fellows gathered in Boston for a learning journey on “Technologies of Liberation,” engaging the legacy of Howard Thurman at Boston University’s Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground. The experience sharpened a core question animating the fellowship: If God is already at work in the digital as well as the physical, how might leaders respond faithfully in both spaces?
By cultivating intentional community, theological grounding, and innovative experimentation, Wesleyan Impact Partners is strengthening the church’s capacity for faithful innovation in a rapidly changing world.
Courageous leaders transform communities
2025 LOCKE INNOVATIVE LEADERS
ENGAGING SPIRITUAL LIVES AND LOCAL ECONOMIES to TRANSFORM COMMUNITIES
The 2025 honorees are reimagining higher education in Chicago, repurposing property to improve the lives of neighbors in Dellwood, Missouri, leveraging technology to help church communities thrive in new ways in Honolulu, and promoting holistic community development in Indianapolis.
Through their innovative ministries, new branches are emerging that inspire, connect, and bear lasting fruit in the communities they serve.
Joe Bowling,
Executive Director of Englewood Community Development Corporation,
Indianapolis, Indiana
Rev. Joshua Hayashi
CEO and Co-founder of Mission Management Company,
Honolulu, Hawaii
Beverly Jenkins,
President and CEO of Refuge and Restoration,
Dellwood, Missouri
Dr. Aaron Kuecker,
President of Trinity Christian College,
Chicago, Illinois
InvestingIn Locke Innovative Leaders
The Locke Innovative Leader Award lifts up the work of spiritual entrepreneurs who create new ways to serve their mission field and inspire others to join them in growing the impact of the church and nourishing their communities.
The award invests in bold leaders who demonstrate exceptional creativity and leadership in developing new practices and ministries that help more people experience God’s love.
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.
Hospitality When It’s Uncomfortable
With Rev. Alicia Forde and Tamice Spencer- Helms
Church Property: Key Takeaways From This Season
With Shannon Hopkins and Rev. Mark Elsdon
Sharingthe Fruit of Faithful Conversation
Generative conversations on the Igniting Imagination® podcast this year showed us new ministries rooted in the Wesleyan tradition and in faithful witness to heal the world.
Seasons explored critical themes for the current and future church including the role of hospitality in what is emerging in today's spiritual landscape, not just as a friendly gesture but as a profound spiritual and proactive action.
They discussed profound insights from esteemed guests, across the church property landscape who challenged them to see church properties not merely as real estate to be managed, but as sacred spaces with a deeper purpose and divine calling.
And included a powerful conversation at the intersection of faith and community transformation to talk about what it looks like when churches step beyond their traditional walls and into the lives of the people they serve.
Guests shared inspiring stories of answering the call to mutual flourishing, rooted in love, justice, and community.
Generosity Sustains Ministry
PLANNING YOUR GENEROSITY IS LOVE IN ACTION
Planned giving lets your faith take root and grow for generations.
Wesleyan Impact Partners' 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.
Empowering Innovative Leaders Serving in New Ways
Dr. Ron Swain, Chaplain at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, embodies Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of the “beloved community” — a world rooted in love, justice, and inclusion.
Inspired by the work of Locke Innovative Leaders courageously leading new faithful ministries, Dr. Swain became a donor to an endowment dedicated to the work of spiritual entrepreneurs who envision new ways to serve their mission field and grow the impact of the church in their communities.
Loans Make Ministry Dreams Possible
HELPING MINISTRIES TAKE ROOT AND THRIVE
Since 1969, Wesleyan Impact Partners 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.
Wesleyan Impact Partners Impact Certificate investors fund loans for church construction projects and their capital needs. Unlike commercial financial institutions, loan interest earned by Wesleyan Impact Partners is reinvested back into churches and nonprofit ministries through learning and innovation programs and philanthropy services.
To learn more, we welcome you to meet the team.
Connecting Neighbors and Letting Them Know They Matter
Inspired by Isaiah’s call to “do a new thing,” Parker United Methodist Church in Parker, Colorado, seeks to ensure their neighbors know they are loved, matter, and belong. With support from a Wesleyan Impact Partners loan, they built a welcoming new sanctuary alive with “Spark!,” worship services designed around children, and plenty of space for seniors to lift their voices in their “5280 Choir.”
They care for their unhoused neighbors by regularly sharing “Manna Bags” of essential items like food and self-care products. What began as a building expansion project became a center of hope for the community, demonstrating the lasting impact of compassion and connection.
Investors Create a Cycle of Generosity
GIVING BACK BY INVESTING
Investors in Wesleyan Impact Partners Impact Certificates 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 for churches and nonprofit ministries serving the needs of their communities while earning competitive returns.*
Planting Seeds for Future Flourishing
Investing in Impact Certificates is an expression of discipleship, with hope and faith in what God is doing in the world.
Investing puts love in action, providing resources that tend the rootstock of church and tradition and the fresh shoots of innovative new ministries. It makes generosity tangible, helping God’s love take root, grow, and bear fruit shared by ever more people.