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. In December we are encouraging all to make a tax credit donation. Click here for the form to do this by December 31. 2009 and get a tax credit on your Arizona taxes and a charitable contribution on your federal taxes..

 

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.

 

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.

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 chairs 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 not to consume paper products at our church functions, have installed programmable thermostats on our heating and cooling units, and replaced our light bulbs with the new low energy ones. Just this year at a planning retreat a new ministry team was established called "The Green Team". This team has begun the project of conducting an energy audit this past summer using LEED certified professionals.  This has given us information on ways we can renovate our buildings to be more energy efficient.  At a recent Agape Feast, where we share a meal as church family, the theme was "Going Green". Several of the meals shared were cooked in sun ovens, shown above, which use the sun to power them.