McKendree Village (now known as The McKendree) is a well-known older adult housing community in Hermitage, Tennessee. It was established by the Tennessee Conference of The United Methodist Church in 1960 as an affiliate ministry to be a retirement location for Methodist ministers and UMC leaders and their families. What began as an assisted living facility later grew to become a continuous care retirement center (CCRC) — capable of serving more than 500 residents — which included independent living in cottages and apartments, assisted living units with a memory care center, and a 180-bed skilled nursing center.
Initially, the Board of McKendree Village (MV) was appointed by the Tennessee Conference, but in the early 1980’s, MV changed its affiliation with the conference to a covenant relationship. The McKendree Village Inc. (MKV Inc.) Board continued managing the residents’ trust fund including resident deposits, church and other donations, and bequeaths by the McKendree Village Development Office. As part of a CCRC operation, the trust fund could help close the financial gap for individual residents when their personal assets and health insurance weren’t sufficient to cover the cost of their care.
By 1995, CCRC’s nationally — mostly operated by various religious denominations — were feeling the burden of rising health care costs and surging growth of the senior population. MKV, Inc. struggled to meet the financial needs of its operations and explored, without success, the possibility of a broader affiliation with Vanderbilt University Medical Center to assume operation of the combined campus.
The McKendree Village Foundation (MVF) was chartered in 1998 to continue the purpose of the McKendree Village Development Office by supporting activities for the benefit of MKV Inc. Those financial assets transferred to the MVF and were gradually used to provide about $7 million for support of MKV Inc. to cover operational deficits and resident benevolent care during that time.
In 2011, the Tennessee Conference supported MKV Inc. as it sought opportunities to sell the property and assets to private operators. MKV Inc. secured a buyer later that year. The MVF Board voted in December 2011 to cease providing financial support for MKV Inc. operations since it was now privately owned. MVF continued providing benevolent care support when needed to eligible residents who entered MV prior to the 2011 sale. At that time, the assets of MVF were around $6 million.
In January 2012, MVF became an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit to continue funding the benevolent care program for qualified MV residents. During that time MVF Board chair John Collett, Jr., and executive director Kent McNish began working on plans to create a separate program-based nonprofit foundation with some of its assets. In June 2012, the Tennessee Annual Conference approved the creation of the Golden Cross Foundation (GCF) which was established with a $50,000 grant from the MVF.
GCF was launched in May 2013 as a financially self-supported training, support, and funding organization of the Tennessee Conference. Its stated purpose was to establish and expand older adult ministries with local churches in the conference. The GCF board of directors were responsible for managing the solicitation and expenditure of funds.
GCF funding came from a long-standing Golden Cross Sunday Special Offering at local churches each Mother’s Day plus funds raised by the GCF and gifts/grants from MVF endowment earnings. GCF offered strategic direction, training, consultation for older adult ministries, and funding for certain categories of grants to local churches.
Kent McNish served as executive director to the MVF Board of MVF beginning in April 2006. He continued serving in that position as well as becoming executive director of GCF at its launch.
Collett and McNish approached Charles Hewgley to serve as Board chair for GCF. Hewgley was retiring after 40 years working in aging and senior adult services and programming with Tennessee government and a multistate private sector healthcare organization. He joined the Board in 2014.
Another original GCF Board member, Shirley Vaughn, had served as chair of the Older Adult Committee (OAC) of the Tennessee Conference for many years. At the 2015 Tennessee Annual Conference, funding support for the OAC (along with other programs) ended. The GCF Board voted to assume the responsibilities and financial support of the OAC for the Tennessee Conference from that time forward.
In 2015 the GCF hired Rev. Dr. Richard H Gentzler, Jr., to serve as director of Program Ministry. Gentzler had a distinguished career of over 40 years in older adult ministry across The United Methodist Church, including serving as director of the Center on Aging and Older Adult Ministries for the UMC. His extensive knowledge, experience, and expertise in older adult ministry enhanced older adult ministry to conference churches.
During the early formative years, the GCF Board adopted the widely accepted deficiencies of services for the general older adult population of transportation, healthcare, affordable housing and nutrition as GCF’s core program areas of focus. Later, they added a fifth area of focus — spiritual growth.
In June 2021, the Tennessee and Memphis conferences voted to combine into one conference — the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference (TWK) of The United Methodist Church. The TWK Conference began operations on January 1, 2022.
As a result of the combined conferences, GCF began serving almost 1,000 TWK churches, providing consultation, training and support, advocacy, resources, networking opportunities, and grant funding to equip church leaders in the conference for intentional ministry by, with, and for older adults.
The new TWK Conference included two long-time older adult ministry organizations in the legacy Tennessee and Memphis conferences: Golden Cross Foundation and Golden Cross Senior Ministries. Leaders in the organizations decided to remain separate entities inside TWK since their missions were different.
While the missions were different, the organization names were similar. To avoid potential confusion with constituents, The Golden Cross Foundation Board discussed and voted to legally change GCF to the ENCORE Ministry Foundation (EMF) in January 2022.
Cindy Solomon became director of Operations in April 2022 after serving as director of Communications for GCF/EMF. Prior to that, Solomon worked for several United Methodist boards and agencies in a variety of sales, marketing, and project management roles as a consultant. Solomon assisted EMF in developing a new website and is the editor of ENCORE Ministry Connection, a monthly e-newsletter with more than 1,450 subscribers. She also manages the EMF grants program and other Operations functions.
After serving for 17 years, McNish planned his retirement for December 2023. The EMF Board created a Succession Committee in late 2022 to search nationwide for a new executive director. The Board hired John Rivas in September 2023 as executive director for EMF and MVF. Rivas brings more than 30 years of major fundraising and development experience working for several charitable and other non-profit foundations including some within the United Methodist connection.
Over the last 10 years, GCF/EMF developed policy and processes for creating partnerships through financial support of grant funding to local churches and Methodist-affiliated organizations in the TWK Conference. Of the current seven different grant categories, two are connected to endowed funds created by the MVF. The Bill and Lynn McAllily Grant for Church Accessibility and the Kent and Ellen McNish Grant for Older Adult Food Security are both designed to be supported by investment earnings from separate endowment funds managed by EMF.
Three grant categories aid churches in starting and sustaining programs for older adult ministry. The remaining two grant categories focus on disaster relief and individual assistance. From May 2013 through September 2025, GCF/EMF has awarded grants to more than 100 congregations, organizations, and agencies totaling more than $1,148,000.
At the June 2025 TWK Annual Conference, EMF petitioned the conference to approve changes to its bylaws and charter to allow EMF to broadly seek donations and grants from organizations that would otherwise not be able to contribute to a designated religious organization. The request was approved by a majority vote of the conference.
The primary changes to the charter changed the Purpose Article stating, “[the] Corporation is a not-for-profit religious corporation and operates as an extension ministry of the TWK Conference of the UMC.” The updated Purpose Article reads “[the] Corporation is organized exclusively for educational and charitable purposes … with a primary objective to provide assistance in funding ongoing ministries and services to older adults, and to provide expertise, assistance, support and funding for the expansion of innovative and effective ministries.” By adopting this new charter language, EMF no longer qualified for tax-exempt status under the UMC Group Tax Exempt Ruling and has applied for a separate 501(c)(3) tax-exempt designation.
Discussions in EMF committees and task groups as well as Board meetings during the past nine months have opened deliberations for the possibility of EMF choosing to experiment with providing some services, including grant funding, beyond the geographic borders of the TWK Conference. As an organization, EMF has offered consultation and training services to other jurisdictions according to our organizational purpose. Other denominations are looking at ways for supporting older adult ministries and EMF should explore opportunities to enter into collaborations and partnerships to share and expand EMF’s efforts.
The ENCORE Ministry Foundation provided a grant to First United Methodist in Columbia, Tennessee, to help fund their feeding ministry, the People’s Table. Since 2004, the People’s Table ministry serves meals to neighbors in need every Tuesday evening and Friday afternoon, providing nourishment, love, and hope to the homeless, elderly, families, and individuals struggling to make ends meet. However, the need in the community is growing. With the closure of a local battery plant and reductions in SNAP benefits, more families are facing food insecurity.
Together, we can be the hands and feet of Jesus, feeding the hungry, caring for the vulnerable, and showing love to those who need it most. Every dollar you give to the Kent and Ellen McNish Fund for Older Adult Food Security helps feeding ministries stretch resources and serve more meals to those in need. Donate today and help support life-changing feeding ministries like the People’s Table.
