COMMON GROUND CHURCH CONSTANTIABERG

2019A YEAR IN REVIEW Each year we take the opportunity to look back, reflect and review. We share numbers. We celebrate numbers. Numbers represent people. Numbers represent lives being impacted and transformed. We celebrate these stories of impact and consider how God is using Common Ground Church as an instrument; serving to extend both his kingdom and love deeper into our city and wider into our culture. page 2

SECTION 1 COMMON GROUND CHURCH CONSTANTIABERG

a year in review 2019 COMMON GROUND CHURCH CONSTANTIABERG page 3

A NOTE FROM DON MILLER

I look back on 2019 with huge gratitude for the incredible We thank God for Terran & Julie Williams who have felt people God is pulling together in this local church family. God calling them to an assignment outside of Common We are continually humbled by His provision, goodness Ground. We continue to trust God alongside them for and faithfulness toward us. Thank you God. We worship their assignment as God leads them. you! 2019 saw hosting the Global Advance Perhaps the verse that encapsulates my reflection on conference. We had the privilege of hosting some of 2019 is this one: our Advance partner church leaders - Matthew & Grace 2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in jars of clay Hosier as well as Mbonisi & Tashinga Malaba. It is such to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not a privilege to be part of this network of churches that from us.” are planting and strengthening churches in all parts of the world. What I love about this text is that it reminds us to keep our eyes on and reserve our greatest praise for God. We As we honour God for His goodness and faithfulness in are reminded that our greatest treasure is our faith in 2019, we look ahead into 2020 with our great treasure Jesus Christ and the full and free access we have to God. burning in our hearts. We serve a God who can do Simply incredible. This treasure is not fragile or fleeting. immeasurably more than we can ask or even imagine. It does remind us that we are. It reminds us that our Constantiaberg - let’s bring our jars of clay so He can circumstances can be unpredictable and fragile at times show us his surpassing power! but that God’s power and faithfulness toward us is a sure foundation for all of life. Your partners in the Gospel, Don & Heidi Miller The big unknown for us coming into the year was our venue. Let’s praise God for his provision of the Cape Academy of Maths, Science and Technology (CAMST) as a Sunday venue starting in September. It’s a fantastic partnership that is a mutual blessing in many ways.

There is so much to celebrate - Nkulu and Sigrid Madonko joined our eldership team in June and have brought fantastic contribution and strength to C’Berg. We held our first ever holiday club which was a resounding blessing to the kids and families involved - we felt the impact for months. I celebrate our hard-working staff who made the transition to CAMST so seamless despite the many challenges. Simon Peters has brought fantastic impact as he joined our staff in a very part-time capacity near the end of the year to give some focussed leadership to our Life Group Ministry. Speaking of staff - allow me to sneak in a moment of celebration for our own Rosina Key. Rosina has served our church with such excellence and love for so many years. Thank you for carrying this church in your heart.

a year in review 2019 COMMON GROUND CHURCH CONSTANTIABERG page 4

From top to bottom: Baptisms, End of year volunteer thank you dinner, First Sunday at our new venue Cape Academy, Newcomers Lunch, Praying against gender-based violence, Worship band

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CONSTANTIABERG NUMBERS

399 5 181 171 AVERAGE PEOPLE REGULAR OTHER WEEKLY ATTENDANCE BAPTISED VOLUNTEERS VOLUNTEERS (Excluding Christmas & Easter) (On Sundays) 2018: 451 2018: 9 2018: 195 2018: 99

27 392 48 16 368 LIFE PEOPLE IN DEACONS NEW MEMBERS CHURCH GROUPS LIFE GROUPS WELCOMED IN MEMBERS 2018: 31 2018: 384 2018: 42 2018: 27 2018: 467

We thank God for every life transformed and impacted by the Gospel. In our thanksgiving, let’s continue to trust God for greater fruitfulness and impact as we live out our faith.

Jesus modelled for us the impact and desirability for servant-hearted living - he said of himself that he did not come to serve but to be served and to give his life as a ransom for many.

I thank God for every person serving and every person served as we model ourselves on Jesus.

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NEXT GEN NUMBERS

2019 was a big year for our Next Gen ministries and we saw God lead us into new and exciting areas. We hosted our first holiday club, were able to partner with new schools, relaunch Friday frequency ministry, start the groundwork of our students and young adults ministry and so much more! God has truly blessed our next generation this year!

Kids Rock: We have been celebrating our new venue that God has provided! We have lots of space to serve our young kids as they build friendships and seek to know God more. With our new venue we have been blessed with being able to include the younger 1,5 – 108 57 2,5 year olds as the Pipsqueaks group! AVERAGE NUMBER This is a great blessing for our young WEEKLY ATTENDANCE OF LEADERS families who can now enjoy church as 2018: 130 2018: 52 they know their little ones are having a wonderful time learning about God too. A highlight this year was joining the adults in the Daniel series and being able to grow as families in our faith! We are also thankful for all the parents who have joined our registration team now enabling our regular team to focus completely on the kids as they arrive. We are so thankful to God and expectant to see what He has in store for 2020!

Ignite: Our preteens have enjoyed many moments this year of fun, friends and faith! From our Ignite camp in September where they grew in their friendships, had a blast playing games and spending time together and drew closer to God with our theme being 62 29 “Known”. We intentionally focused on AVERAGE NUMBER who we are in Christ and they had an WEEKLY ATTENDANCE OF LEADERS incredible opportunity to discover their 2018: 52 2018: 14 identity in Him. We had many exciting nights on Fridays from Nerf wars, to Rush jumping evenings, to movie nights and plenty of chilled events. It was a real joy to have over 15 grade 7’s join the leadership team for Holiday club and then Ignite Friday ministries. They have an eagerness to serve God and share the gospel which we are so blessed to be able to witness and have the opportunity to invest in their leadership. God is so good and faithful and we give Him all the glory!

Frequency: In January we relaunched our Friday night Frequency group. On Fridays and Sundays we have been intentionally focused on 2 values; 1. Friendship culture: creating an inviting, inclusive and uplifting space which encourages and fosters strong, 44 6 healthy Christ honouring friendships. AVERAGE WEEKLY NUMBER We have seen a huge impact as our ATTENDANCE OF LEADERS group has grown from about 10 in the beginning of the year to over 35 at the 2018: 31 2018: 9 end of the year. Our second focus being on teaching the word so that the teens are challenged, encouraged and strengthened in their understanding of God’s word, who He is and what that means to their lives! We went on 2 camps and saw such an incredible desire among our teens to be bold in following Christ from worshipping God with more freedom to seeking to understand God’s word more. We are so grateful to God how He has had our teens in the palm of His hand and look forward to witnessing the wonderful things He has in store for this incredible group of teens!

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HOLIDAY CLUB

This year we hosted our very own holiday club in the south area partnering with South Pen and Wynberg congregations. Our theme Beyond focused on how God is able to do more than we can imagine and even think to ask, how Gods love and power are beyond what we can comprehend and He did not disappoint. God blessed and provided for us every step of the way, from a venue, to safety, to a full team of volunteers teams (who served at registration, provided lunches and a team of over 50 teens and young adults who served for the whole day with the kids), to changing the stormy weather when the kids prayed so that we could have our last day of club, to blessing us with an incredible family night on the Thursday at which all the families were invited to enjoy an evening of games, food and a brief program highlighting some of the fun we had during the week. We saw many new families attending church after club and many teens continue to grow in serving the younger generation. Praise to God for He is able!

SCHOOLS MINISTRY

We have been so blessed to partner with other local churches in going into some of the schools in our area to share the gospel. We were able to partner with a new school Reddam in teaching bible classes on Thursdays while still leading break time sessions at Sweet Valley for the Gr3-6’s. These were great times of having short bursts of sharing God’s word and building friendships. A highlight was Bible Week at Sweet Valley where for a whole week we were privileged to go into the school and teach at their assemblies, in their classes and host special programs. Our theme was Love Revolution where we focused on how God’s love revolutionizes our lives and how we can shine that love into the world!

YOUNG ADULTS & STUDENTS

This year we began a process of laying the groundwork for our young adults and students ministry trusting God to lead us and reach this age in our community and church. We formed a team of young adults with a desire to reach out to other young adults and students! We have hosted monthly social events for the later half of the year with the desire to build friendships and enjoy fellowship together. Some of these events included Bowling and Milkshakes, Ice cream adventures after church, and braais. Please join us in prayer for these ages as God leads and guides us into how best to serve them. We are excited to see how God is going to stir this generation and draw them to Him.

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a year in review 2019 COMMON GROUND CHURCH CONSTANTIABERG page 9

CONSTANTIABERG FINANCIAL OVERVIEW

A WORD FROM DON MILLER:

We praise God for every faithful act of regular committed giving (RCG) to this local church as God transforms us into a cheerfully generous people. Our faithfulness in giving the ‘first fruits’ of our income to God is an exhilarating act of worship to God as we acknowledge His provision and priority in our lives.

We have seen a decline in our RCG as well as once-off gifts which is always a concern for 2 reasons - firstly, our monthly RCG determines the extent to which we can live into what God has called us to. Secondly, and more importantly, I believe God calls us to RCG for His glory and our own spiritual vitality. I believe with all my heart that cheerful generosity is more about what God wants for us than from us.

Over the last 2-months of the year, we saw a significant upswing in our RCG and received a few once- off gifts that we are so grateful for.

For those who are faithfully giving - well done and thank you. For those of you who may have pulled back or not yet started giving, my prayer is that God would get hold of our hearts in this area of our lives like never before. I am aware that as a church we have been through what can be very unsettling transitions and challenges. As a country we are all experiencing the economic pinch, yet despite these realities, I believe we can continue to trust God for his provision and be faithful to his Word as he continually transforms us to into a cheerfully generous people.

HOW SALARIES ARE SET:

In tandem with an external consultant, Common Ground use a job grading system - involving Patterson grades and the Avril Ryder South African NPO salary report - to ensure fairness in clustering job sizes.

2019 figures are management report figures, financial audit underway ata yearthe timein review of print 2019 pagepage 10 1

SECTION 1

F I L L I N G THE CITY

+ Multiplying Congregations

+ Multiplying Christ-followers

+ Multiplying Compassion & Justice

+ Multiplying Societal Renewal

+ Multiplying Church Strengthening

a year in review 20192018 FILLING THE CITY page 11

FILLING THE CITY

In 2017, God gave the leaders of Common Ground GIFT 5: CHURCH STRENGTHENING Church a vision to serve Cape Town in five specific This year we strengthened the ministry of 65 pastors ways – multiplying Christ-followers, multiplying and church planters from Phillipi, Langa, , Congregations, multiplying Compassion and Justice, and Strandfontein through our Leaders multiplying Cultural Renewal and multiplying Church Breakfasts. We have also been able to equip two Strengthening. pastoral couples (one from Khayelitsha and one from Strandfontein) through a 2-year church Trusting in God’s calling and provision, the leaders planting course. of Common Ground rallied congregations across the city to giving these Five Gifts to the city. We have also created an online repository of free Common Ground Church resources that we hope will Three years into that five-year vision we can give one serve and strengthen churches around the world. account after the next of God’s miraculous hand in Take a look and why not share the link: multiplying these gifts… www.commonresources.co.za

GIFT 1: MULTIPLYING CHRIST-FOLLOWERS The best gift Common Ground can give to Cape Town is more Christ followers. In 2019, we have seen many stories of people crossing the line of faith, being baptised and living out the way of Christ in all spheres of their life. These stories are celebrated across the congregational pages and can also be found on commonstories.co.za

GIFT 2: MULTIPLYING CONGREGATIONS In 2019 we celebrated the launch of Common Ground Langa. This congregation has grown to a vibrant attendance of 35 adults and 40 kids. We are so grateful to God for adding to this congregation.

GIFT 3: COMPASSION AND JUSTICE Our partnership with Common Good is central to who we are as a church and there are hundreds of stories of God at work through all three of their initiatives. Please see more of these stories on the Common Good page.

GIFT 4: CULTURAL RENEWAL Through the Know Your Why conference with Ken Costa we equipped, connected and inspired just over 300 delegates to take the wisdom and ways of Jesus into their workplace. We also created a dedicated One Life website which seeks to equip, connect and mobilise Christ-followers to be agents of hope for the good of the city. You can find the website here: www.onelife.org.za

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SECTION 2

COMMON GOOD

+ Multiplying Compassion & Justice

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SOCIAL JUSTICE CITY IMPACT

As Christ-followers we are called to ‘do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God’ (Micah 6v8). In partnership with Common Ground, Common Good seeks to create opportunities for people marginalised by injustice to fl ourish and reach their full potential. As we look back on 2019 we give thanks for the thousands of lives that were impacted for the better through our various programmes: from babies in the womb, to new moms, school children, teachers and the unemployed; from church leaders to Christ- followers in congregations across our city.

Thank you to the many donors, supporters and volunteers from Common Ground who partnered with us in 2019. Together we are bringing hope, opportunity, dignity, and care to those who need it most.

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Early Life | Education | Employment | Congregational Support

EARLY LIFE

In 2019 Common Good launched a new Early Life initiative, Sikunye (meaning ‘we are together’ in isiXhosa). Our research determined that the local church has a signifi cant role to play during the fi rst thousand days of life – a critical stage of development from conception to two years of age that sets the trajectory of a child’s future.

Sikunye inspires and activates churches across to support families with children in this phase, so that they can provide the nurturing care required for their children to truly thrive and reach their full, God-given potential.

50 100+ SIKUNYE CHAMPIONS CHURCHES PARTICIPATED MOBILISED AND ACTIVELY IN VARIOUS EARLY LIFE WORKING TOWARDS EVENTS AND ARE ON BUILDING COMMUNITIES A JOURNEY TOWARDS OF CARE AND SUPPORT DISCOVERING THEIR ROLE AROUND FAMILIES IN IN GIVING ALL CHILDREN A LOCAL CHURCHES. STRONG START IN LIFE.

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Early Life | Education | Employment | Congregational Support

EDUCATION

Common Good is determined that all children should have access to an excellent education, no matter the community in which you grow up. We’ve partnered with the Education Department to strengthen three no-fee schools through the Collaboration Schools Project. Our team works 1861 LEARNERS RECEIVED BETTER alongside school staff to provide operational support, EDUCATION ACROSS OUR THREE co-create improvement plans, mentor teachers, SCHOOLS: DISA PRIMARY develop leaders and build teams that can drive change. AND BOUNDARY PRIMARY IN We also support targeted literacy interventions at , AND SILIKAMVA partner schools in Kewtown and Oceanview. HIGH IN ().

55 TEACHERS PARTICIPATED IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES AND RECEIVED INDIVIDUAL COACHING FROM COMMON GOOD’S INSTRUCTIONAL COACHES.

82 GRADE 2 & 3 LEARNERS RECEIVED VALUABLE ONE- ON-ONE READING SUPPORT THROUGH SHINE LITERACY PROGRAMMES AT KEWTOWN AND KLEINBERG PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

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Early Life | Education | Employment | Congregational Support

EMPLOYMENT

Our employment initiative, The Zanokhanyo Network, offers a holistic, three-week work readiness course that empowers the unemployed with the confi dence, skills and resources they need to enter the marketplace. We journey with our graduates, offering support and connections to meaningful opportunities. In 2019 we piloted a course in Langebaan, with a view to establishing replication partners in communities further afi eld.

634 GRADUATES FOUND WORK OR WERE CONNECTED TO FURTHER STUDY OPPORTUNITIES

703 UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE COMPLETED WORK READINESS TRAINING AT 7 TRAINING SITES ACROSS THE CITY INCLUDING, DUNOON, HOUT BAY, LANGA, LANGEBAAN, OBSERVATORY, OCEAN VIEW AND WYNBERG.

245 GRADUATES IMPROVED THEIR TZN graduates and TZN training COMPUTER SKILLS AND GAINED INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC EXPERTISE THROUGH ADDITIONAL, IN-HOUSE COMPUTER, CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND HOSPITALITY WORKSHOPS.

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Early Life | Education | Employment | Congregational Support

CONGREGATIONAL SUPPORT TEAM 16 PODCASTS PRODUCED FOR THE Our Congregational Support team aims to equip LIVING SOCIAL JUSTICE CHANNEL and mobilise Christ-followers towards social justice in their everyday lives. We support Social Justice Ministry (SJM) teams in Common Ground as they seek to disciple congregants towards a lifestyle of social justice and respond to the needs of their community. We publish resources on a range of topics and build 10 bridges to Common Good’s EEE programmes by SOCIAL JUSTICE RESOURCE PAGES facilitating volunteer opportunities and events. PUBLISHED ON OUR WEBSITE EXPLORING VARIOUS SOCIAL JUSTICE THEMES, INCLUDING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, LIVING WAGE AND RACE, DIVISION AND INEQUALITY.

1050 VOLUNTEER HOURS INVESTED IN COMMON GOOD INITIATIVES

8 SOCIAL JUSTICE TEAMS SUPPORTED ACROSS COMMON GROUND CONGREGATIONS

a year in review 2019 We’re a gospel community fi lling the city with the message, life and fame of Jesus.