Hawaii celebrates its first faith-based credit union

HONOLULU – The Word of Life Federal Credit Union has become the first faith-based credit union in the state of Hawaii. "I'm proud of Word of Life becoming the first faith-based credit union in the state," Randall Chang, chief executive officer, said. "Being the only faith-based credit union here makes us unique in the market. On the Mainland, there are more than 600 faith-based credit unions. Some of them are large and are thriving. We're proud that in 2001, there were only six new credit unions approved for federal charters by NCUA. Word of Life FCU was one of six credit unions approved nationwide, and we feel that for a small place like Hawaii that's saying something." Word of Life FCU's field of membership encompasses people who are members of the Word of Life Christian Center, which is the sponsor organization of Word of Life FCU. The Word of Life Christian Center has about 5,000 members and its numbers are growing each day, officials say. Word of Life FCU has been open for business since February of this year. The credit union's goal is to have at least 1,000 members – which would represent about 20% of the total field of membership. Members come from Oahu and Neighbor Islands. Word of Life FCU embraces a diverse membership. Its field of membership includes students and parents of the Word of Life Academy. The academy currently has about 320 students in kindergarten through 10th grade, and is part of Word of Life Christian Center. "We agreed with NCUA that we will offer basic, fundamental services such as share accounts and certificates, and personal loans," Chang explained. "Our primary goal is to build a stable base of core deposits. Once we can build a base, we can use it to tap into that for investments and loans. "One of our basic goals and philosophies is to encourage our members to have systematic savings programs," Chang continued. "This ties in with our share accounts. Down the road, we would like to provide our members with as many financial products and services as possible. Our eventual goal is to be a full-service financial institution, so our members can be provided with one-stop financial services under our roof. Ideally, I would be pleased someday if I could see every member who was a member of Word of Life Christian Center become a member of Word of Life FCU." Word of Life FCU's philosophy is to assist its members to strive towards obtaining good financial health, to use their money wisely, and to practice sound stewardship over their personal finances, as part of a total spiritual relationship for a good Christian. The credit union strongly believes in imparting financial knowledge and money management skills to members. Word of Life FCU organizes and conducts various workshops addressing financial education for members. The credit union uses the imparting of financial education as an "entre" to attract and retain members. "Several months before receiving approval for our federal charter, I contacted the Hawaii Credit Union League (HCUL) and asked them if they knew of a way I could obtain office equipment, furniture and other items necessary to set up the office," Chang said. "I asked them if they could find some people to donate such things for use in our office. HCUL was nice enough to get the word out and was able to find other credit unions that contacted me and donated items for our office. We were fortunate because we were able to avoid incurring direct expenses. This cooperative spirit amongst credit unions here is what the credit union movement is all about." Chang said Word of Life FCU tries to distinguish itself from other credit unions by emphasizing that it is a relationship credit union rather than a transactional credit union. "We want each member to feel that they have a special and personal relationship with us," he said. "There are several slogans in the credit union movement such as `We are owned by members to serve members,' and `Not for profit, not for charity, but for service.' These are slogans, but they don't become a reality until we practice them. We try to practice those slogans. There's another popular slogan in the credit union movement, `People helping people.' I tell my members that this is a Word of Life Christian Center slogan. We distinguish ourselves by combining relationship servicing with Christian spiritual conviction to engender our members' loyalty and support." -