The Following is a summary of the Strategic plan for Child Evangelism Fellowship® of Central Alabama. We are a committee and a region of CEF® of Alabama; which is affiliated with CEF® International. Included, as part of this summary, are our parent organization's purpose and values as well as those which are specific to our Central Alabama Chapter.
Child Evangelism Fellowship® International
Child Evangelism Fellowship® is a Bible-centered worldwide organization composed of born again believers, whose purpose is to evangelize boys and girls with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and to disciple them in the Word of God and establish them in a local church.
The CEF® Motto is “Every Child, Every Nation, Every Day."
Jonathon Brown, of Elkdale Baptist Church in Selma, Alabama holds invited church leaders and members from the area to discuss starting new Good News Club® ministry in partnership with CEF® of Central Alabama.
CEF of Central Alabama
Our Motive
CEF® of Central Alabama serves the Lord the way we do because we love the Lord and want to obey Him, per Matthew 28: 18-20. We want to obey Him in the most effective way possible, which is to reach children with his Gospel. We want what He wants, that none should perish, per 2 Peter 3:9. We believe that Jesus endorses our method, per Matthew 19:13-15.
Our Values
Above all we value the Word of God, per 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and prayer, per Colossians 4:2. In addition we also value excellence in everything we do for the glory of God. We value all generations serving in the ministry alongside one another. We value long-term vision, long-term growth, and long-term sustainability. We desire equal focus on breadth and depth of the ministry to children. We value results-based management and evaluation of ministry, staff, and local committee.
Our Vision
Every Church, Every Child, Every Community. CEF® of Central Alabama desires that every Gospel-believing Church in Central Alabama engage in reaching every child in every community in our area.
Our Mission
Our mission is to equip and encourage our Gospel-believing volunteers to evangelize the boys and girls of Central Alabama with the gospel of Jesus Christ, to disciple them in the Word of God, and through relationships to connect them to the local Body of Christ. We want to see fully-equipped church volunteers evangelizing, discipling, and connecting children and their communities to Christ.
Strategic Goal #1
Develop a fully-equipped Good News Club® in 34 Elementary schools in the Chapter by 2024. We plan to accomplish this mainly through the work of our staff, our church partners, and the resources made available to the local office. Our staff plays a vital role in the growth of our ministry. Through hiring and training, we plan to develop a valuable team of various individuals who will operate the chapter in unity to reach the goals of the local chapter. Through networking and relationships, we plan to develop strong ties between the chapter, Bible-teaching churches, and the schools in their communities. Finally, by strengthening the local office through developing a variety of resources to support the work, we plan to expand the ministry to 50 or more elementary schools in our chapter.
Strategic Goal #2
Increase the reach and impact of Summer Missions in the Chapter . The scope of this strategic goal ranges from facilitating 55 5 Day Clubs each summer by 2024 to recruiting 5 partnering churches and 10 Christian Youth In Action missionaries. We plan to maximize our reach and impact of Summer Missions through a more comprehensive approach to ministry and church partnership, by communicating to interested volunteers and churches the importance of being involved with CEF Summer Missions, as well as Good News Club.
Strategic Goal #3
Have ministry partnerships in every county in our area. As we target specific counties each year, we plan to increase all aspects of CEF ministry, including Good News Clubs, Summer Missions, as well as financial partnerships. The key means by which we hope to spread ministry to each of the 15 counties in our chapter is through the identification and recruitment of key active committee members in each county. By identifying and recruiting these key members of the community, we will be able to begin new ministry and revive past ministry through networking through the committee member to the key churches and communities in that county.