CBMC 2020 Spring Connector

CONNECTOR THE

SPRING NEWSLETTER

SPRING 2020

In This Issue: •

Business as a Missional Platform

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CBMC Western Regional Update

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A Wink From God

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34 Years of Faithful Service

OUR MISSION To present Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to business and professional men, and to develop Christian business and professional men to carry out the Great Commission.

From the desk of Bill McAvinney using every tool at our disposal to engage business executives and small business owners.

Dear Friends and Fellow CBMCers, It is my prayer that you are well, friends. CBMC has and will take every precaution necessary, and we are working to equip our staff and ministry partners. We continue to be fervent in prayer and confident of our hope. Please join us as we seek Christ, above all. “The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” Psalm 121:8.

Psalm 91 has brought great comfort to many of us during these dark times. It begins, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

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Operation Timothy is in its 50th year. This timetested discipleship tool has been translated into Spanish and Latvian. Thanks to our partnership with CBMC International, it is in the beginning stages of being translated into French, Portuguese, Swahili, Mongolian, and Arabic.

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The YP1 National Young Professionals conference originally planned in Tampa is now a one-day live streaming event on Friday, May 1st. We encourage you to host a watch party and invite the young professionals in your area. See the back page for registration details.

God’s goodness and faithfulness continue to motivate me to keep focusing on our goal of bringing men to faith in Christ, spreading the Gospel far and wide. Now more than ever, as the business community is greatly impacted, we must offer encouragement and hope, while pointing men to the saving knowledge of Christ.

So, be encouraged to keep your eyes on Him, men. We are better together, and I firmly believe that.

While we continue to pray, there is much reason to rejoice. Join me in praising HIM for these recent developments:

Your fellow servant to our Lord Jesus Christ,

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We are actively pursuing lost men in the marketplace during these unprecedented times. CBMC was born out of the adversity of the Great Depression, and right now, in 2020, we stand prepared and ready. We are

William J. McAvinney III President, CBMC, Inc. 540-840-8620

34 YEARS OF FAITHFUL SERVICE The Chattanooga Ministry Support Center recently celebrated the career of one of its most beloved employees, Karen Fink. Karen is retiring after 34 years with CBMC. Karen began working at CBMC in 1985 under the leadership of Ted DeMoss. As a member of the finance department, she was quickly recognized as a loyal and dedicated employee.

Through the years, Karen’s attention to detail and firm stance on processes and procedures made her a valuable asset to the ministry. Karen’s vast knowledge is quite remarkable, but it is her prayers that make her powerful.

If you have ever sat in her office or talked to her on the phone, you will immediately recognize the way her love for the Lord shines through. Many in the ministry have been touched by her compassion for the lost. Even more have been encouraged by her faith.

Karen Fink is a true friend and fierce supporter of the mission of CBMC. She will be greatly missed. Happy Retirement, Karen!

We love you, Your CBMC family Retirement party and prayer time for Karen

2 TIMOTHY 2:2 RETREAT

CBMC Area Director Gary Tenpenny leading the retreat

CBMC KANSAS/Kansas City held a II Timothy 2:2 Retreat at the Red Rock Guest Ranch north of Topeka, Kansas, in February, 2020. The event was organized by CBMC Area Director, Gary Tenpenny. The purpose was to train, encourage and equip CBMC leaders to better carry out The Great Commission of making disciples.

Twenty-three CBMC leaders from throughout the Midwest from Minnesota to Texas attended.

Retreat attendees

USING BUSINESS AS A PLATFORM It is one thing to profess to be a Christian in the marketplace, but resolving to operate a business with an eternal focus, based on biblical principles, is something much more. In 2013, Chris Close and his father, Kevin, determined God was calling them to pursue the latter. The question was, how should they go about doing that?

Since 2002, they and Rod Converse had been working together as partners in Close Converse in Brainerd, Minn., a commercial real estate and business brokerage company.

Being men of faith, “we wanted to incorporate our faith more effectively in our business. Otherwise, it would not have any real, lasting purpose,” the younger Close said.

“We were looking for other like-minded people committed to serving the Lord through their businesses.”

Finding an abundance of marketplace ministries to choose from, each with a somewhat different focus, Close and his father began a quest to discern which aligned best with their desire to make the Gospel a central part of their mission.

Initially they became active in a ministry geared for top executives and business owners, but after discovering CBMC, the father and son knew they could stop looking.

“We saw a ministry that puts the Gospel first and business

Being in business school, I realized so many people all around me were lost and God was calling me to an amazing mission field. second, understanding the Lord uses our marketplace skills as a tool, a platform, for glorifying God and getting to know Him better,” Close observed.

After learning about CBMC’s twofold mission of evangelism and discipleship, they agreed to start a “pilot” Trust-

ed Advisor Forum in Brainerd, a community of about 20,000 people located about 100 miles north of Minneapolis. Chuck Scherer, a CBMC leader from Grand Rapids, Minn., agreed to speak at a vision meeting to share his own experience as a CBMC Trusted Advisor.

Chris Close

To recruit prospective members for the new group, Close drew from a list of “45 guys, well-connected in the Brainerd area who were solid in their faith.” Scherer, an executive of Nelson Wood Shims, told about the impact being a Forum participant and facilitator has had on his business, personal life, family and community involvement over the years.

After that introductory gathering, the first Trusted Advisor Forum was formed in Brainerd. In the years since, four other Forum groups have been established and the CBMC ministry has multiplied.

Don Hoffert, a CBMC staff director in the Twin Cities, served as the original facilitator for the first group, but Close took over the leadership role to free Hoffert from having to make the time-consuming commute each month. The Trusted Advisor Forum has more than met his expectations.

“As Christian businessmen, we need to be iron sharpening iron,” he said. “As the Bible says, we’re foreigners in this world, but there are not a lot of business and professional men really living out their faith in an intentional way. Being surrounded by like-minded men is so encouraging for all of us.”

FOR EVANGELISM AND DISCIPLESHIP

Chris and the Brainerd CBMC team

Close, a graduate of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, said his resolve to integrate his faith into every area of his life started during his senior year of college, after a niece died following an unsuccessful heart transplant procedure.

“When that happened, I began looking for answers. I had attended church and considered myself a Christian but had not gotten into God’s Word and was definitely not a disciple. For a time, I looked into other religions, but decided what I already knew to be true was true. Being in business school, I realized so many people all around me were lost and God was calling me to an amazing mission field.”

One of the early participants in the new Forum, Seth Neistadt, eventually sensed a call to serve the Lord as a full-time CBMC staff director in the area. Today he shares the responsibility for leading the growing Forum ministry, along with other CBMC initiatives.

CBMC is having an impact in the Brainerd area in numerous ways: Many of the men in the groups are discipling

other men through Operation Timothy. An annual mayor’s prayer breakfast attracts 400 people, where community leaders are prayed for, God is glorified, and a well-known speaker gives his testimony of a life changed by Jesus Christ. And God is taking the vision for Trusted Advisory Forums into other areas of Minnesota and North Dakota.

For Close, leading and participating in Forums is an incomparable experience. “At each meeting, the host introduces us to his business and discusses issues and challenges he faces. But the time we share in prayer is the most meaningful and impactful of all. Having 10 or more guys, gathered around the table sharing business and personal prayer requests, as well as praying for lost people God has put on our hearts, really increases your faith.”

Coupled with the joy of discipling men through Operation Timothy, “opening up God’s Word and talking about what it’s really like to live a life devoted to Jesus Christ,” Close knows without a doubt that CBMC was God’s answer to their prayers.

REGIONAL UPDATE

Taking the West by Storm

Brainerd CBMC Christmas Social

place leadership that anchors itself in the love of Jesus.

Mark and Ginger Whitacre at Oklahoma City’s couple’s night out

The 41st annual St Cloud Minnesota Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast featuring keynote speaker Lee Strobel and the Minot, North Dakota Faith and Work Luncheon with former ND Governor Ed Schafer, had 2,300 combined attendees who heard how each of the speakers’ faith in Christ impacted their lives.

The 2nd Annual CBMC Couple’s Night Out in Oklahoma City, OK saw over 160 people enjoy dinner, door prizes and an intimate evening with Mark and Ginger Whitacre.

Mark and Ginger fielded questions from the audience, and the crowd left feeling inspired, encouraged, and amazed by the power of God to redeem broken lives and unite a family.

Don Hofert recently conducted a successful training session for new Trusted Advisor Forums Facilitators. These men will be leading new teams in five major cities across North Dakota.

The 2019 Brainerd CBMC Christmas social began with many stories of God at work in the area of one on one discipleship. The men attending began to pray and felt the Lord leading to ask His favor to have 60 Operation Timothy relationships underway by CBMC Team in LIncoln, Nebraska next year’s CBMC Christmas meeting. Will you join with these men and pray for God’s blessing by bringing more men to be discipled?

In Southern California, last year set a foundation for future growth with the hope that God will do a mighty work with business leaders throughout the area. 5 new teams were launched along with a Young Professionals group, with plans to add 4 more this year. Monthly luncheons continue to be successful for community building. Pray for CBMC SoCal that there would be a close-knit community that catches the vision of God’s pull towards market- Trusted Advisor Forums facilitator training in North Dakota

A WINK FROM GOD Noah Webster defines “coincidence” as: a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection.

The Creator of the Universe calls those occurrences: God inspired moments.

It was autumn 1951. Billy Graham had just concluded a massive crusade in Los Angeles and was heading home to North Carolina for a 6-week crusade in Greensboro.

One evening a young boy and his mother went to the fairgrounds to hear this dynamic young pastor and when Billy began to invite those present to come forward, this mom and her son began to make their way to the stage. And then it happened… a well-dressed young man with a Bible walked toward them and bent down. He said, “Hello, my name is Rod Middlebrook, what’s yours?” “I’m Cecil Little and this is my mom. We’re going to get saved.”

Rod asked him if he was sure he wanted to do that. As the music blared, 12-year-old Cecil confirmed his intentions and that night at the Greensboro Fairgrounds, Cecil Little gave his life to Christ.

mom, it was good enough for me.”

Over the years Cecil’s relationship with Jesus flourished. He eventually met a girl named Pat in high school. Even bought her a 10-cent Coke at the corner drug store. In 1960, he married her, calling that Coke “the most expensive soft drink I’ve ever purchased”! But Pat laughs and adds, “it’s the most rewarding one he’s ever bought.” So, what happened to that 25-year old counselor, Middlebrook?

He visited Cecil a few times before they eventually drifted apart.

Cecil is celebrating 36 years with CBMC. Life was good for Cecil and Pat. They were strong in their faith, had a chain of convenience stores and everything was good. One day a man walked into one of their stores smelling of alcohol and cursing up a storm. “All I wanted to do was get this guy out of the store,” Cecil recalled. But a few years later their path crossed again. This time there was no foul language, no tinge of alcohol but rather a quiet peace and real change.

The man said, “Cecil, you won’t believe this but I’m a new man, saved by the grace of God.” He asked Cecil to attend a CBMC event and he quickly accepted.

After a few CBMC events, Little began to discover what so many other men in that group had found, some guys he could relate to, a band of brothers he wanted to know much better.

Cecil at age 12

“Looking back on that night 69 years ago, there were two voices in my head.

One was quietly compelling me to go forward,” said Little. “The other one was yelling, ‘don’t do it, you won’t have any fun in your life.’” Then Cecil added, “But I knew, that if it was good enough for my Written by: Phil Stone

“I knew God was pursing me and these men taught me how to walk closer to Him.” Cecil added, “CBMC is what gave me the confidence to see that what I did in 1951 was etched in the Book of Life forever.”

In the 1980’s, Cecil walked into a gas station in Greensboro and handed the cashier his credit card. The man looked at it and asked, “Excuse me, but did you ever live on Camden Road?”“Yes, sir, I did,” was

Long-time friends, Phil Stone and Cecil Little

Cecil’s answer. “I’m Rod Middlebrook, I led you to Christ several years ago!”

“When Cecil came home and told me that story, I was amazed because I don’t remember him ever telling me about Rod,” Pat smiled. Cecil and Rod drifted apart yet again for almost 20 years when one day Cecil was telling his attorney about Rod. He told him he would love to reconnect with Rod but had no idea how to find him. His attorney quietly said, “I can help you with that, Rod was just here discussing estate planning with me.” Oh my, yet another wink from God! They reconnected once more and for several years, Cecil picked Rod up and took him to CBMC events. They celebrated their love for Jesus together and before Rod went to be with the Lord in 2014, he gave Cecil the tattered Bible he carried throughout World War II and the same one he used to lead Cecil to Christ in 1951.

This year, Cecil and Pat became first time donors to the CBMC national ministry.

“We decided to step up and give back to a ministry that has been here for us for so many years,” Cecil whispered. “The resources, the encouragement, the relationship, my Timothies… what a privilege. We had never been asked to donate and we’re thrilled to be able to give back.

Cecil’s wife Pat summed it all up beautifully, “One of the things I enjoy most is seeing the joy in Cecil’s eyes. He’s so passionate about CBMC.”

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Developing the next generation of marketplace ambassadors is a key focus of CBMC. This Young Professional national conference is now a live streaming online one-day event. Registration is limited to the first 500. All Young Professionals are invited to register.

For local teams, please use one registration and then invite men to your host site for viewing. The live online event will include a keynote from Tony Dungy, NFL great Steve Fitzhugh, CEO’s Frank Kelly and Todd Hopkins and CBMC President Bill McAvinney. Save your seat today!