1.The seven factors
We score every lender on the same seven underwriting factors lenders themselves use to evaluate church loan applications. These are the same factors we score churches on in our free readiness assessment.
Loan range & capacity
What size loans the lender will write, and where their sweet spot sits. A lender that caps at $5M is structurally different from one that goes to $50M.
Maximum LTV
The highest loan-to-value ratio they’ll lend at. Translates directly into how much cash a church needs to bring to closing.
Minimum DSCR
The debt-service coverage ratio the underwriting team requires. Determines whether a church’s cash flow qualifies before any other factor is checked.
Term length
Maximum amortization. A 25-year term meaningfully reduces the monthly payment versus a 15-year term on the same loan.
Time to close
How long from application to funding. Critical when a property purchase has a contractual close date.
Denominational fit
Whether the lender prices preferentially for a specific denomination, and how strict the affiliation requirements are.
Held vs. sold
Whether loans stay in the lender’s portfolio (patient capital) or get sold off. Affects how the lender will behave in a downturn.
2.Verdict rubric
The verdict on each lender page is a single editorial label. We use four:
Best-in-class on at least three of the seven factors and not noticeably weak on any. Recommend without caveat for the lender’s target audience.
Strong on the factors that matter most for the lender’s target audience, with one or two clear trade-offs to be aware of.
Works well only for a specific subset of churches (denomination, size, loan amount). Outside that subset, churches should compare alternatives first.
Narrow use case. Recommend only when the church’s situation maps exactly to the lender’s sweet spot.
The 1 to 5 star rating is calibrated to the verdict band shown above. Sub-3.0 ratings indicate a lender we wouldn’t recommend; we don’t publish those today.
3.Independence
We hold ourselves to one standard: the verdict would be the same with or without a partnership.
Today, ChurchLend has no affiliate fee arrangements with any of the lenders we review. If that ever changes, we’ll add a disclosure bar to every affected lender page above the breadcrumbs, and link to this methodology page from it.
We are not a lender ourselves, and we don’t take payment from lenders to influence rankings or verdicts. Our revenue model is built around our church readiness assessment and adjacent products, not pay-for-placement.
4.Update cadence
We re-review every lender at least quarterly, and within 30 days of any material change we’re aware of (rate-sheet shift, loan range update, leadership change, regulatory event). Each lender page shows a "last reviewed" date in its data.
Want to know how your church scores?
Run our free assessment. We score your church on the same seven factors we use to review every lender on this site.