December 2006

Former Princeton president Tom Gillespie named honorary campaign chair for Joining Hearts & Hands

His unconditional willingness to help is but one hallmark of Tom Gillespie’s distinguished service to the church.

Most recently, Gillespie has given his unqualified “yes” in support of the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands by accepting the role of honorary chair of the national fundraising campaign as it moves into its final phase.

Joining Hearts & Hands, mandated by the 214th General Assembly (2002) to raise $40 million for new mission personnel overseas and for church development in the U.S., is scheduled to conclude at the 218th General Assembly (2008).  The 21-member national steering committee is co-chaired by the Rev. Joanna Adams of Atlanta, Ga., and the Rev. Dave Peterson of Houston, Texas.

“When [former MIJHH co-chair] Bill Saul called me last year to ask for my help on behalf of Joining Hearts & Hands,” Gillespie recalled, “the next thing I knew, I was on the steering committee.  I’ve been impressed from the start with what the staff has accomplished, how much has been raised, and that God’s blessing is upon it.”  The campaign has just $14.5 million of its $40 million goal left to be raised by June 2008.

Gillespie, who previously served pastorates at First Presbyterian Church of Garden Grove, Calif., and First Presbyterian Church of Burlingame, Calif., retired in 2004 as president of Princeton Theological Seminary.  During his presidency, Princeton Seminary established the Center of Barth Studies and the Abraham Kuyper Center for Public Theology.  He understands well the basic principles of fundraising.

“The cardinal rule in fundraising is if you announce a campaign, you finish it,” Gillespie said.  “In its recent action to fund the operating expenses for Joining Hearts & Hands through June of 2008, the executive committee of the General Assembly Council has affirmed and upheld that principle.”

The steering committee’s focus for the final $14.5 million will be on international mission personnel, which offers “plenty that everyone can support,” according to Gillespie.  “The mission of the church is something that can bind us together,” he said.  “If we are successful, we will have laid a great foundation for the future fundraising efforts of the whole denomination.”

David York, the Atlanta elder who was named director of Joining Hearts & Hands in October 2006, has similarly described the campaign as “a tent we can all get under.”