Join Fletch and leaders from Thrivent for an insider’s look into church loans. Both Chris Lewis and Teresa Loker have extensive experience that can pull back the curtain on these issues. When your church is ready to build or renovate, you don’t want to be declined by lenders. Learn what it takes to get accepted for a church loan.

Chris Lewis is the Senior Relationship Manager at Thrivent Church Financing. Born in Brazil, where his parents served as missionaries, Chris learned 3 languages: Spanish, Portuguese and English. In 2006, after assisting the church he was attending with a capital campaign, Chris discovered that there was a need for lenders to work with growing ministries. Over the years, Chris has worked with growing ministries by providing sustainable financing solutions for construction, acquisition and refinancing. Chris obtained his undergraduate degree in Business Management from Harding University in 1996.

Teresa Loker is the Director, Church Loan Underwriting at Thrivent. Teresa has been helping ministries nationwide with their financing needs for the last 25 years. She was previously with Bank of the West in their Religious Institution Lending Division. As the Managing Director of Credit, she oversaw a $1.3 billion church loan portfolio with direct management of the underwriting team. During her tenure, she was also a relationship manager and played a key role in business development. Her career experience also includes jobs in retail banking, commercial real estate and asset based lending. She has a BS in Finance from Santa Clara University and is also fluent in Spanish.

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