Announcing the Expanding the Reach Campaign
The Opportunity:
As the Center for Christian Studies celebrates its fifth year, we are asking you to partner with us financially to ensure that we can continue developing and offering the highest quality education resources for the Church. Will you help us in helping Christians better understand, practice, and pass on their faith and to train teachers of teachers (2 Timothy 2:2)?
The Challenge:
Churches across the board have declined in attendance, and the majority of churches in the U.S. are under 100 members and are in need of resources.
​
Biblical literacy—knowledge of the Bible—is in steep decline in the West. Lifeway research found that just 31% of Protestant church members read the Bible every day, and another 27% read it a few times a week.​
​
People leading in churches—most acutely in small churches—need reliable resources to equip themselves for ministry and their congregations for faithfulness. How can the church address this state of affairs? This is the beginning of the story of the Center for Christian Studies.​​
The CCS Answer:
The Center for Christian Studies: Where We’ve Been
​
After many years of teaching in university and seminary contexts, as well as serving as ministers in churches, Keith Stanglin and Todd Hall recognized the need in churches for trustworthy, high-quality resources that could help prepare the “non-specialists,” who do most of the teaching, leading, and shepherding in churches and other Christian settings. We dreamed of a church-facing ministry that would directly serve churches and their need for continuing education. For years, it remained nothing more than a dream.
​
But then, in the fall of 2021, we, with the help of some devoted, visionary leaders, launched the Center for Christian Studies. We wanted CCS to be a home for scholarship for the church, producing the most reliable biblical and theological resources, made accessible to churches and Christian leaders. We didn’t want to just talk about what churches needed; we wanted to fill the need in a concrete way.
​​
The dream that began with nothing tangible first became a reality through the help of generous donors, partners who were captivated by the CCS vision of equipping and helping churches.
​
Cornerstones and foundations were laid, the living stones on which a structure could be raised. For five years now, by God’s grace, CCS has been building and expanding the structure, which now houses some of the finest curriculum and educational material for churches, used by Christians throughout the United States and around the globe.
The Center for Christian Studies: Where We’re Going
​
CCS continues to produce the highest quality education resources for churches, across four primary media:
-
Live Instruction
-
Books for Individual and Group Studies
-
Journal of Christian Studies
-
Video Courses ​
These resources are intended for all churches, and we are committed to helping small and rural churches that don’t have access to the resources of larger churches.
In 2026 we are launching CCS Equip, a series of video courses designed to equip Bible class teachers and church leaders. The series of seven courses includes a workbook to assist learning and ensure that students will be ready to teach and lead in churches.
CCS is also committed to providing our materials to churches and Christians around the world. We are working toward providing translations for those outside the English-speaking world, and we are seeking partners to help us provide material to churches in areas of the world that are rich in faith but lack financial resources.
The Center for Christian Studies: Five Years Growing
​
Around 12% of nonprofit organizations don’t make it past their fifth year. And around 30% don’t survive ten years. The number one reason? Says one expert: “The main reason nonprofits don’t make it past five years is the funding and financial stability,” especially at smaller nonprofits with only a few donors. “If you lose one of these donors,” he said, “it could be problematic.”
​
Well, the Center for Christian Studies is definitely a small nonprofit. We don’t receive government funding or grants. For this work to continue, we depend to a large extent on donors. Over our five years, we have had over 160 donors, as well as 9 different churches, that have partnered with us.
​​
But we’re not stopping there. From our beginning, we have favored the imagery from 1 Corinthians 3:6 of kingdom workers who plant the seed and water it, trusting God to enable the growth. Our watchword for the fifth year is “Growing.” That is our past reality and our future aim. Each year, our catalogue of resources has grown, as has their reach.
​
In order to ensure continued growth, in commemoration of our fifth anniversary, the Center for Christian Studies is announcing our Expanding the Reach Campaign. We have set an ambitious goal of raising $150,000. This will help us further strengthen the foundation already laid, with the continued growth of resources and expansion of our reach.
​​
Toward this end, we have generous donors who have pledged to match up to $75,000 of additional gifts in this campaign. If we can raise this amount, then their match will bring us to the goal of $150,000.
​
The mission of the Center for Christian Studies remains the same: to help Christians better understand, practice, and pass on their faith and to train teachers of teachers (2 Timothy 2:2). We pursue biblical and theological understanding in conversation with the historic Christian tradition and with all who call upon Jesus as Lord.
​
How have you benefitted from CCS resources? Was there a video course? A Journal of Christian Studies article? A live class session or seminar? One of our books? Perhaps a blog post or podcast episode?
​
If you have benefitted, and the resources fulfilled your expectation, then will you share your blessing at this crucial moment and help us reach the goal? Will you contribute to the Expanding the Reach Campaign and make these CCS resources—and many more to come—available to an ever-increasing audience?
