Center for Church Communication

The Center for Church Communication (CFCC) started as an idea to help churches communicate better. The initial roots go back to the late 1990s when Brad Abare started a marketing agency that worked with a handful of churches and ministries. The idea was to help as many people as possible for as little money as possible. It quickly became clear that ministry pricing didn’t equal financial sustainability, so Brad continued to help churches on the side while growing his company as a separate entity outside of the “church market.”

Several years later, in 2004, Abare tried again to launch a stand-alone company that would work exclusively with churches. During a planning meeting for the launch of CFCC, the idea for Church Marketing Sucks was also born. Together, the Center for Church Communication and Church Marketing Sucks would both serve churches by drawing attention to effective communication and offering resources for accomplishing the task.

It didn’t take long for CFCC to abandon its original commercial model, and instead come alongside and be the over-arching organization for Church Marketing Sucks, the Church Marketing Lab and other projects being hatched. CFCC would be the nonprofit hub for multiple communication support streams, and continue to foster and facilitate a community of church communicators around the world. In 2005, CFCC was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, and was officially granted tax exempt status on June 20, 2006. In 2009 the board of directors was formed and appointed Cynthia Ware as the executive director.