Who Wants a Treat? - Q1 2024
- Mar 30, 2024
- 1 min read
Updated: Apr 16, 2024
2024 was off to a great start! Feel free to skip the Q1 report read and watch this TikTok recap instead. It’s abbreviated, geared towards prospective Christian college students, and more comical (if I do say so myself). But before you go,
I beg of you… please read the “Dine and Dash - Lunch Learning Livestream” portion below.
I am in desperate need of your help on that one and will send you a small, scrumptious, treat if you can help out.
Annual Board Meeting
We started the year with our annual board meeting where we reviewed the last year and made plans for 2024. I shared with the board the good news that we gave out $5,500 in Christian college scholarships, we made 14+ presentations about CHEF or Christian colleges, and we grew our email campaign list to over 800 new contacts. We welcomed four new board members: Michael Mitchell, Jayson McKinley, Blaine Chason, and Phillip Randolph. It was also at this meeting the board approved a rebrand to CHEF - The Christian Higher Education Foundation. This name more quickly connects with folks and aligns with our mission of helping churches of Christ promote and provide scholarships for Christian higher education.
Former Presidents Join CHEF
You might recall in early last year I had the opportunity to share CHEF with former presidents of church of Christ-affiliated colleges and universities in Branson, MO. As a result, I am honored to welcome seven former presidents to our organization. We are blessed beyond measure to receive their endorsements and I look forward to helping them tell the story of Christian higher education.
New Hires + Talent Search
Also joining the CHEF ranks are two of my very closest friends, Bazil Cunningham and Patrick Etcheverry. Bazil is helping us secure national sponsorships for our potluck benefit we’ll be hosting towards the end of this year. He is also teaching our partner churches how to solicit corporate sponsorships for their church-based scholarship funds. Patrick is helping us with a slew of data-gathering and reporting endeavors including an elder’s report to share material information they might need in blessing schools, updating the church of Christ lawyer’s directory, a report for students and parents on our sister colleges, and more. Our churches would have an extremely difficult time raising funds and awareness for Christian higher ed without these guys.
We are searching for four more folks to join the party.
(1) We need someone to network with Christians across the US to build a network of professional mentors that are exclusively available to our CHEF students. This will help make our colleges more attractive if we build a larger professional network.
(2) We’re looking for someone to help us organize our fundraising goods manufacturing process. Youth may sell our fundraising meal preparation packets if they’d like to ensure they receive scholarships.
(3) We need someone to lead regional directors in putting on Christian College Days which is where we invite admissions counselors from our sister colleges to come to one location instead of having families traverse across the U.S. to meet them. Lastly
(4) We need someone to help craft and lead church teams in the creation of a highly engaging, educational, and exciting CHEF potluck benefit experience.
Each of these jobs come with a $1,000 or greater stipend. Please share with folks you think might be interested.
COCHE Scholarship Giveaway
The Church of Christ Home Educators Group gave CHEF a phenomenal opportunity to share our programs with their members at their annual retreat. We made meal preparation packets for their 100+ attendees, sent them informational pamphlets, and held a $1,000 scholarship drawing which went to the Beltline Church of Christ to help them jump-start their scholarship program.
One for One Million Fundraising Campaign Launch
Compliments to our new fundraising platform, Give Butter, our One for One Million fundraising campaign is now live!! Our goal in 2024 is to help churches work together to collectively raise $1 million in Christian college scholarships for youth in their respective communities. The first “One” in the campaign name signifies churches from across the nation coming together to act as ONE BODY in tackling one of their biggest shared challenges which is the attrition rate of their youth leaving their faith during the college years. Some studies show as many as seven out of ten leave their faith during college.
Now all we need is you! (see Dine and Dash below)
Dine and Dash - Lunch Learning Livestream
When Jesus asked told His disciples to feed the 5,000 a young boy gave up his 5 loaves and two fish to help. Then Jesus did the rest.
If you’re like me, you don’t have a million dollars. I don’t even have close to that. But when Christ asks us to serve God and others, he simply asks us to give generously of what we have.
If you know any believers, if you’ve got access to a table, and if you’ve got a slow cooker, you can set the table that gives rise to the recipe for the restoration of the Lord’s church.
Would you consider hosting a “Dine and Dash” lunch, learning, livestream in your home Sunday, April 28th 12pm Central and invite your friends and church family to come and learn how CHEF can help your church promote and provide scholarships for Christian higher education? If you can’t swing that date and time, you can still invite folks over on a better day to eat and watch the replay. Lord willing, after the livestream concludes, your guests will be revved and ready to dash to their elders to present the program and request their blessing.
I’ve heard it said that in the church if we don’t eat, we don’t meet. That’s part of why we meet in homes over food for this info session and 3 subsequent trainings. We also conduct our trainings and fundraising in this way to draw people in, more easily visit, and build lasting relationships in our local communities but also with the churches across the Nation.
If you are willing to host, please fill out this brief form expressing your interest. As a small token of my appreciation and to help with preparing the food, I will be mailing you one of CHEF’s meal preparation packets which contains pre-apportioned spices in a bag. You simply pour it in your slow cooker and add a few extra ingredients from the grocery store. I’ll be sending our Baked Potato Soup packet. You just add water, hash browns, and cream cheese. It’s truly a family favorite recipe.
University Highlight: NationsU
CHEF is delighted to highlight Nations University in this quarterly report to remind readers like you why we do what we do. Please enjoy the below video to celebrate their good work in equipping disciples to make other disciples—bringing a new follower to Christ with every $4 donated to NationsU.
Not only this but NationsU also offers affordable, online, bachelors and masters to your church leaders. NationsU charges no tuition for students in developing nations and a very low annual tuition rate of $1,800 per year for students in developed countries. They further discount tuition for ministers and missionaries by charging only $1,200 per year for these students.
Would you share their programs with your church elders today?
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