More Than Just a Christian Business Association

 
C12 was founded in 1992 by Buck Jacobs, a long-time senior business executive who had spent the prior decade pursuing the Lord’s purpose in the marketplace by serving those called to lead businesses under the Lordship of Christ.  After previously enjoying a decade of experience with just such a business, Buck had then served many like-minded business CEOs/Owners in Florida as state director for FCCI.  Many of these business leaders desired to ‘go deeper’, by being challenged, stretched and held accountable for both business performance and ministry impact: a Christian business association that combines spiritual truth and wisdom with business application.
 
In response to this felt need, Buck ultimately developed the C12 Group’s proprietary process, various tailored product offerings, and a body of targeted general management and marketplace ministry materials aimed at increasing the fruitfulness of these executives.  C12 works on the well-proven principle of bringing together peers to sharpen, motivate and care for each other in a manner which less focused groups find impossible to attain.  Bringing together synergistic business and faith perspectives enables an alignment and focus which is unparalleled in the executive forum arena.  By integrating ‘best-in-class’ business practices with timeless Biblical application, C12 quickly became known as a practical targeted resource to address a leader’s real-life concerns and opportunities.  Three of C12’s mottos -- “Developed for Christian CEOs by Christian CEOs”, “Priorities are What we Do…Everything else is Just Talk”, and “Speaking the Truth in Love”, typify the practical, results-oriented, Kingdom perspective which C12 has maintained from its inception as a Christian business association.
 
C12 began as three groups of 12 Christian business CEOs/Owners meeting once per month in central Florida with its primary focus in the Tampa Bay metro area.  In the years which followed, favorably impressed C12 friends and alumni helped to extend C12’s reach via ‘word of mouth’, sharing of the discernable positive impact which so often accompanied C12 membership.  As other members bought or sold businesses, or relocated to other areas of the country, other business leaders began to inquire about C12.  In 1998, Buck trained and commissioned the first ‘second generation’ C12 Area Chair in Florida and began to purposefully look for ways to extend the work to other regions.  The motivation for this new chapter was not financial, but rather due to an abiding sense of the Lord’s calling and the ministry potential related to equipping His followers to excellence in ‘business as ministry’.
 
Today, C12 exists in numerous markets across America and has been a source of blessing and life-enhancement to several hundred CEOs/Owners and thousands of employees, customers and suppliers, many of whom have come to the Lord after having been touched by C12 member companies in ways which share a bit of God’s provision and purpose.  These companies range from small-to-midsized family businesses to large publically-traded corporations.  Working alongside such like-minded Christian marketplace organizations as Corporate Chaplains of America, Global Leadership (offshore business missionary focus), and Christ-centered graduate business schools (such as Regent University), C12 has developed an array of complementary products, services, and high-impact seminar events, all aimed at benefitting their members as they pursue their special calling as Ambassadors for Christ in the marketplace, stewards of His provision, and servants of those they ‘touch’.  C12 is governed by a Board of Directors which is committed to serving in unity for His purpose, and whose members share a long-term commitment to C12 and its vision of developing and serving Kingdom businesses by equipping and inspiring leaders.  C12 Area Chairs share a firm sense of calling and are committed to excellence in facilitating their local C12 Groups by applying the great wealth of business and Biblical perspective the Lord has blessed them with during group and One-on-One coaching settings.  By doing so, we hope to be used by the Lord to change the world one local marketplace at a time, turning others toward Christ and seeing the marketplace become a source of revival!