Rare are churchmen with financial ability, yet a Rochester, N. Y. congregation a few years ago insured Dr. Clinton Wunder for $100,000 and watched with amazement the ease with which he financed their $3,000,000 Baptist Temple Building. Last week, after hearing Dr. Wunder read an unexpected note of resignation, the congregation was even more aware of his smartness.
The explanation for Dr. Wunder's resignation was that he wanted to identify himself "with a larger ministry whose influence and field of service is national." He said he had time and again been invited to other pulpits, had invariably declined. But now he had been asked to join the firm of Ward, Wells & Dreshman, specialists in philanthropic, educational and religious financing. In the past ten years this Manhattan firm has raised $500,000,000.
Lest the thoughtless imagine he were leaving the church for business, devout Dr. Wunder explained why he called his new occupation a "ministry". Said he: "The members of the firm are Christian men of high ideals and deep religious convictions. They believe, as I do, that they are feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick as literally as Christ commanded His followers to do. They consider themselves to be engaged in religious work."
Dr. Wunder, long acquainted with members of the firm, became closely associated with them in the work of financing the Baptist Temple. They discovered that he, aged 36, is a dynamo for work. The Baptist Temple project includes successfully operating a 14-story office building and a commercial restaurant, organizing a community service plan, adding 1,300 new church members. The Sunday congregations, whooped up by advertising, average 3,500, fill the auditorium half an hour before the service. The annual budget of the Temple amounts to $120,000. While Dr. Wunder made no mention of his new salary, congregation members were confident it would be considerably larger than what he has received as a minister.