Dear CCW family,
So that you don’t get confused, I’ll start by letting you know that this is Steve Burchett writing. I’ve had the privilege of being Jim Elliff’s assistant since moving to Kansas City in 2007. Before then I was the sole pastor of a church in Athens, Ohio, starting in 2001. How did I get connected with Jim and the ministry of Christian Communicators Worldwide? I’m not exactly sure, though I think it might have been through his nephew, Jon, who was our pastor my last year in seminary.
Fast-forward to my pastorate in Ohio. My fellow leaders wanted to have a series of special meetings with a guest speaker. I had been using CCW’s materials for the few years I had been at that church — usually putting them out on a resource table for people to take and read or use for evangelism. I had grown to respect Jim’s ministry, so decided to invite him to the church in Ohio for ministry over a number of days. He came (with his son Bryan), and it went extremely well, even though Jim had to endure poor lighting in the sanctuary! (If you know Jim, you know he is a stickler for good lighting.)
I’ll spare you the details, but I was eventually encouraged to move out to Kansas City with my family. This was related to potentially becoming one of the elders in the church Jim had started in 2003 — Christ Fellowship of Kansas City — but I also came to serve in some capacity with CCW. Even before I moved to Missouri, Jim encouraged me to study the “Childhood Conversion Seminar” material, use the outline and critical contents along with my own material, and see if some churches would have me come and teach it. Within perhaps a year, I was able to teach this seminar in six churches in Ohio. It was a significant encouragement from the Lord that our pending move to the middle of the country was his will.
Soon after arriving in KC, I regularly went to CCW’s offices when I could to chip in with the work. I soon learned the art of packing books (from Susan Verstraete, an administrative assistant at the time) and steering a two-wheeled cart down the hill and across the busy street to the Post Office. I also remember Jim, perhaps within the first couple of weeks, coming in to the big room with all of the inventory of books and saying to me, “You should start writing an article each month for our bulletin inserts website as Daryl Wingerd has been doing for the last few years.” I had written some papers in seminary, but never anything like what he was asking for. I’m so glad I started, and it has ultimately led to the privilege of writing numerous articles, a few books that CCW now distributes, with hopefully more to come.
Traveling for ministry was also part of my CCW ministry from the start. Once in KC, I believe my first trip to another state was to Arkansas, and my first international trip was to the Philippines (barely avoiding a typhoon on the way). What a privilege it has been over the past nearly two decades to be in so many churches around the United States and numerous countries for ministry, including Ethiopia eight or nine times, and India is now a yearly trip. Initially, lots of these trips (especially stateside) were with Jim, but oh the memories I have of traveling with other “communicators,” occasionally with men from our church, and often with family. There has been abundant joy and lots of laughs on those treks, as well as so much Bible taught and discussed with God’s people and leaders around the world.
CCW has undergone some changes over the years I have been part of the ministry. At one point, we outsourced the distribution of our books to a reputable ministry, but then brought them back to KC to have total control over them again. What a fun four hour ride (both ways) that was with one of CCW’s board members to pick up those books and drive them back. Because of life becoming more “mobile,” we eventually realized we didn’t need to be renting an office anymore as long as we could figure out where to store our inventory of CCW resources and how to mail them. It has worked out well to utilize a portion of my basement for storage. My daughter, Katie, became the book mailer for a season, and now Patty happily fills that role (along with getting some help from my daughter with special needs, Lilly). We’ve also seen some other assistants, Bryan Elliff and Kole Farney — fine men! — go on to other callings, but the Lord always provides as he did fairly recently in adding Marco Scouvert to the team.
Speaking of provision, the Lord has been so faithful to meet our needs and prove that he is a prayer-hearing God. When we moved to KC, I had raised some support and also did some substitute school teaching to make ends meet. Within a few years, my opportunities with CCW increased (I had also become an elder for Christ Fellowship) such that I could be spending all of my time in ministry if I wished. Jim and Pam encouraged Patty and me to join them in following George Muller’s approach to trusting God for our finances (never making needs known to anyone but the Lord) as they had done since the 1980s. We soon joined them in this approach and God has never failed us. If you are ever at my house, feel free to ask about the record my wife has kept of answers to prayer. We’d be privileged to share some of those stories about God’s goodness.
One thing that has not changed in all of my time with CCW is this: our commitment to, as our website says, “mentoring and motivating Christ’s people to live his words.” We continue to remain completely confident in the authority of the Bible and that it revives the soul and makes wise the simple and rejoices the heart and enlightens the eyes (Psalm 19:7-8). We have no doubt that God’s word is “more to be desired…than gold, even much fine gold” and that it is “sweeter than honey and drippings of the honeycomb” (v. 10). If I’m privileged to be writing about the ministry two decades from now, my hope is that the previous 20 years will have demonstrated our love for Christ and his words in all the ministry we have done — conferences, seminars, camps, Bible intensives, counseling, writing, evangelism, and any other Bible teaching avenue.
But what we will need for that to happen is what we have always needed — your prayers! Pray for us to continue not only to believe in the sufficiency and beauty of Scripture, but for our effectiveness worldwide as communicators of Christ’s words. Apart from the Lord’s help, we can do nothing.
Thanks Steve. These have been amazing years and you have been right in the spot God planned for you. You and Patty, and Marco and Laura, and many others, now or in the past, have been God’s ministers to carry out our mission from God together.
Pam and I launched CCW in 1986 believing God was leading us to speak, mentor, and write through the doors opening before us, but also, hopefully, by displaying that God can be trusted. As Steve mentioned above, we had been introduced to the faith of George Muller, the man who housed, fed, clothed, and educated over 10,000 orphans in Bristol without asking anyone but God for help. We had been experiencing answers to prayer before we began which gave us courage to step out. For 40 beautiful years he has opened his generous hand, often in surprising ways, to help us without once soliciting for funds. We’ve had some close calls, but we can say that he has been faithful to meet every need — for the publishing and distribution of hundreds of thousands of books, for the travel expenses to take our ministry to almost every state and 40 foreign countries, and for the family needs of the communicators, plus all those additional expenses of a ministry. He’s provided millions of dollars. Every small gift has been appreciated, because we have never known when that was just the right amount to meet a need. We had one method — pray and expect God to fulfill his promises.
Thank you all, and thank you Father!
With Joy,
Jim, Steve, and Marco