Naperville church shows its generosity

Attendees at Community Christian Church dug into their pockets a few weeks ago and came up with more than a half-million dollars to give away.

The $529,000 donated by the congregation during the “Celebration Generosity” offering the first weekend in March will go to ministries in the Philippines and Haiti, church planting, and community building in East Aurora and Joliet.

Shawn Williams, campus pastor at CCC's Naperville Yellow Box location, said this is the fourth year the church has given away one entire weekend offering.

“We desire to be a church that is not just inwardly focused; instead, we desire to be a church that makes an impact in our local community and around the world,” he said in a news release.

Williams said the church usually receives a weekly offering of about $110,000, but during Celebration Generosity, members gave nearly five times as much.

“It's quite a big larger than a normal weekly offering,” he said.

The offering came from nine CCC locations, with congregations that range in size from 2,400 at Naperville Yellow Box to 100 to 150 attendees. Since the offering was taken, CCC has added two locations, Chicago Lincoln Square and Lemont.

Among those contributing to the offering were 141 first-time givers, according to the church's website. One, a man named Robert, called it an amazing experience.

“It made me set the bar for spending my disposable income. It felt like so much when I gave, until I realized that I spend frivolously without even thinking about it,” he was quoted as saying in the news release.

Williams said the first year the Celebration Generosity offering brought in $250,000, the second year $400,000, and the last two years it has exceeded $500,000.

Givers are able to designate which of four ministries they would like their contribution to go to, said Kirsten Strand, who heads up the church's Neighborhood Team working in East Aurora and Joliet.

Neighborhood Team

This year, the Neighborhood Team received $215,000, which represents 100 percent of the normal funding for its work.

With the help of investors in the church and grants, the team plans to acquire four multiunit homes in East Aurora to help at least 10 families toward homeownership. Strand said the team already has closed on the first house. The families who live in the homes will pay rent that will be deposited in savings accounts until they can afford a down payment on a house.

The team also will expand its parent mentoring program in East Aurora. Under the program, parents are paid stipends of a $1,000 a year if they spend at least 10 hours a week working as helpers and aides in East Aurora Unit District 131.

Strand said the 42 parents in the program are not educated enough to obtain jobs as regular teacher aides, nor can the district afford to pay them.

“Next year, we're hoping to have 50 parents involved in the program,” she said.

The team also partners with Kids Hope USA, a national program, to provide one-on-one mentors for schoolchildren in East Aurora and Joliet. A program in Joliet puts volunteers in the schools to offer special classes such as cooking and carpentry.

About 150 church volunteers are involved in East Aurora and Joliet schools on a weekly basis, Strand said.

Church volunteers also hold Christmas Gift Marts in schools by collecting donated toys, selling them to parents at a reduced rate, and donating the proceeds back to the host schools.

“Last year, we raised over $50,000 to donate back to our partner schools,” Strand said.

More than 1,500 volunteers are involved in the Christmas Marts, and they are now training people from other churches to start the marts in their schools, Strand said.

“It's been really quite amazing to see how the generosity has grown in our church,” she said.

Barangay Team

Church member Rick Guzman heads up the church's global ministries, as well as working with the homeownership program starting in East Aurora.

The church's Barangay Team partners with Frontline Ministries in the Philippines to minister to street children. With the help of the church's donations, Frontline plans to open multiple “drop-in centers” to address the children's physical needs and to nurture them spiritually. Frontline is building girls' and boys' dormitories so it will have room to bring in more street children.

The donations also will help Baloc Box, a church that meets in a dumpsite, to obtain electricity, expand its weekly feeding ministry and increase education and care training opportunities for people who live at the dumpsite.

Church members work with Frontline on training and leadership development in the Philippines. Some support Frontline's ministries out of their personal finances in addition to the annual CCC offering, Guzman said.

“There are a lot of people in our church that have become connected to this ministry,” he said.

Village Team

The church's Village Team partners with World Relief to continue to rebuild in Haiti after last year's devastating earthquake. A church in Carrefour Fueille, a community near Port-au-Prince, will be rebuilt, as well as homes within that community. Two teams of people from CCC will travel to Carrefour Fueille.

Teachers and pastors in Haiti also will receive training to meet ongoing needs in health and education.

Reproducing Church

CCC's fourth ministry, the Reproducing Church Team, plans to double the number of its new churches and meeting sites from 100 to 200 by early 2012. As part of that effort, 75 new leadership residents will be recruited and trained.