Passed off as 'Acts of God' by insurance companies, last year's hurricanes not only affected infrastructures, businesses, families and their homes but also churches. It's true churches are not beyond hurricanes, floods, earthquakes or any other such cata
Passed off as “Acts of God” by insurance companies, last year’s hurricanes not only affected infrastructures, businesses, families and their homes but also churches. It’s true churches are not beyond hurricanes, floods, earthquakes or any other such catastrophes that come from above or for that matter below.
Consequently, the Seventh-day Adventist church formed Adventist Risk Management, Inc. (ARM) 70 years ago. Today Adventist Risk Management supports the Seventh-day Adventist Church on issues ranging from property damage loss resulting from fire or natural catastrophe to indemnity costs.
In 2005 ARM spent some $8 million to restore over 400 properties damaged during hurricane season, according to ARM Vice President Arthur Blinci.
“Responding to natural disasters is one of our roles,” says Blinci. Recently “we responded to the Baltimore First church [in Maryland, United States] that was struck by lightning and Madison Academy [Tennessee Adventist private school] that was struck by lightning. Each of them will probably be over a million dollars worth of loss,” he says.
This year ARM celebrates 70 years of insurance and consulting services. ARM has been able to “provide a great resource and asset to the church,” says Paula Webber, ARM’s director of Corporate Communication.
God has used Adventist Risk Management to save the church thousands of dollars in insurance premiums, says Blinci. “At the time of a loss it’s really the church responding and coming together to restore that which was lost instead of those dollars going out to commercial insurance companies,” he notes. Additionally, ARM “can structure coverage to specifically meet the needs of the church around the world where other insurance companies may not even be willing to write coverage.”
ARM’s roots go back to a disastrous fire in 1902 in Battle Creek, Michigan. The blaze not only destroyed the church’s Review and Herald publishing building located there, but also spurred church leadership to relocate the world headquarters to Washington, D.C., and the neighboring community of Takoma Park, Maryland. It also prompted an intense assessment of how to protect church property, since losses to fire and other damage could have an impact on the progress of Adventism.
At the turn of the century, William Anthony Benjamin, ARM creator and founder, recognized that the church needed to have its own insurance coverage. Benjamin saw “an opportunity for the church to save a considerable amount of money,” says Wayne Taylor, author of The Church at Risk—a book on the history of ARM.
Benjamin considered that if the “denomination could become more involved in the protection of its properties—it could reduce the cost of this protection—it could provide this protection by forming its own insurance company,” accounts Taylor.
Benjamin would need the church’s headquarters’ approval and unheard-of financial support to start an insurance company. At a time when money was tight and the Great Depression loomed, how could this money be raised to start a new ministry?
“Twenty-five thousand dollars was allocated to form and capitalize something heretofore unheard of—a fire insurance company owned by a church. [Benjamin] was elated, humbled, and challenged—all at the same time. He had seen the miraculous hand of Divinity at work, and he was determined to follow God’s leading throughout all the unfolding of the miracle,” recounts Taylor in The Church at Risk.
The world has changed significantly since 1936 and so has Adventist Risk Management. From the Great Depression to World War II, ARM has grown from an idea in one man’s mind to an organization with 160 employees operating from five offices serving the church in more than 200 countries. When asked about the growth of ARM, Blinci says, “[we] spend over a million dollars of the church’s money every single day in premium dollars we’re receiving, claims that we’re paying, healthcare retirement claims that we’re adjudicating on behalf of the church. That has been exponential growth.”
“For the church as a whole it’s been a milestone,” says Webber.
“Way before commercial America saw the need to internalize its risk management and operations, the Lord prepared the way for the Adventist church,” says Blinci. Risk management “will continue to be on the leading edge of assisting the church in its administration to make sure that risk management issues are kept to the forefront. It’s going to be an ongoing need of the church until the Lord comes.”
Within the last few years, more products are suitable for international markets, like survivor benefits and educational allowances, Webber said, noting the national and international growth of ARM.
ARM continues to provide risk management insurance services and provides national and international seminars through risk management conferences, which have been largely successful, according to ARM officials. ARM strives to provide services for the Adventist church with international offices located in Herts, England and Sao Paulo, Brazil. ARM’s corporate headquarters is located in Silver Spring, Maryland in the United States with two more offices in in Atlanta, Georgia and Riverside, California.