Construction to start early 2009
By Katrina Alvarez

Soon to rise. An artist's rendering of the building's facade.

This October, the CCF Building Project Department finalized the design of the new worship and training center to rise in Frontera Verde, Pasig City.

Pastor-in-charge Roy Felipe said on October 8 that all consultants and engineers needed for the project are on board. “They have submitted their designs which are now being coordinated by architect Daniel Go and his team,” he said.

Go designed the complex that will serve as CCF’s new headquarters, housing the Pastoral Staff offices as well as school and training facilities.

Artist's rendering of the new sanctuary

The Worship and Training Center will have a total floor area of 84,000sq.m. The central feature is a two-balcony, 8,400-seater auditorium with the latest in digital audiovisual technology.

This is an immense improvement upon CCF St. Francis’s present auditorium with a 3,200-person seating capacity, barely accommodating the large number of people who come to worship God.

The center also features a spacious lobby or social hall with an adjoining 800-seat cafeteria and a two-level bookstore/cafe. The hall will be an ideal venue for small group meetings, through which much of the church’s ministry is carried out.

Across the social hall, a theater to seat 1,500 theater-style or 800 banquet-style will be the place for weddings, seminars, and training sessions.

The south wing of the Worship and Training Center will house a school with 55 classrooms, comprising ten classrooms and one lecture hall on each of the five floors. These rooms will be used by weekday
elementary and high school classes under The Master’s Academy (TMA), evening Bible studies for adults, and Sunday School.

Office spaces totalling 3,000 sq.m. have been allocated for the new headquarters of the CCF Pastoral Staff, TMA, TMA Homeschool, and other units currently serving the church at CCF St. Francis. Several media-editing, music, and band rooms will also find their place under the auditorium stage.

The entire center will be capped by a covered roofdeck to hold a Youth and Sports Center with two full-size basketball courts.

Excavation for the ten-story building (seven above ground, three below for parking for
850 cars) begins in January 2009, while construction starts in March. The Worship and Training Center will be completed by December 2010.

By Marose Alvero

The Kool Solo Parent Family Ministry (KSP.fm) launched a new parenting module incorporating a new component to the heart of the ministry — the “kool” parents’ children. In the past, the ministry centered on the concerns, emotions, and needs of solo parents. This year, the spotlight is on KSP kids and their needs, with the objective of improving solo parent and child relationships.
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By Sasa Felipe

Thirteen delegates from CCF composed of pastors and their wives attended the 2008 Global Leadership Seminar held live last August 6 and 7 at Willow Creek Church, Chicago, Illinois. They were part of the 7,400-strong audience who felt blessed listening to speakers who talked about leadership
and values. The impact was life- and heart-changing.

Such was the blessing they felt that CCF committed to show the video broadcast of the whole seminar on November 6 and 7 at CCF St. Francis.

In October 2007, CCF St. Francis was chosen as the Philippine venue for the video broadcast of the 2007 GLS. The event was broadcasted simultaneously in other countries. CCF co-hosted the seminar in
Manila together with the Philippine Council for Evangelical Churches (PCEC) and Append.

Then in early February of this year, CCF again had the wonderful privilege of hosting Bill Hybels and Wayne Cordeiro as they spoke to a select group of church leaders, an offshoot of the 2007 GLS.

The GLS volunteers in Chicago this year were very active and deeply involved in all aspects, such as assisting in the parking lots and attending to the bookstore. They were very hospitable yet firmly imposed rules and policies so as to maintain order.

CCF delegates left the seminar realizing that no leader will survive without “IT;” that nothing is impossible for those who have a clear vision and mission and work hard to make their visions and dreams come true; and that no matter how stupid an idea, if we have the passion and a clear vision and mission, God will orchestrate everything to accomplish His purpose.

Discipling this nation for Jesus Christ is not impossible;spiritual and emotional maturity are possible; and character transformation takes place within the confines of strengthening one’s leadership and influence.

By Sherryll S. de Luna

Working in CCF is considered a joy by Leticia P. Alves, chief accountant of CCF St. Francis Square (SFS). “Ate Letty,” as she is fondly called by the people around her, started working January 2004 in CCF Alabang, as accounting staff. She transferred to CCF St. Francis in November 2006 as general accountant and was promoted to chief accountant last June.

“I enjoy working as an accountant in CCF. Iba ‘yung joy ng serving the Lord (The joy of serving the Lord is different). At the end of the day, the Lord is your boss,” says Ate Letty.

Ate Letty considers the accounting department as one of the tools to help further God’s kingdom. She says that all of them in the department are service-oriented, foremost to God, then to the pastors, elders, and the whole congregation.

“It was really the Lord who impressed it in my heart to serve in a Christian organization. When I learned that CCF Alabang would have an accounting team, I prayed and fasted for it before I filed my
application,” narrates Ate Letty.

Ate Letty first heard the need to have a personal relationship with God at a retreat in college. Back then, even though she knew that she was a good person, she was not sure if she will go to heaven. She found herself searching. She soon accepted Christ when her officemate, whose sister attends the Bible studies, invited her to join CCF, which was then located at the AIM building in Makati. That was in October 1986. And the rest is history.