We believe in a strong focus on loving God and Loving Neighbor.
Children First Academy - This school for homeless children is located right in our neighborhood. We support it monthly with donations of food and school supplies.
I-HELP (Interfaith Homeless Emergency Lodging Program) - Our church provides overnight shelter and dinner to program participants in our neighborhood. Our church hosts the meal once a month but three other churches host the meals on four other nights that participants are sheltered.
Storytelling Concerts - Our church sponsors a Storytelling Concert Series every year
with "The Feast" and "Winter's Light" being two of the annual concerts. We believe that our stories shared with others promotes an understanding of others and peace among all people of faith. We share stories of loss and heartbreak, joy and love. This is a safe place to tell your story. Click here to learn more about this season's storytelling concerts.
Just Coffee - Our church exclusively serves organic, shade-grown Arabica coffee purchased from this cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico. Because this coffee is purchased directly from the growers, who control the entire process from growing to roasting, packaging, and selling the beans, the growers get almost 5 times more money than even "fair trade." Just recently it was pointed out that our church together with the Community Supported Agriculture community purchases about 200 pounds of coffee per year and this small amount of coffee is enough to support a family in their cooperative for 2 months of each year. We believe that programs like this providing economic incentives will be more effective than fences and cameras at allowing our Mexican neighbors to remain on cherished homelands.
Humane Borders - Our church provides volunteers to maintain water stations in the desert near the US-Mexico border. This humanitarian effort is an attempt to prevent the hundreds of migrant deaths each year trying to cross our border.
Prayer Quilts - Our church makes quilts for people to provide comfort during a difficult time or to commemorate a celebration in life. Yarn in the quilt is tied off while saying a prayer for the recipient.
Paz de Cristo - Our church provides volunteers for preparing and serving meals to the poor and homeless on the third Sunday of the month at the Paz de Cristo facility in Mesa at Broadway and Country Club.
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) - Our church serves as a drop-off and pick-up site for the local Crooked Sky Farms to distribute produce to their members of the CSA.
The Green Team - As part of the Arizona Ecumenical Council, Pastor Doug serves on the Earth Care Commission which advocates for programs and conferences about our environment. Community Christian Church works hard to use less of our earth's resources by recycling and reusing. We consider ourselves a 'green church' as we have policies which limit our usage of paper products at our church functions. We have installed programmable thermostats on our heating and cooling units, and replaced our light fixtures with the new energy efficient low wattage lights. We are presently exploring ways to install solar energy on our campus for the heating of our water and the other general uses of electricity on our campus. We have a ministry team called "The Green Team". This team was instrumental in conducting an energy audit using a LEED certified professional. This has given us information on ways we can renovate our buildings to be more energy efficient. We also are a congregational member inArizona Interfaith Power and Light. Recently they held a conference called Cool Congregations a program where churches can learn how to educate their members about improving their carbon footprint.