In August of 2026, the Board of Directors approved a new set of values for our conference, organized three categories: doctrinal, missional, and congregational.
Our Doctrinal Values: The Lordship of Jesus Christ and Biblical Authority
One of the first challenges I encountered as Conference Minister was anxiety that the CCCC was drifting toward liberalism. Every Christian movement must guard against drift. Ours is an age in which everyone does what is right in their own eyes, calling good evil and evil good.
To resist this drift, we need our line in the sand — our version of Martin Luther's “Here I stand.” Remember the childhood comeback, “Oh yeah, says who?” Our answer is Jesus Christ, the Living Word, and the Holy Bible, God's written Word.
Jesus is the Word who was with God from the beginning, who became flesh and dwelt among us. At His name every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. We owe Him our highest allegiance.
The Holy Scriptures are the God-breathed, Spirit-inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God, given through some 40 human authors. We have no surer word of prophecy; the buck stops with God's Word.
The Lordship of Jesus Christ and Biblical authority: these are our doctrinal values.
Our Missional Values: The Great Commission and Missions
Jesus' last words are our first priority: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” This is God's plan A for His church — there is no plan B. Everything else we do must support this mission.
Our second missional value is missions. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are Christ's witnesses in our towns, our states, our nation, and to every corner of the world.
I love the closing line of the U.S. Army Ranger Creed: “Readily will I display the intestinal fortitude required to fight on to the Ranger objective and complete the mission, though I be the lone survivor.” May this spirit define the CCCC.
Our Congregational Values: Autonomy, Unity, and Mutual Accountability
Our congregational values are the autonomy of the local church, the unity of all our churches, and mutual accountability, care, and support.
We are spiritual descendants of the English Separatists, the Pilgrims, and the Puritans. Each local church governs itself under the direct headship of Jesus Christ, yet under that same headship we stand united as one body.
Missions run in our DNA, from 17th-century Congregationalists bringing the Gospel to Native Americans to the Haystack Prayer Meeting, which launched the first U.S.-based foreign missions movement.
Our ethos echoes the 17th-century Lutheran theologian Rupert Meldenius: “In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” We are better together — holding one another accountable, caring for one another, and supporting the CCCC's work as a whole.
These are our values. This is who we are as the CCCC.
Our Guiding Objectives
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- Cultivating an Abiding Prayer-Centered Culture
- Developing and Supporting Pastors and Church Leaders
- Building Disciple-Making Churches
- Multiplying Gospel-Centered Churches
- Promoting a Culture of Peacemaking & Reconciliation
- Fostering a Community that Lives Out Shared Life and Shared Mission
- Growing a Membership Reflective of the Harvest Field’s Diversity