God makes things grow, we work the garden

“And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. “
Mark 4:26-29 (ESV)

Every fall, churches start a new ministry year, with renewed focus, ways to serve and plans to put into action. God is moving.

Our team loves hearing about what’s happening, sowing and reaping, lives changed as Christians go deeper in their walk and new followers of Christ are added to the Kingdom. The work we do is good, because it advances good in this fallen world.

CIF is not a church, but like the one who scatters gospel seeds in Mark chapter 4, we also scatter the seeds of our ministry. To help churches, we focus on establishing relationships and trust.

But here’s a key difference between us and a for-profit business. There is no chart with sales goals, no high-pressure tactics. Instead, as we scatter and water our seeds in a relational way, we trust God to determine which seeds will sprout and when, and which will become strong.

Shared values, priorities, improvement

We are thankful to see the fruit that He brings. At CIF, we worship the same God, and we rejoice with you in the work.

We also love continuous improvement, so we have some renewal of our own underway, clarifying who we are and how our ministry serves. It’s important for any ministry to chart its progress.

At CIF, there are dollars and cents, investments and loan volume, and these have been growing. Yet our only boast is in the Lord. We know there are times, seasons and cycles, for sure and we try to plan as best we can.

We are grounded in God, who is at the center of our mission. As we help and encourage others, we can then encourage ourselves and give Him glory for how He has used this ministry.

Another key difference: seamless integration

As we pondered more about what makes us distinct, different and even special in the church sphere, a new theme rose to the surface- seamless integration.

This involves pairing our products and services together in a coordinated manner. It is unified and purposeful, eases the process for churches and supports Kingdom expansion through real estate purchases and projects for ministry.

Frankly, seamless integration is so foundational to who we are that we added it to The CIF Difference section on our website. Still, we can’t do it alone. It takes teams to accomplish this- our team and the church teams we work with as a ministry-minded partner.

A couple ways we can help

For example, we were able to help one church to plan, budget and forecast their capital campaign receipts, the building funds that were coming in. Though they used a “one fund” approach from another provider that didn’t separate building donations from general giving, we helped get them back on a better path towards stewardship.

Further nurturing a long relationship with them, we assisted with questions about affordability and proper debt structuring. They also needed to work through a decision to buy a foreclosure next door. The more a church engages financially with CIF, the more seamless and integrated their project or purchase becomes.

In another example, we led a church through a capital campaign. Then we assisted with construction and campaign funds management to maximize their interest earnings and liquidity. This was ongoing consulting that made things more smooth and predictable.

With their new building construction underway, our project management help was continuous. The process was coordinated well with our construction financing. The stress and confusion that can result from having multiple financial service providers? Non-existent with us.

Seeing the entire picture

Some churches don’t realize how difficult this can be without CIF’s seamless integration. It may look like cost savings to split things up with other providers, but more staff time, confusion and headaches often result, as well as increased financial cost.

People might think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence but they’re often only looking at one little piece of lawn, not the entire yard. It’s critical to see the entire picture and know what your church is getting into.

With our almost seven decades of experience, you can be sure that our transparent process will keep everything at the forefront and save you both time and money; most times significantly.

We are indeed his workmanship, and God has a plan, so let’s work together to accomplish it!