CCEL Mission

In 2006, the CCEL Board of Directors approved the following brief mission statement:

The Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) seeks to build up the church by making classic Christian literature widely available and promoting its use for edification and study by interested Christians, seekers and scholars. The CCEL accomplishes this by selecting, collecting, distributing, and promoting valuable literature through the World Wide Web and other media.

The values guiding the collection and activities of the CCEL include:

Selectivity: Writings included in the library are considered valuable in some way to build up the church. In addition to Christian classics, there may be secondary literature on the classics and other works valuable for the mission.

Orthodoxy: Writings in the library for the most part represent orthodox Christianity as understood by mainstream Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christians, with greater emphases on Reformed and Protestant writings.

Ecumenicity: The CCEL strives to expose readers to a variety of Christian perspectives.

Community: The CCEL builds community through promotion to and engagement with and among Christians, seekers and scholars worldwide.

Efficacy: The CCEL seeks to provide effective resources and tools for edification, worship, leadership, ministry training, Christian scholarship, and education. The CCEL also seeks to provide educational and scholarly opportunities for interested faculty members and students of Calvin University.

Efficiency: All choices including literature, media, technologies, languages, partners, etc., will be made strategically with the goal of good stewardship of resources and competencies to build up the church worldwide.

Sustainability: The CCEL seeks to create a sustainable model for building up the church through its activities.