From Matthew Frost,
Chief Executive
We have just-completed a 6-month review of strategy; and I am writing to
give you a summary of our vision.
I have been encouraged by the strong consensus among our staff and
Leadership Team about the core purpose of Tearfund. Our passion is first
and foremost for seeing the Kingdom come. That sets the context for
everything else.
Secondly we are called as an organisation to tackle the consequences of
economic poverty. But what do we seek for the economically poor? Is it
economic wealth only? No, it is transformation and a life of all fullness - John
10:10 - that is what we seek. We seek it because it is God’s way.
And we seek transformation because it is the only way to deal with the root
causes of economic poverty: the spiritual, relational, physical and emotional
causes. As we do that, we stand against injustice which is a major cause of
poverty.
Thirdly, we are passionate about the central role of local churches in enabling
transformation and confronting injustice.
The result is a refocused vision and way forward for Tearfund. It will set our
direction for the next decade. It is the end of a six-month process, but it feels
like the beginning of a God-inspired calling.
Matthew Frost
September 2006
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Why a strategic review?
First and foremost the Strategic Review is aimed at setting a compelling,
God-honouring 10 year vision for Tearfund. A vision that will galvanise and
give direction to each one of us as staff.
The review identifies the impact we hope to have in the lives of poor people
by 2016 - and how we are going to achieve that impact.
Huge achievements in 38 years
Tearfund and its partners have achieved a huge amount over the past 38
years, for which we are immensely grateful to God. In May 1968 Tearfund
was a dozen brown folders in a cabinet at the Evangelical Alliance offices.
Christians were waking up to poverty.
Since then we have:
• positively affected the lives of millions of poor people
• worked with hundreds of Christian partners around the world
• made thousands of grants
• helped build livelihoods through Tearcraft
• responded to dozens of disasters
• raised hundreds of millions of pounds
• seen hundreds of thousands of people in the UK giving, taking action and
praying for Tearfund
And during those 38 years we have helped change attitudes among
evangelical Christians. In 1973, a journalist writing about Tearfund noted:
“Evangelicals have become so preoccupied with the needs of souls that they
have tended to forget that people also have bodies…that Jesus did not
merely preach…he fed and healed them also.”
Thirty years ago the kind of work Tearfund and its partners do was seen by
many Christians as a distraction from the core mission of evangelism. God
has used Tearfund as a catalyst to positive change in theology and thinking
among Christians in the UK and beyond.
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But the fight against poverty is not being won
Joyce Mbwilo, a subsistence farmer from Tanzania, was the face of
Tearfund’s campaign in support of Make Poverty History. She used to walk
10 hours a night for water until Tearfund partners installed water.
Climate change
Joyce featured in UK national newspapers and television. Supporters prayed
and gave. But in 2006 she harvested nothing. The rains came too late. She
and her family are now struggling against the new challenge of climate
change. And in the next 10 years at least 30 million other people will be
hungry because of climate change. Other global challenges include:
AIDS
Our world is not close to stopping AIDS. Twenty-four million people will die as
a result of HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa over the next decade. We
need to ask ourselves - what is our response?
Disasters
Many more than two million people have died in disasters since Tearfund
was born. Millions more people are affected each year. We know that nine
out of 10 of these people are poor and that the number of disasters is rising.
So how will Tearfund respond to disasters over the next decade?
The truth is that despite global efforts the World Bank tells us there will
still be 900 million people living on less than $1 a day in 10 years’ time.
Tearfund needs a strategy that makes the biggest possible impact on
the future of poverty.
Causes of poverty
But Tearfund differs from many agencies in our analysis of the causes of
poverty. We believe there are deep rooted relational causes at local, national
and international levels that manifest themselves in economic and spiritual
poverty and injustice.
We know the world God made was good. But human rebellion has led to
exclusion, mistrust, greed and injustice. So we believe a restoring of
fractured relationships is fundamental to overcoming poverty. Jesus came to
restore good relationships. And we believe that Christians can play a unique
role in restoring relationships with God, with others in the community, and
with the environment.
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Huge opportunities for Tearfund
As part of meeting the challenge of global poverty over the next 10 years,
Tearfund must grasp the huge opportunities facing us.
Evangelicals fastest growing
Evangelicals are now the fastest growing religious group in the world. There
are 400 million and by 2010 nine out of ten evangelicals will be living in the
developing world.
There are 8 million churches globally. And Christianity is spreading rapidly in
Latin America, Africa and Asia. In Africa several million additional people
become Christians every year.
The time is surely right to seek to multiply our impact by working more closely
than ever before with the growing networks of Christians and churches
around the world who share our passion for whole life transformation.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of churches globally who do share
– or could share with some encouragement – this passion for physical and
spiritual transformation. Imagine evangelicals working closely together across
countries and continents!
Local churches
As well as a passion for the Kingdom of God, a calling to tackle economic
poverty, injustice, and to see transformation in people’s lives, we believe that
the local church should be a beacon of hope for the world: that local
churches are a global movement with the presence, influence and resources
to tackle poverty both spiritually and materially.
And we are convinced that local churches in the South and the North can
respond to Micah’s call to ‘act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with
God’ by:
• Embracing Christ’s model of mission: Integral mission established as
the leading biblical model for mission and discipleship across the world.
• Transforming the community: Local churches ignited to reach out to
those who are materially poor in their communities through integral
mission, expressing God’s love in practical, sacrificial, visible discipleship.
• Working in partnership: Local churches linked together in highly effective
relationships, sharing resources, encouraging, provoking and learning
from each other – served by a global network of evangelical Christian
organisations in which Tearfund and partners play a key role.
• Responding to disaster: Local churches and partners across the world
with significantly greater capacity to cope with and respond to the impact
of disasters.
• Speaking out in advocacy: Local churches and partners in North and
South united as a formidable, organised and vocal movement, holding
international institutions, local and national governments to account.
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Over 50 million people out of poverty
100,000 local churches ignited
Tearfund’s vision is that by 2016:
More than 50 million people – children, women, men – will
be lifted out of extreme poverty, their lives and
communities transformed through the work and witness
of Christians and local churches.
To achieve this we must see:
A global movement of over 100,000 local churches that is
united, prophetic and influential, bringing hope to people
living in poverty.
Crucial to this will be:
1 million Christians in the UK & Ireland who are
committed to lives of radical discipleship and Integral
Mission.
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the
chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set
the oppressed free and break every yoke? (Isaiah 58:6)
We must be courageous, innovative and prophetic
Our vision for ourselves is to become a more courageous, innovative and
prophetic Tearfund.
We will act as a catalyst for change in the Church, as part of a global network
of partner organisations, leading the way in the theology and practice of
Integral Mission.
We will try to live out what we believe as we seek to become the relief and
development charity of choice for those in the UK & Ireland who share our
values and beliefs.
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Five keys to unlock the vision
We hope to unlock this ambitious vision over several years using five keys:
Key 1: Igniting the global church for Integral Mission
Imagine thousands of evangelical church leaders and gate-keepers in 100
countries becoming as passionate as Tearfund about bringing physical and
spiritual hope to poor communities. We believe this is possible in 10 years if
we work:
•
Through an expanded Micah network of Christian agencies in 100
countries which is dedicated to Integral Mission
•
With theological colleges in the UK and abroad
•
With our existing partners and supporting churches
•
In unity with others who share our passion in order to launch initiatives to
spread the message of Integral Mission globally. For example through
bringing together the best thinking and research globally on Integral
Mission, an Integral Mission course and other resources to help churches
in the UK and around the world become dedicated to bringing physical
and spiritual hope to poor communities.
In the same way that God has used Tearfund as a catalyst to changes in
theology during the past 38 years, we want to help spread the Integral
Mission message across the world in the next decade.
Key 2: Local churches transforming communities
With evangelical leaders across the world passionate about physical and
spiritual change in poor communities, we hope to see 100,000 local
churches transforming the lives of those who are materially poor in their
communities. Working with our partners we hope to:
• Employ a proven, refined model for mobilising churches and communities
for Integral Mission.
• Scale up our efforts on HIV and AIDS, and Disaster Management.
• Direct an increasing proportion of funding to countries in sub-Saharan
Africa and South Asia, reflecting the intense poverty in those regions.
As a result of this community transformation work we hope to see the lives of
10 million poor people transformed in 10 years’ time. Three million of those
through our own funding of partners
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Key 3: Investing in ‘inspired individuals’
In 38 years Tearfund has seen many extraordinary individuals with
unprecedented visions for whole life change in their communities. We have
funded a few of these people’s God-inspired visions, but there are many
more inspired individuals out there.
• We hope to see 500 inspiring, visionary leaders supported and resourced
to pursue new ways of bringing material and spiritual change to poor
people.
• We will search out individuals who have inspired visions and the qualities
to deliver significant impact. We will give them a three year stipend,
together with encouragement, advice and contacts, but we will expect
them to source project funding themselves from other sources.
• We hope to see their great ideas replicated, touching the lives of 5 million
people and influencing nationwide church practices and government
policy.
Key 4: Speaking out in advocacy
Millions of poor people will benefit from political decisions forced in 2005 by
the Make Poverty History campaign. Nearly 100,000 people sent postcards
to Tearfund alone in order to put pressure for action on the UK Government.
• We long to see local churches in the North and South united in effective
coalitions, holding governments and the powerful to account. We hope to
work with a network of 70 advocacy partners to influence changes to
international policy in areas of economic justice, environmental
sustainability and basic services for poor people, as well as other issues
determined by our partners.
• We hope to see national policies changed in 45 countries in the South on
these issues and others chosen by our partners.
• We are determined to see a significant shift in the UK towards more ethical
and sustainable consumption – this has implications for Tearfund too. For
example we will aim to halve our own ecological footprint and become
carbon neutral as soon as we can.
As a result of this advocacy activity we want to see 50 million poor people
benefiting from more just policies over the next 10 years.
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Key 5: Preparing for, and responding to, disasters.
Tearfund was founded on disaster responses in the 1960s when money was
donated by Christians for refugee crises. Today more than half our income is
for disaster management work.
• As churches in the North give generously, we hope to see 25,000 local
churches in the most disaster-prone countries in the South better able to
prepare for and respond to the impact of disasters on their doorsteps.
• We hope to support and help to expand the disaster management capacity
of indigenous Tearfund partners in the 25 most disaster-prone countries of
the world.
• We will work with others to forge an effective network of high capacity
Integral Mission partners capable of disaster management – to respond on
behalf of the global church.
• We want Tearfund to be the world’s leading Christian agency for disaster
response, at the centre of this global network, running operational
programmes on behalf of the UK church and a range of Micah agencies.
We will intervene operationally in disaster areas in response to the
compassion of the local church in the UK, or in support of partners in the
south.
The work outlined in the five keys above will be made possible by:
Key 6: Raising support for Tearfund
Research shows that a high proportion of church goers wish to support a
charity that brings whole life transformation, works through local churches
and employs only Christians. With these three distinctive Tearfund
characteristics in mind:
• We hope Tearfund will become the charity of choice for those people who
wish to see whole life transformation. We believe by significantly
increasing awareness of Tearfund, we should be able to grow at 14%
annually over the next decade. This means that by 2016 we could be
generating three times the amount of prayer, campaigning and income in
support of the five key activities above.
• We will stop hiding our Integral Mission light under a bushel and inspire
Christians around the UK and Ireland to dedicate themselves to physical
and spiritual change in the lives of poor people, where they live and
around the world.
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Together we can deliver this refocused vision
As this vision has come together the Leadership Team has been struck by
the great sense of unity of passion and purpose.
We have been particularly encouraged by the words and pictures shared
during the detailed work that led to the formulation of the re-focussed vision.
What has emerged is a calling to personal and corporate integrity; to raise
our expectation and confidence in God and His purposes; to be bold and
courageous; and to exercise a prophetic role in the world.
It is a vision we hope will galvanise Tearfund, give us direction; a framework
to guide all decision-making and prioritisation of activity; as well as a
common language to articulate what we do and why we do it.
“Over the next 10 years we will need strong leadership throughout the
organisation, clear direction, shared values, clear systems, productive ways
of working and an aligned structure. In the past six months we have
developed a vision for what we want to be doing over the next 10 years. In
the next six months we will design the organisation that we need to deliver
the vision.” – Matthew Frost, Chief Executive.
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