Dear Family and Friends of the CCCC!
by Paul McPheeters, Conference President
As the president of the Conference, I want to communicate with you some of the exciting things that are going on in the Conference at the moment.
Pastoring our Pastors: Our dream is to equip our local pastors to live out the CCCC Way of Life (see below) with their congregations. To realize this dream, we are creating local Pastoral Communities facilitated by trained Community Pastors. The result of this dream will be healthy pastors leading healthy churches that multiply themselves. In May we will hold our first training event for about 20 Community Pastors. The training will guide these people as they launch their local Pastoral Communities in the Fall.
Ministry Directors: We are also pursuing ways to provide leadership for our ministry priorities of Conference Care, Church Development, and Church Multiplication. For many years we have had the goal of having full-time directors for each of these priorities but have not been able to fund all of these positions. It is apparent that God is calling us to work within our current funding and create three part-time positions for 2015. We are currently rewriting the job descriptions in preparation for the 2015 budget and ministry plans that will be presented at this summer’s Annual Family Conference in Rhode Island.
Finances: Speaking of budgets! In December, our Treasurer, Bob McKenney, and I wrote to you about our financial need as we came to the end of the year. It is a joy to report to you that we had the best year-end giving in the history of the Conference! It is also a joy to report that the first quarter of 2014 has continued to see strong monthly giving! On behalf of the staff and the Board, I thank you for taking seriously our commitment to a “shared life and shared mission,” and for giving as one way of sharing that mission. For our part, we want you to know that we have trimmed the budget, put a variety of policies and practices in place to handle our finances with excellence, and completed a full audit for 2012. We are now in the midst of a complete audit for 2013. The auditors are pleased with all that we have done in recent years to tighten our fiscal oversight and controls.
Alignment of Ministries: As we live out the CCCC Way of Life, we are seeking to orient all that we do around that way of life. We are not pursuing “change for the sake of change.” We are simply following God’s leading to be what He has called us to be, and to do what He has called us to do. Thus we have re-oriented our Board meetings and our Annual Business meetings around the priorities of our CCCC Way of Life. If you come to Rhode Island for the Annual Conference this summer, you will discover that it, too, is in the process of being changed to reflect our way of life. And we are looking at our structure and committees as described in our by-laws and proposing changes that will better support what God is calling us to be and to do.
These are exciting times to be sharing life and ministry! I invite you to join me, and the wonderful team of leaders God has brought together in our Conference, as we simply seek to love God, love others, and as we go, make disciples.
I hope to see you this summer in Rhode Island!
Paul McPheeters, President of the Board
The CCCC Way of Life
Our Passion: The Irreducible Core
Live in obedience to Jesus as we love God, love others, and make disciples.
Our Pathway: The Seven Guiding Values
1. A culture of believing prayer and intercession
2. Healthy Pastors
3. Healthy disciple-making churches
4. Healthy church multiplication
5. A community that lives out a shared life and mission
6. A culture of peacemaking and reconciliation
7. A membership reflective of the harvest field’s diversity
Our Priorities:
Conference Care
Church Development
Church Multiplication
