Our History

OUR HISTORY

For many years Chuck Graham had a strong, growing law practice. His clients included Christian churches, organizations, associations, and businesses, providing him the opportunity to speak at many services, conferences, and events. During his travels, he found churches and ministries struggling to show themselves as a fellowship of believers who cared for each other and those around them. The problem was in not knowing how to encourage others.

As a result, Chuck wrote Take the Stand (Broadman Holman Publishers, 1996), challenging Christians to consider carefully what it means to follow Jesus and how their lives affected those around them. He also developed material to teach Christians how to strengthen, encourage, and comfort one another, including instruction on confrontation and reconciliation.

As more requested his help, the need for a larger effort quickly became clear. So on July 23, 1997, Chuck began Ciloa, a ministry dedicated to the encouragement of all Christians and standing for the declaration that above all else…Christ Is Lord of All!

Ciloa continues to offer instruction, guidance and counsel in encouragement, confrontation, and reconciliation through its seminar series The Encourager’s Walk, which has been presented to churches, small groups, and ministries, such as Celebrate Recovery.

On January 1, 2001, Ciloa began publishing A Note of Encouragement, a weekly article designed both to teach and encourage. The first Note was sent to 342 people primarily in the Atlanta, Georgia (USA) area. Today the Notes are shared around the world, reaching 186 countries.

Ciloa is all about encouragement. We continue to explore new avenues to introduce and share God’s love throughout the Family of God and especially to those who desperately need Him.

Our Founder

OUR FOUNDER

Growing up in Georgia during the Civil Rights movement, Chuck Graham has witnessed the destruction of a nation divided. After graduating from Walker High School, he earned a BA in political science from the University of Georgia and a JD from the Lumpkin School of Law. His legal career as an attorney in private practice spanned more than thirty-one years. He represented many local, national, and international clients, acquiring intricate knowledge about the often-overlapping structures of the corporate world.

Chuck became a frequent speaker at churches and Christian events, where he also found division within the body of Christ. He began asking questions and discovered the cause—many do not understand who God is. The burden that emerged from this discovery led him to write Take the Stand (Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), which describes the weakened state of the Christian witness. Chuck is also the author of an excting new fiction work, The Company (WinePress, 2012), that answers the question that mankind has struggled with for centuries – Who is the Trinity?

In 1997 he founded Ciloa (Christ Is Lord Of All), a ministry devoted to sharing God’s encouragement with the world and teaching those who follow Him how to encourage others. Today Chuck serves as executive director and principal author of A Note of Encouragement, a weekly e-zine reaching 175 countries, and two compilations, A Year of Encouragement and Another Year of Encouragement (Xulon Press, 2004 and 2006).

He has served as a member of the state bar of Georgia since 1979 and an instructor to attorneys and judges through the Institute for Continuing Legal Education (ICLE). He received the Medallion of Appreciation from ICLE. He co-led a successful Christian arbitration effort involving a national, multimillion-dollar business and an independent consultant.

He and Beverly, his wife of thirty-four years, have lived in Lawrenceville, a suburb of Atlanta, for fourteen years. God has blessed them with three children. In his free time, Chuck enjoys backpacking and hiking (especially on the Appalachian Trail), playing the guitar, dabbling in photography, and reading extensively about the Christian faith.

What We Believe

WE BELIEVE…

There is one God eternally existent, who has chosen to reveal Himself in three unique expressions – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the deity of our Heavenly Father, the Creator and Ruler of all things, in whom there is absolute love and justice, from whom there is mercy and grace, through whom there is faith and hope, and for whom there is glory and honor. We live for Him so that in all things He may be praised.

In the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father and in His personal return in power and glory.

Jesus is the Son of God, conceived in human form by the Holy Spirit. In the deity of the Holy Spirit, the divine Counselor, whose work of regeneration is absolutely essential for the salvation of lost and sinful men and women, and who indwells within those who follow Christ, enabling them to live an obedient and godly life.

In the divine inspiration, truthfulness and authority of the Bible as the only written Word of God, without error in all that it affirms, the only infallible rule of faith and practice, the supreme and final authority.

In the spiritual unity of believers in Christ and that the Church, the Body of Christ, is God’s institution. Each person faces the judgment of God and needs to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through His shed blood on the cross. Through taking on Himself all our sins, dying in our place, and conquering death, Jesus has offered to us even now the means of salvation and eternal life. For those who believe in Him, He is savior, mediator, advocate, and friend. Each Christian has been given the command to love one another, and among the key elements of this love is the call to encourage one another as long as it is called Today!

Our signature scripture can be found in the
Bible book of Hebrews chapter 3 verse 13.

But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today …