Christian Associates was founded in 1974 by a group of community leaders as a way to assist area nonprofits. “This organization has gone through many evolutions since those early days” said President and CEO Larry Leek, who has been at the helm of the ministry for nearly 10 years. Initially Christian Associates started serving the community as a direct service organization. From providing rent, utility and transportation assistance, to operating a daycare and a food pantry, the organization has worn many hats over the years. “We were formed as a ministry designed to function more like a foundation than a direct service organization,” said Leek. “We have been working hard over the last five years to narrow our focus and get back to our roots of working with area nonprofit organizations by empowering them to meet community needs through helping them develop sustainability or providing grants, or creating strategic partnerships.”
The ministry has enjoyed a rich history of doing just this by identifying community needs and coming up with innovative solutions, such as helping to establish the Stone County Health Department, the Kimberling Senior Center, the Stone County Library, and most recently Harbor House Domestic Violence Center, which became a standalone nonprofit in 2017.
Today the organization continues to evolve by creating more strategic partnerships and providing grants to area faith-based nonprofits, helping them to strengthen existing programs and expand services beyond their current capabilities.
“Stepping out of direct service has al-lowed us to look at organizations that have good programs in place but need just a lit-tle extra help to become a great program,” said Leek. “Right now there are a lot of food pantries in the area struggling to meet what appears to be a growing need. We looked at the mobile food pantry that we were operating and thought we needed to create a strategic partnership with an existing pantry operation and allow them to add our mobile feature to their existing operation. That’s where we developed a partnership with Branson-based Christian Action Min-istries (CAM). We started conversations with them over six months ago and now it’s becoming a reality.”
Through this partnership, CAM could expand their service operations into Stone, Barry, Lawrence, and Christian counties. To facilitate making this dream a reality, Chris-tian Associates provided CAM with their largest grant to date, which includes equip-ment, vehicles, food and funding. This will better position Christian Action Ministries to meet emerging food insecurities that are constantly arising in southwest Missouri.
In addition to the major grant to CAM, Christian Associates has recently provid-ed grants to Abundant Blessings in Nixa, whose mission is to provide clothing for area children who are placed in foster care; Christian County Enterprises, the sheltered workshop for Christian County that provides meaningful employment for individuals with disabilities; Ozarks Teen Chal-lenge for campus programming expansion; Lives Under Construction Boys Ranch in Lampe for enhancing services; and Boys and Girls Club of Reeds Spring allowing them to serve more children from across the area.
“We are kind of a unique ministry that is constantly evolving to help meet community needs,” said Leek.
Christian Associates operates two up-scale thrift stores. CA Thrift Nixa is locat-ed at 741 West Center Circle in Nixa, and CA Thrift Branson West is located at 18242 Business 13 in Branson West. Proceeds from these stores make the work of Christian Asociates possible.
