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What
is C.A.R.E. to Churches?
Let me begin
by telling you who I am. My name is Marcus Redding. I am the senior
pastor of Hull's Grove Baptist Church. I met Mark Hunnicutt in 1992 when he and I began Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute together.
Mark and I went through Fruitland and then on to North Greenville
College together. During that journey, we learned that we shared
a heart beat that desired to reach people for Christ. We also learned
that we both believed that Christ's instrument to accomplish the
Great Commission was STILL the local church.
Mark came to
our church family in the year 2000 to do a youth revival. During
a time of conversation, I learned that Mud Creek was starting a
new ministry called CARE. At the time, they were not using any acrostic
for the word. Our church family was (and still is) teaching the
principles of the Great Commission and saw CARE as a wonderful way
to tie every ministry in our church to the reality of carrying out
the Great Commission. The result was that I asked Mark if we not
only could use the ministry at our church, but also if he would
allow me to use the word "C.A.R.E."
as an acrostic that stood
for "Christians
Actively
Reaching
Everyone"? He said "Great!
Can we use the acrostic too?" and thus
C.A.R.E. was
born.
We didn't have
manuals or teaching materials. We only had the great model of Mud
Creek Baptist Church. As we started C.A.R.E., our church family
was very small. Mud Creek began teaching C.A.R.E. in seminar style.
When small churches came to them with concerns about trying to start
C.A.R.E. in a small congregation, Mark began sending them to us
so they could see how to do it small! The result churches
started coming more and more to us for "hands on training."
Our church responded with excitement, and we established our
C.A.R.E.
to Churches ministry in order to train them.
Taking The Next Step!
Today, we
seek to develop better resources and better teaching
methods to help every church regardless of size to utilize
C.A.R.E.
and to do it effectively. We are looking much deeper than just presenting
some "program" to you. We are praying for God to transform
churches through all He has done and is doing for us.
C.A.R.E. must
be tailored to each situation and we want to help you do that in
your church. If you are in the process of starting C.A.R.E.
or have some experience at it already, we have many helpful tools
and resources that have been developed through our experience. We
encourage you to explore our website and take a look at the resources
that are now available to you.
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