Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 26, 1991 TAG: 9103260401
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE RELIGION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Falwell aide Mark DeMoss said Monday that more than half that amount had been raised by the weekend in an "exceptionally good" response to a mail appeal to save the Lynchburg ministry.
The money is needed for "operational expenses" - payroll, utilities, insurance and the like - not for capital or debt, DeMoss said.
He said the money would be used throughout the Falwell ministerial network, including the "Old-Time Gospel Hour" television program, Liberty University, Liberty Godparents Homes and Thomas Road Baptist Church.
"We've operated 35 years essentially on gifts and contributions," DeMoss said, so this latest appeal is not a departure from that tradition.
On the other hand, Falwell acknowledged Monday, a state Supreme Court decision denying Liberty University the use of $76 million in tax-free industrial revenue bonds has hurt the ministry's finances.
Alternative funding sources to consolidate the ministry's debt have not yet been successful, DeMoss said, but continue to be pursued.
Those alternatives include taxable bonds still being negotiated through Kemper Capital Markets that the ministries had expected to be approved late last year.
The $3 million raised in the current fund drive should get the ministry through the next "couple of months," DeMoss said. By that time, he said, he hopes alternative debt financing will be found.
Under the current high-payment, short-term debt load, DeMoss said, "operational revenue is sucked up making a debt payment that we had anticipated being made by the long-term bond issue."
If that debt were refinanced into a lower-payment, long-term obligation - and "serious, diligent cost reductions" continue - the ministry would be "in good shape operationally."
The $3 million "is not going to solve all our money problems by any means."
About 193,000 "most active supporters" of the ministry's 5 million-family mailing list were contacted for the fund-raiser, DeMoss said.
At a Sunday church service, Falwell said, "I told them in typical Jerry Falwell fashion, `It's do or die.' "
When the debt refinancing is accomplished, DeMoss said, "that certainly should reduce the frequency of such [emergency] appeals," but he would not rule out their future use entirely.
"We will be less dependent on them," though, he said.
DeMoss said Monday that two ministry projects related to the Persian Gulf War were dropped without becoming a drain on the ministry.
A series of "I Love America" crusades, including music and patriotic messages, was canceled after appearances in Lynchburg and Norfolk.
The ministry also stopped appeals for a G.I. Care Package campaign that would have sent toiletries and other personal-care items to Persian Gulf troops. Several thousand packages were purchased, but their delivery was blocked when the war ended, DeMoss said.
Those now will be earmarked for soldiers in the United States or sent to the gulf through alternatives to bulk mailing.
by CNB