Christmas Eve Offering

Kyle told you about this on Sunday, but here is some more information about our Christmas Eve offering.
 
Every Thanksgiving, we bless our local community through our Food Drop; every Christmas Eve, we bless the nations through a special offering since we are reminded that “For God so loved the WORLD…” As always, 100% of your gifts for both opportunities go directly toward those projects. For this year’s Christmas Eve Offering project, you can give anytime between now and Christmas Eve either in person (side note: we can’t wait to see you at 4:00 or 7:00PM on Christmas Eve!) or by clicking on THIS LINK. If you give in person with cash or check, make sure to clarify that your gift is to go toward the Christmas Eve offering and drop it in an offering box.
 
For our Christmas Eve Offering this year, we are focusing our giving on a project that directly highlights 5 out of our 6 core values! It’s a project that God is already using in some of the least-reached places in the world to bring people to Himself. This year, we want to focus our giving on the FireStarter Project. We are praying for a CFC-style generous response to a global teen evangelism and discipleship movement. Let’s briefly consider the need and the opportunity.  
 
THE NEED        
Did you know that half of the world’s population is currently between the ages of 10 and 30? It is the largest generation in history! 90% of this age group lives in developing countries. 1 in 6 kids today live in extreme poverty. 60% of these impoverished kids live in Asia, where fewer than 10% are Christians. Psalm 78:7 says, “Each generation should set its hope anew on God.” In fact, global church leaders from many regions of the earth have convened over the past several years to discuss this demographic shift. They identified reaching, discipling, and listening to youth as one of the top two needs for finishing Jesus’ Great Commission.        

If you have been at CFC for a while, you may have heard of the term “the 10/40 window” that is used in discussions of missions. It’s a geographic term used to describe the least-evangelized part of the world. Now we must consider what is called the “10/30 window” — those between the ages of 10 and 30 around the world. This “window” is not bound by one border, language, or nationality. It is the largest unreached people group in history! And, it is larger than the 100 largest geographically-defined unreached people groups – combined! Let that sink in.
 
THE OPPORTUNITY
So, for this Christmas Eve Offering, we are partnering with Operation Mobilization's TeenStreet Ministry whose vision is to see a generation of teenagers leading vibrant communities of Jesus followers, especially in the least-reached areas of the world. 
 
We are partnering with TeenStreet Ministry to help fund the FireStarter Project. FireStarter is a discipleship tool that is designed to enable teens and young adults to start and run their own small group Bible studies. It uses a simple, reproducible way of studying the Bible that encourages personal discovery and application of Scripture. It empowers teens to explore the Bible independently and in groups. It does this through leadership training, interactive workshops, community engagement, and parental involvement where possible. More than 50 of our people at CFC were trained to use these cards recently, and listening to our people’s approval of the cards confirmed that this small tool could be used by the Lord to spark a movement of God’s Spirit among young people today. 
 
CFC, we have been blown away by your heart and generous response toward the nations in past years. Our prayer is that the Lord would use you again this year! This Christmas, as a church family, let’s help young people in least-reached places around the world to become part of our extended family in Christ. Then, we can all join together to worship the One Who is Immanuel ("God with us") as a multitude with one voice!
 
Thanks in advance for supporting this opportunity and for worshiping with us this Sunday!