A Legacy of Lending

More than 50 years ago, 10 families started Community Christian Church in Tujunga, California. They held their first meeting in Carmen Silicato’s living room.

In the decades since, the church’s membership has fluctuated a lot. Carmen estimates that at their highest they reached 200 people, and now they’re at about 100.

“I hope they see that CDF is helping people start churches, just like we did.”

“People move in and out of our community a lot,” he said. “Part of it is that this is one of the least expensive areas to live in our valley. A lot of people start here, and then as they improve financially, they move on. And then we have a lot of people just moving out of California.”

Many of them moved to the same places.

“We could start a congregation in Boise, Idaho with people from our church that have moved there,” Carmen laughed. “I can think of at least 8 or 9 families that moved to that area within the last few years.”

But how many people come and go doesn’t dissuade Carmen from believing that God is in charge.

“The Lord put us here for a reason.”

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Image above: Carmen and the generations of his family.

More Than Numbers

Attendance isn’t the only measure of a church’s impact. Every person who turns from sin toward Jesus has an immeasurable effect on the lives around them.

“We have a lot of people who are coming out of drug abuse,” Carmen said. “Even a couple of our elders came from that background.”

Additionally, Carmen and other members of his congregation are involved in Good News Club, an after-school ministry that teaches the gospel to elementary school students on campus. Kids are encouraged to share about positive experiences they have had (“good news”), and then they sing songs and talk about the best news of all.

“It’s really rewarding,” Carmen said. “We see a lot of kids that have not heard the gospel before.”

Carmen also serves in his church’s youth ministry, leads adult Sunday school classes, and works as a reserve police officer. For more than 50 years now, Carmen has demonstrated his dedication to Community Christian Church and the city of Tujunga, and he has never been afraid to put himself on the line to advance the Kingdom.

What Would You Risk?

“When we first moved into our building, we got a loan from a local bank,” Carmen said. “And there were three or four of us that they required a note on our houses. I was one of the ones that did that because I thought, Well I know the church is going to stay here, so I’m not worried about that.”

Carmen and others offered their houses as collateral to give their church the space it needed to grow. It was a risky loan, but they needed it to buy their first building. For Carmen, it was an easy decision to make—he had grown up learning about the tension between risk and need, and his childhood experiences with loans stuck with him.

“My parents were always struggling,” he said. “My dad was always borrowing money to get out of a temporary hole. In junior high school I asked him, ‘Don’t we have to pay this back?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, and then we have to pay interest on it.’ I couldn’t believe it, I said, ‘You borrow $100 and you have to pay $150 back? That’s stupid!’ And he got angry with me. ‘It’s not stupid if you need $100 right now to eat or pay the rent.’”

The conversation made Carmen more than a little uncomfortable with the idea of borrowing money.

“I just thought it was a good investment and it was backed by good people—and ultimately it was backed by God.”

“But as I got older, I learned that you can’t buy a house without borrowing some money, and you’re going to pay interest,” he said. “And then I discovered not all interest is as bad as what my dad had to pay all the time.”

Next to the 50% interest microloans his dad had taken, any interest rate would probably look good. But when Carmen’s church needed another loan, they found a better solution than the local bank they had used before—a lender that specializes in providing low-interest church loans.

“When we bought the lot next door, we did that through CDF,” Carmen said. “And the interest rate was so much better.”

Instead of requiring his house as collateral, getting a loan with CDF Capital required Carmen and other members to put their money where their heart was and invest in the fund that would help churches like them grow.

“That’s when I really got involved with CDF,” Carmen said. “I know they’re not insured, but the way I look at it, if all the people they’re lending money to are Christians, they’re certainly going to pay it back. So it was never really a big worry for me. And I know there are some cases where there might be circumstances that might make it impossible for them to pay it back. But I just thought it was a good investment and it was backed by good people—and ultimately it was backed by God.”

The Whole Family

After seeing what CDF Capital investments could do with and for his savings, Carmen decided to get the whole family involved.

“I opened accounts for my kids,” he said. “Over the years as I started getting grandkids, I just did it for each grandkid. And now I’ve got a couple of great-grandkids. So I’ve got accounts for each of them too.”

Carmen wants his kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids to learn not just the benefits of accumulating interest, but the value and purpose of lending.

“I hope they learn that sometimes you do have to borrow money, and you want to make sure you borrow it from someone who’s going to treat you fairly,” he said. “And also, I hope they see that CDF is helping people start churches, just like we did.”

The Legacy of Growth

At CDF Capital, we are committed to helping Christians steward their resources well so that churches grow. When you put your resources into CDF Capital, your investment grows—and so do churches across the country. With every new investor, the legacy continues.

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