Large tracts of land that Navajo and Zuni Christian Reformed churches had hoped would supply much-needed income are now being sold after more than a century in Christian Reformed hands, and the churches expect some of the proceeds. The land surrounds the mission compound in Rehoboth, New Mexico.
For the past decade, a local foundation representing those churches, local Christian schools, and Christian Reformed Home Missions has tried to raise funds by developing the land and selling pieces of it. Now they’ve decided to sell it all.
“Money is easier to manage than land,” said Dan McLaughlin, treasurer of Classis Red Mesa, the regional group to which the churches now belong. “If we trade the land for an equal value of cash, a lot of our overhead goes away.”
The Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation in Grand Rapids, Mich., is forming a business entity that will buy the land for $3.1 million.
Officials at the DeVos Foundation told The Banner their interest in buying the land is to help out the churches and, in particular, the schools. They’ve not said what plans, if any, they have for the land.
The churches and schools will split the proceeds, with the churches’ share being 60 percent, McLaughlin said. The churches’ access to the money will be limited. The deal calls for it to be placed in a trust managed by the Illinois-based Barnabas Foundation, and paid out over three years.
McLaughlin said he hopes interest from the proceeds will eventually provide more yearly funds than churches got from the land before the sale. Individual congregations could make specific funding requests through classis.
McLaughlin pointed to new training for local church leaders as an example of a promising program that needs ongoing financial support. “There are a lot of needs out here,” he said.
