Losing credit?

Charity | Banking analysts differ on the health of a leading megachurch lender | Warren Cole Smith

Associated Press/Photo by Ben Margot

The number of megachurches—churches with more than 2,000 in regular weekly attendance—has increased 100-fold since the 1970s, from less than 20 to almost 2,000 today.

For Mark Holbrook, an evangelical Christian who graduated from Biola University in the early 1970s, this growth was a great ministry—and a great business—opportunity. So he joined the staff of a small California credit union, and by 1979 he was president. Today, the Evangelical Christian Credit Union (ECCU) is a financial powerhouse.

By concentrating exclusively on churches and Christian ministries, ECCU has originated more than $3.2 billion in loans—mostly real estate mortgages. How important is ECCU? A Bloomberg report estimated that the top 10 U.S. financial institutions combined did not originate as many church mortgages as ECCU's $661 million 2008 total.

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December 19, 2009, Vol. 24, No. 25

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