Stewardship: Mission Giving

Pete Balentine, CCCC Stewardship Committee Chair, Member of Board of Directors

I have the privilege of serving as chair of the Stewardship team for the Conference. Our team’s role is to encourage faithful giving to the work of the CCCC to the glory of God! We are thankful for the generosity of so many churches, pastors, and individuals in helping plant, grow and sustain healthy churches across America. What a blessing! As a team, we are looking for ways to encourage increased giving to the Conference in order to achieve the important mission of the CCCC. After discussion with, and approval of the CCCC Board of Directors, here is our plan moving forward:

1.  Encourage every member church to give to the conference. This past year only two-thirds of CCCC churches made a gift, but all may receive many benefits – help if our church is in trouble, support for our pastors, resources for training, etc. As we move forward, we are encouraging all churches to give something, with six hundred dollars as a suggested minimum gift.

2.   Develop a vision budget for the conference. God is adding new churches and there is much work needed to be done to revitalize existing churches. What financial resources are needed to accomplish the goals of the conference? At our Annual Gathering this summer, you will receive a CCCC Vision handout that shares those goals and funds needed yearly.

3. Encourage “mission giving” to the conference. My church, Hope Community Church in Newburyport, MA, just joined the CCCC in 2017. When we added giving to the CCCC, we added it to the mission’s portion of our budget. We would like to encourage all churches to consider their giving to the CCCC in the category of missions. The CCCC is a mission! With this in mind, we will be challenging all churches to give a specific percentage of their operating budget as a mission giving goal.

Again, we are so grateful for the generous giving of so many to the Conference. One of the joys for me is to see churches, especially many smaller ones, who are giving a significant percentage of their operating budget to the CCCC (many giving at 4% or even 6% of their church’s operating budget). This is the widow’s mite in action in the present day. Thank you for your sacrifice and generosity to the Lord’s work. If you have any questions or comments, please give me an email at pete@hopenewburyport.com