Executive Summary for Discipleship Ministries 9a883a432f2641d4492e-e31010b47a59665e3238e101e114d230.r76.cf2.rackcdn.co

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Executive Summary for Discipleship Ministries At the beginning of 2016, the battle cry for Discipleship Ministries was “Our Best Days Are Still in Front of Us”. Our core ministry teams - Life Groups, Men’s, Women’s, Military Family Ministry, Marriage & Family, Community U, Welcoming & Assimilation, and the Counseling Center were well identified and individually ready to advance the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. However, the breadth of teams challenged our ability to lead effectively and efficiently. The realignment of the Marriage & Family, Welcome & Assimilation, and Counseling teams under Pastor Dan Wood’s (Pastor of Care) leadership have yielded a greater focus for the rest of our ministries.

Life Groups Our Life Groups continue to be our most strategic discipleship engine of CCC. In order to improve pathways for people to get connected to Life Groups, we designed and launched GroupLINK in September. This initiative gave new people a chance to “Test Drive” 3 groups in a fun and warm community environment. GroupLINK was a huge success. Moreover, it stimulated the desire to define a more comprehensive philosophy of ministry for Life Groups. This also helped create a process to identify and evaluate the health, growth, and goals of all of our Life Groups. We have created a Life Group Directional Team that is currently giving more clarity to the roles of Life Group Leaders and Coaches. Our goal is to see “Groups of followers of Christ growing in passion for God, their community with other believers, and their influence with unbelievers.” Here are a few highlight of our Life Group Ministry.

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CCC directly and indirectly supports 50-55 Life Groups/Bible Studies on any given week. Over 400 adults are participating in our groups which is approximately 50% of our membership. There are over 100 volunteer leaders involved in our Life Group system. We trained nearly 50 leaders this past year in the dynamics of health Life Groups. Life Groups are beginning to be more involved in Local Outreach initiatives. There were at least 3 baptisms celebrated within Life Groups this past year.

Men’s Ministry Men’s Ministry continues to disciple men in leading their families, church and workplaces. We do this primarily through Every Man a Warrior, The Heart of a Warrior, and several weekday Bible studies. Even though the Fall Advance was blown away by Hurricane Matthew, God motivated many of our men to invest themselves in a new initiative to reach beyond the walls to men of other churches. EMAW continues to be a launching pad for many of our emerging leaders. One of our great leaders hosted an EMAW on Fort Bragg this past year. A specialized subset of our Life Group Ministry, there were as many as 8 men’s groups meeting throughout the year.

Women’s Ministry Women’s Ministry hosted two simulcasts this year: Priscilla Shirer in April and Beth Moore in September. Between the two simulcasts, we discipled and engaged more than 300 women. Many in attendance were from other churches in our community, Raleigh, Greensboro, and Fayetteville. We hosted several specialized events. Make It Take It in February was designed for women who love crafts and has proven to be a great source of fellowship and outreach. Ice Cream & Stories in July took our gals deeper into relationships and vulnerability. Our Bible studies have also been a place of refuge for many women. The growth in knowledge has been amazing. But what has been more amazing than watching them grow in knowledge has been seeing them walking out their ministries and intentionally meeting the needs of each other has been a great joy! Our studies will grow from three studies to a potential six in January. The Women’s Ministry Team has been a great help and continues to work together to seek God’s will and direction for the women of CCC. Highlights from this year. • • •

Hosted over 150 women in multiple studies throughout the year. Leadership team grew from less than 5 to over 25 women. Extended the CCC reach all over the State of North Carolina.

The Military Family Ministry (MFM) advanced all 5 of CCC’s purposes this year. They provided continual encouragement and care of our military families through such events as Durham Bulls Game, PCS Palooza, and the annual Fall Fest. More personally, the MFM maintained a vibrant and

life giving network of spouses that provided meals during pregnancies, prayer during deployments and a new ministry initiative called 3C Kids that disciples the children of deployed spouses on Friday Nights every other month. In the advance of our 2020 Vision, the MFM deployed several outreach events including blessing Gold Star Widows on Valentine’s Day and delivering meals to veterans at Thanksgiving. Moreover, the 3C Kids Ministry served several unchurched military families in Moore County. Finally our 2 Military Life Groups sought to meet the unique needs of many of our military families. One of those groups called R4 meets at the Reservoir every Friday for Reading, Relationships, and Running. R4 is both a Community Affinity Group and a Community Life Group.

Community U (Formerly known as University or Community University!) Community U hosted two successful months of educational and equipping opportunities during April and August. Participants were engaged in several leadership training events, given an understanding of Islam, encouraged in the art of soul care, and several other unique experiences to include Art for Combat Veterans. In 2017, Community U will slightly shift its emphasis to become more strategic in equipping and preparing individuals for ministry and leadership rather than hosting as many educational interest classes.

Assimilation. Finally, the staff and volunteers of the Discipleship Ministries were intimately involved in church-wide, cooperative, multi-ministry events such as Praying Moore, Praying Moore Schools, and Light the Night. We continue to host 2 key assimilation events. We explored the Mission and Vision of CCC with over 100 people in our Purpose for God classes. Through Purpose for God, 81 people joined CCC in membership and were strategically plugged into multiple ministry opportunities. Finally, we hosted 5 After Parties which gave over 100 people a personal and fun first touch experience with the CCC family. We are exceedingly thankful for our many volunteers, their servant hearts, and for the attitude of gratitude with which they serve in the name of Jesus at Christ Community Church.