Churches mobilised

We want to see churches mobilised

We believe that the church has a vital and distinctive role in society, at both local and global levels, to transform the poorest communities and tackle injustice. Our approach is based on the idea of ‘integral mission’, whereby we respond holistically to people’s needs – economic, emotional, spiritual and physical. And the local church is key to this whole-life approach.

We are actively scaling up our church and community transformation (CCT) programme by supporting and inspiring denominations to work out their faith by meeting people’s practical needs. We’re enabling more and more NGOs to scale up their own CCT work, unlocking further local capacity. One tool we’re now using widely is the Light Wheel (a tool for measuring holistic change), which proposes practical steps that churches can take to help communities flourish.

Our teams in Asia and Africa continue their pioneering work integrating CCT into theological curriculums, which are changing fast. In Africa, we’ve also started conversations about how theological education should reflect and respond to the local context, working towards a transformational theology from Africa, for Africa.

What makes us different

As the pandemic unfolded, we were able to help churches and Christian networks meet both practical and spiritual needs. In this and other disasters, churches and communities were able to act quickly and effectively because they had a grounding in CCT. Our biblical resources were an important source of support and encouragement for them as they responded to the needs around them.

What we learnt

Our fruitful partnership with the Anglican Alliance, a strategic ally in our efforts to scale-up CCT, has taught us the value of networks and denominations in furthering integral mission and alleviating poverty as a result of their influence and reach. Covid-19 restrictions proved that technology can increase diversity and inclusion by enabling truly global gatherings with diverse voices in different languages.

We know we can go further

We want to do more to develop online training and resources. Although we provided these at a local level around the world, we have been slower to provide centralised resources for teams working on CCT. This will be a focus for next year.

We also need to be more agile and work harder to bring the voices and concerns of young people into all that we do.

Going forward in 2021/22, we aim to: 

• Develop a clear strategy for how to engage denominations in CCT
• Intentionally engage with young people around church mobilisation, and use mechanisms that encourage youth engagement and leadership (such as e-learnings, movements etc)
• Equip churches and church networks to build communities’ resilience and help them prepare for and respond to disasters