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When Glenn Dennard, pastor of Family of Faith Church in Phoenix, Arizona, talked to an insurance agent in the fall of 1990, he didn't think he'd need disability insurance. The 20-something husband and father was healthy and productive.

Nonetheless, Joseph Rinaldo, agent for Ministers Life of Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance Company, persisted. "We worked for a year-and-a-half with the congregation and board of Dennard's church," Rinaldo says. "We pointed out that disability is a real risk to both pastor and church. If Dennard were disabled, it would be difficult for the church to provide for him and his family and also support a fill-in pastor."

After much consideration, Family of Faith Church purchased a disability income policy and additional life insurance for its pastor. The policy went into effect in March 1992.

Plan for Uncertainty
As Dennard was heading home after visiting a parishioner nine months later, his car was involved in a serious, rollover accident. The critically injured pastor was evacuated by air from the scene. He was close to death.

By God's grace, he survived. After a lengthy hospital stay, Dennard went home, where he recovered over the next year with the help of extensive therapy.

Needless to say, Dennard and Family of Faith Church were thankful they had insurance to cover Dennard's disability. "It was a long process to get that policy in force," Rinaldo admits. "But it saved the church and the Dennard family from all the problems that we talk about when we help people plan for uncertainty."

More Need than Ever
Given the financial consequences of a disability, every working person needs some kind of protection. Helene Josovitz, an agent from Rockville, Maryland, believes the need for income-protection insurance has never been greater. "Families today depend on two salaries," she says. "Living expenses are high. Improved medical technology means people are surviving illness and injury and living longer."

Ministers who are disabled face the same consequences as anyone else, says Theresa Bergum, director of disability and worksite marketing for Minnesota Mutual. "Clergy may be able to count on their savings, family, or congregation for a short time," she says. "But no business—let alone a church—can bear a burden of that magnitude for very long."

For Pastor and Churches
How will a church support a minister whose health is seriously impaired and pay for someone to fill in for the pastor?

That's something Josovitz faces daily in metropolitan Washington, D.C. Since the passage of the Community Reinvestment Act, banks are required to lend money to inner-city churches, Josovitz says. As a result, the city is witnessing a massive expansion of churches. With that explosion comes risk. "Churches have large loans and depend on the presence of the minister. If the clergyperson is unable to work, how will the institution continue?" she asks.

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