Our History

The Mission Investment Fund has deep roots in Lutheran tradition, going back to at least 1915, when this report from the Lutheran Mission and Church Extension Society was published:

"Whoever devised the loan system for building new churches without spending a dollar of the Extension Society's capital fund -- since none of it is ever given "for keeps" -- deserves a monument to their memory. Money, which continues in perpetual motion, being used over and over again, until the loan-fund needs of the Lutheran people shall have been supplied, throughout the entire length and breadth of the continent, is absolutely unique."

The Mission Investment Fund has continued this tradition of sound, faithful stewardship to help meet the capital building needs of congregations -- both new and existing -- as well as ELCA-related ministries. Since its inception, the fund has provided more than $1 billion in loans that have helped our borrowers more effectively carry out their mission and ministries -- which are shared with the ELCA as a whole.

And we can’t do it alone. Our tradition of stewardship is based on congregations and their members, synods and ELCA-related ministries investing in the future of the Lutheran church through the Mission Investment Fund.