GuideStone Trustees Celebrate Strategic Progress, Emphasize Service to Unseen Ministry Leaders

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado

During its summer plenary session, GuideStone® trustees gathered to celebrate God’s continued provision and to hear updates on key strategic initiatives designed to serve Southern Baptist pastors, churches and ministry partners.

A Mission Rooted in Service

President Hance Dilbeck opened the meeting by reminding trustees that GuideStone’s mission is rooted in service to those who seek to serve the Lord well in whatever capacity they have been called.

“We serve some famous pastors,” Dilbeck said. “But we also serve thousands of unseen servants — church custodians, administrative assistants, bivocational pastors — people who may sometimes go unappreciated, but who are not unimportant.”

Dilbeck emphasized that GuideStone’s work is not merely about financial products but about helping every servant of Christ finish well.

“By ‘finish well,’ we don’t just mean reaching retirement,” he said. “We mean reaching the day they stand before the Lord Jesus, having served faithfully and with freedom — freedom from anxiety, and even more, freedom for continued service.”

That vision of resilience — “perseverance, in Pauline language” — shaped the updates trustees received on key initiatives prioritized for 2025 to strengthen GuideStone’s service to its members and ministry partners.

 “We are stewarding our time, talent and resources to create generational Kingdom value,” Chief Operating Officer Mark Borchgardt said.

Strong midyear results

Borchgardt reported to trustees on four key dimensions of GuideStone’s performance: financial strength, organizational growth, ministry impact and long-term resilience. He noted that these areas represent GuideStone’s unique identity as a faith-based, missionally driven financial services enterprise and as a self-sustaining not-for-profit organization which receives no Cooperative Program gifts from the Southern Baptist Convention.

Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pattison highlighted new all-time-high enterprise total assets of $25.1 billion and noted that strong asset returns are reflected in members’ accounts, many of whom also see all-time-high balances contributing to their ability to finish well.

Chief Experience Officer Christy Teeter shared three heartfelt member stories with trustees, demonstrating GuideStone’s daily impact in helping members start well, stay well and finish well.

Board Chairman David Rainwater observed that while all of the facts, statistics and financial results reported during the meeting are essential to strong board governance, it is these examples of GuideStone’s impact on the lives of individual pastors, ministry workers and their families that drives home the integrity, heart and skill exemplified by GuideStone team members in their work.

Mission:Dignity

In addition to enterprise performance, trustees also heard encouraging updates from GuideStone’s signature ministry to retired pastors and their widows.

Mission:Dignity director Aaron Meraz reported continued strong growth in the O.S. and Susie Hawkins Fund now stands at $15.3 million. The fund is designed to perpetually fund expense grants, provided to eligible recipients for large one-time needs like eyeglasses, dentures, repairs or replacements for items like roof or household appliances.

Through June 30, Mission:Dignity has raised $5.2 million and has assisted 2,413 individual retired ministers and widows, with $4.5 million distributed.

As has been the case for decades, 100% of all gifts to Mission:Dignity go to help a retired Southern Baptist minister, worker or widow near the poverty line with financial support. Administrative costs for the ministry are provided through an endowment established decades ago. The ministry is funded through direct gifts from local churches, foundations, individuals and Sunday school classes.

Honoring a Legacy of Service

Trustees also celebrated the faithful service of longtime team member Christi Smith, who is retiring at year-end after 44 years of ministry at GuideStone, most of it helping to organize the trustee meetings held twice annually as part of her key responsibilities. Smith grew up in a pastor’s home and had a special connection to the pastors and others serving in Southern Baptist churches.

“Christi’s legacy is a testament to what it means to finish well,” Borchgardt said. “We are grateful for her dedication and example.”

As the meeting concluded, Dilbeck reminded trustees of the eternal significance of their work.

“We do this all to the glory of God,” he said. “We seek to honor him, to serve those who serve him, and to humbly ask for his blessing to multiply our efforts.”

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