Click on the thumbnails to see full-size charts. 

If you read the newsletter, you always see the small financial update at the bottom of the back page; but, in order to kick off our new fundraising campaign, we’ve included here an expanded look at CCF’s financial situation. The pie charts above help you to see the broad strokes of where our money comes from and where it goes; while the numbers on the chart to the right  indicate what those actual dollar amounts are. As you will note, the vast majority of our expenses are in paying staff salaries; beyond that, we operate on a pretty basic necessities-only budget. This fits in with the basic philosophy of ministry that CCF has been built on and grown into – namely, a focus on people. We ‘do ministry’ by putting people on people as much as possible. This priority has led us to hire more full-time staff whenever possible, rather than buy a building or opt for gourmet hotdogs over the Hy-Vee brand. Our campus house is paid for, we meet for our large group gatherings (for free) on campus, and we utilize friendly and generous churches and individuals around for everything we can(retreat locations, food, vans, etc).   

But back to people. We have a full-time staff of six beautiful, generous, creative, and sincere, Christ-centered folks who have made it their mission to work with God in helping students at Truman grow in loving God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. We do that by being here, living among them, investing ourselves – our time, energy, money, prayer…our entire lives – into these students.  We’re with students at worship services, bible studies, intramural games, spring break trips, university events, movie nights, community service projects. In all of these things, we’re encouraging, challenging, praying with and for, pushing and prodding them to greater levels of surrender and spiritual maturity. With multiple staff each doing this, we are able to extend significant arms of love, care and oversight into the body that develops here. But there is a multiplying effect also, as the primary task we give those students in whom we are investing is to likewise look after other students – through small group bible studies, outreach and service ministries, intentional ‘discipleship’ relationships. In this way, the staff arms that are reaching out into the body and the campus are multiplied in effectiveness by branching out into sub-arms (tentacles, if you will) of interns, which branch into tentacles of small group leaders, which branch into tentacles of ministry heads, which branch into tentacles of regular Christians learning from and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. This has made a strong body. This has knit a humble, genuine, and joyful community of Christ. This has brought the penetrating truth and light of the gospel into otherwise dark and muddled places and lives on our campus.   

This people-ministering-to-people process has grown and will continue only by having people here to minister to people here. The simple fact is: to have people here requires money. So many of you give faithfully and generously – you are the reason we are able to continue doing this ministry, and we sincerely thank you; please know how deeply we value your love and support.  And for the many others of you, we don’t want to guilt or manipulate you into doing something you don’t want to; instead, we know that, as people variously impacted by and still connected to CCF – alumni, parents of current or former students, members of supporting churches, etc – many of you have a lot of love for this ministry and wish to see that it continues to live and thrive. We simply want to communicate to you as clearly as possible our need, and invite you to join with us.   

To that end, we are introducing our Fifty at 50 program. Our goal is to find fifty people – folks just like you – to make a new giving commitment of $50/month to CCF. This will be an invaluable help, not only by increasing our support base, but also by stabilizing it. Though the numbers on the back indicate that we ended last year with a $14,000 balance, this was largely thanks to a couple of massively generous end-of-the-year donations (which were amazingly awesome); but, in fact, for most of the year, we were actually hovering a little below zero (and thus, continually somewhat behind on salaries). Having a bank of people who are committed to giving monthly will help us establish a more secure financial foundation, and significantly alleviate much of the uncertainty and anxiety about what will or won’t come in each month. This will give us confidence that we’ll at least be able to stay current on salaries and our basic expenses, as well as allow us to begin to pursue creative new ministry options. This will ensure that people can continue to minister to people here.   

We’re looking for Fifty at 50, as $50 is a substantial, yet doable, monthly amount for many people. Of course, if you are able to give $100/month, we won’t refuse it, insisting that you cut it in half. If you want to do $20/month, we gratefully welcome you. We are looking for partners.  We are so thankful for the many ways that God has blessed and provided for us through your generosity and devotion. And we invite you now to continue your partnership by being one of the Fifty at 50. Will you please consider joining with us?

If you would like to partner with us, there are several ways to give. Each month, you can give by check (with Fifty at 50 in the memo) or through a one-time payment online here - you can even set up an automatic withdrawal from your checking account and let the computer do the work for you. Please click the thumbnail image to the right, which will take you to a full-size printable version of the Fifty at 50 response card. Read it over, print it off, fill out the blanks and check the appropriate boxes and mail it to CCF at 1010 S. Halliburton, Kirksville, MO 63501.

Many thanks and much love.