Mission Great Expectations

Local church teams on mission to Crisis Pregnancy Center of Tidewater’s (CPC) GE Classes facilitating parenting education, proclaiming and demonstrating the Gospel of Jesus Christ and forming Discipleship Communities from its participants.

Great Expectations

CPC is a Christ-Centered non-profit organization dedicated to saving lives, sparing hearts, and spreading the gospel in South Hampton Roads. CPC has three pregnancy medical clinics and two resource centers throughout South Hampton Roads where over 1,900 women and families are served each year. One of the programs offered through CPC is called Great Expectations (GE). GE educates new moms and families regarding parenting and prenatal care.
GE is an incentive based program where participants earn points (Baby Bucks!) for participation and then redeems those points for practical support in the form of strollers, diapers, cribs, clothing, etc. This material support is significant to these moms and families as they begin this new journey.

Coming to Them

GE is fertile soil for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through CPC’s GE classes each year, 50 to 100 participants make commitments to Christ and many more are open to hearing the gospel. However, these participants rarely find their way into a local church for further discipleship. The critical need is for our local churches to come to them. CPC is kicking off a new initiative challenging churches to send mission teams to lead GE Classes and build relationships extending beyond those classes for the greater mission of disciple-making.

 

Discipleship Community

As soon as a mission team forms, they will begin meeting each week to share a meal, train, discuss their mission at GE, build relationships, pray for one another and study Scripture. This weekly fellowship meal is the impetus for the formation of a Discipleship Community. A Discipleship Community (DC) is people coming together to learn how to follow Jesus in the everyday stuff of life. As Jesus modeled with his disciples, some of the best opportunities for discipleship extend beyond events and large gatherings and take place in the ordinary rhythms of our day.

The Discipleship Community is critical to Mission Great Expectations. As the mission team cultivates a Discipleship Community, they will extend invitations to the moms and families they serve at GE to join their DC. The weekly fellowship meal (FEAST) is a vital point of entry for GE families to come into this community of Christ’s disciples.

 

Mission Commitment

The Missions Team will lead one full semester of GE classes at CPC’s facility. There are 18 classes divided into two quarters. A typical class needs 4 to 5 volunteers (Course Instructor, Admin, Devotional leader, etc.). If the Missions Team has 8-10 members, the members could alternate their participation each week since only 4 leaders are needed. This would ease each team member’s commitment to only 9 classes throughout the semester.

Each team should anticipate making a one year commitment to this mission. The span of a semester of classes is 20 weeks when factoring the two-week break between quarters. Therefore, approximately half of a year involves GE Classes and the rest of the mission year is dedicated to the Discipleship Community.

Read an interview with CPC’s President, Toby DeBause & meet Rita!

Interested In Getting Involved?

Fill out the form below to let us know that you’re interested in Misson Great Expectations!