In December of last year, Bob (GBI '61) and Muriel Griffin took out their 30th gift annuity at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. They have been taking out gift annuities for 24 years for two reasons. First, they want to help current students attend seminary without accruing substantial debt, and second, they want to show their appreciation to Garrett-Evangelical for the scholarship Bob received when he was earning his master of divinity degree. The money from their annuities goes toward the general scholarship fund.
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary is one of the 13 United Methodist seminaries supported by the Ministerial Education Fund apportionment of the United Methodist Church.
"We took out our first gift annuity as a way to thank Garrett-Evangelical for my scholarship when I was a student there from 1958 to 1961," Bob said. "We have kept on taking out annuities because students continue to need scholarships."
"His scholarship meant a lot to him and to me in that he didn't start his ministry being in debt," Muriel added. "We did not make much as pastors, and having debt would have been really hard. I imagine it would be even harder today."
In addition to supporting current students and expressing their appreciation, the Griffins have two more reasons for supporting Garrett-Evangelical through their gift annuities.
"Garrett-Evangelical is a place that will use our money well," Muriel said.
"A gift annuity is a wonderful way to support any work you want to support because you can give the gift, and the return on the gift is quite amazing," Bob said. "That is a very nice part of the annuity."
Bob enjoyed his time at Garrett. "I really admired the faculty," he said. "They did a tremendous job of teaching in their respective fields, and I learned an awful lot from them. It was good preparation for the ministry."
After Bob graduated in 1961, he was appointed to the Council Bluffs Community Church in Iowa as a member of the Iowa Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. They served there for six years until 1967. They moved to Des Moines, where they brought three churches together to form the Inner City Cooperative Parish.
During their four-year tenure there, Bob and Muriel learned about the Ecumenical Institute in Chicago, a world-wide organization that helps churches respond to the needs of society and provides ways for them to become more active in their local parishes. They were granted a year of sabbatical study to work with the Ecumenical Institute and moved to Chicago. At the end of the year, inspired by their work there, they asked to stay on.
"We kept asking to extend another year, and we ended up extending it for 26 years," Bob said. During that time, Bob and Muriel lived and worked in Oklahoma City, Hong Kong, Japan, San Francisco, Korea, Alberta, and Washington, D. C.
In 1994, the couple returned to Iowa and began serving in a church again. Four years later, they retired and moved to Indianola, Iowa.
They started taking out annuities at Garrett-Evangelical after they retired and have been doing so since. "It just seemed like the appropriate thing to do," Bob said.
Currently, the couple lives in Holyoke, Massachusetts. They have five daughters, one in Iowa and four in Massachusetts.
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary website, Evanston, IL
One of seven apportioned giving opportunities of The United Methodist Church, the Ministerial Education Fund is at the heart of preparing people for making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The 13 United Methodist seminaries help students to discover their calling through the challenging curriculum. The fund enables the church to increase financial support for recruiting and educating ordained and diaconal ministers and to equip annual conferences to meet increased demands. Please encourage your leaders and congregations to support the Ministerial Education Fund apportionment at 100 percent.
