Ángel E. Cepeda Velázquez, a Trustee of the Pension Boards, and head of Accounting and Administration for Iglesia Evangélica Unida de Puerto Rico (IEUPR), shares how the Pension Boards and IEUPR are working together to service the financial well-being of its pastors.
Based in Caguas, Puerto Rico, Iglesia Evangélica Unida de Puerto Rico (IEUPR) is made up of 75 churches, 48 active pastors, with around 3,500 members. IEUPR’s Ángel E. Cepeda Velázquez, a Trustee of the Pension Boards, shares how we are working together to service the financial well-being of its pastors.
For far too long our pastors have not had the opportunity to buy a home because of their low salaries, inflation, and the economy. Our churches’ average budgets are approximately $48,000 annually, and the population of the island keeps decreasing every year. Our pastors are not experiencing the blessed and peaceful ministry they deserve.
“Our pastors are not experiencing the blessed and peaceful ministry they deserve.”
Since 2019, the Pension Boards and Iglesia Evangélica Unida de Puerto Rico (IEUPR) have been working together to establish retirement accounts for IEUPR clergy. We have received financial assistance from the Pension Boards to help us respond to natural disasters. We also have a voice and vote as representatives on the Pension Boards’ Board of Directors.
“Our pastors are not experiencing the blessed and peaceful ministry they deserve.”
In 2021, we moved all IEUPR active clergy and lay workers to the Pension Boards with the hope to create programs that will improve their individual financial well-being. We are advancing in this hope. Through the Ministers’ Financial Vitality Initiative (MFVI), offered to IEUPR pastors this year, and Project Horizon, a first-of-Its-kind retirement service with an incentivized savings feature, our people will be able to build their retirement income. In this way, IEUPR clergy have hope for a better future, and the motivation to excel in their ministries.
We are motivating the pastors to take full advantage of MFVI because there is a real need for our clergy and employees to improve their financial situations. MFVI will give our people the tools they need to rise out of debt and a poverty mindset. For that reason, we expect to have 90% participation and attendance in every workshop and all activities related to this program.
Project Horizon is another important tool to help our clergy reach their retirement income potential. The average salary of our pastors is around $18,000 annually—well below the poverty level. The matching incentive offered through Project Horizon will help our clergy achieve the numbers that would be impossible to achieve if they did it alone. Through Project Horizon’s matching grants feature, IEUPR pastors can expect to receive more than $7,000 into their annuity plan accounts over a three-year period.
Currently, we have eight bi-vocational active pastors. The remaining pastors work in the church full-time. In our culture, it is expected that pastors work in their church office throughout the day, and be accessible for the community, to visit the sick at the hospital, or provide spiritual counseling. However, we offer our pastors cancer and disability insurance; ministerial insurance; and we pay the tuition for those who attend school (Seminario Evangélico de Puerto Rico).
We are focused on improving the services we give to our communities and for this we need pastoral care programs to help those who live to help others. We believe that by transforming their minds and providing them with better tools, they will be part of the transformation necessary for the church to regain a better economic position to serve the communities and have a greater presence within the country. The partnership with the Pension Boards has been a great step to start this work, and to develop programs that will sustain our communities and ministry.
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