The Radical Experiment

This fast became the cry of our faith family when we initially thought about how we could use what God has already given us in 2009 for the sake of urgent spiritual and physical need around the world. But the question remained…ok…why India? And why give to projects with Compassion International in India?

Basically, the whole picture started with realizing that it is much easier to give away something when you know where it’s going. It is much easier to make sacrifices when you know someone or something that will specifically benefit as a result of that sacrifice (see Paul’s encouragement for the church at Corinth to give in 2 Corinthians 8-9). So, we started thinking, what would it look like for our church budgeting process if we had a practical need that we could meet with every bit of money we saved? In a world where 26,000 children are dying every single day of starvation or a preventable disease, what if we could feed one of these children for a year for a certain amount of money? If we could, then we would have an impetus to go through our budget – both as a church and as individuals and families – asking the question, “Is it more important for us to spend that amount of money on this or that than it is for us to feed this child?” Obviously, this would put our expenditures in perspective in a way that we are not used to seeing in the culture in which we live.

But then we asked the question, where would that money actually go? In other words, how can we most effectively feed starving children? This led us to explore different options that ultimately ended in thinking about Compassion International. This is an organization we’ve worked with before whose focused emphasis is on helping release children from poverty in Jesus’ name. In fact, this last year, we had done what many other churches have done in that we co-sponsored a Child Survival Program in India. Compassion formed Child Survival Programs to supplement their normal Child Sponsorship Program because children have to be five years old in order to be eligible for Child Sponsorship, and in many communities the children were not living that long. In a Child Survival Program, churches can come together and for $25,000, they can sponsor one of those programs in an impoverished community. This serves 50 mother/child units in that community, which basically means that for about $500 a year ($250 per child or mother), we can not only provide food, but also medical care, education, and one-on-one personal ministry to each of these families.

The more we explored this possibility, the more we saw reasons why this made sense and would enable us to obey God’s Word immediately and effectively by serving alongside our brothers and sisters in one of the neediest parts of the world. India is home to 41% of the world’s poor, and in addition India contains more people without Christ than any other country in the world. We asked Compassion if they had any Child Survival Programs in need of sponsorship in India, and they told us they had 21 which needed to be sponsored. We looked at where we were as a church financially, and we realized that God had given us over $500,000 in giving above our current expenses this year. So…with 21 Child Survival Programs that each require $25,000 a piece, that totals $525,000. God has given us in 2009 over $500,000 that in light of current economic times we were saving. But then we began to ask, “Why should we save for potential future need when our brothers and sisters are in present dire need?? Thus we thought, “Let’s take India!”

Obviously, we want to be as wise as possible about any expense, but particularly one this large. So we dove in deeper to what this would look like, even traveling out to meet with Compassion folks in Colorado Springs, and in the process we discovered 12 reasons why we believed this would be the best way to starting putting James 2:14-17 and Matthew 25:31-46 into action. Those 12 reasons included…

• Gospel-Centered - Serving with local churches alongside Compassion involves an explicit, intentional, Christ-exalting evangelistic process. This is not just about meeting physical need. This is about proclaiming the Gospel as we serve with the love of Christ.


• Church-Focused – Compassion International only works in places where the local church is present and active. The ministry to the poor is conducted completely through the local church, so in effect, Compassion provides the link between The Church at Brook Hills and local churches across India as we make disciples together. We don’t want to serve the poor apart from the local church.


• Integrity – Compassion has a proven track record for upright handling of finances and large contributions. They have been consistently rated in the top 1% of charities regarding responsibility, accountability, and integrity in handling of finances. Specifically, five separate audits are set up by Compassion with every Child Survival Program to make sure that money is getting where it is supposed to go.


• Connectivity – Compassion has an established, far-reaching network of ministry opportunities that we can immediately plug into. When they showed us the 21 Child Survival Programs they have available across India, it was clear…we can really start to take India!


• Reliability – Compassion has an experienced, tested, provide process for releasing children from poverty. We know that there are wise and unwise ways to give to the poor, and we want to give in a way that is best for those who are in need.


• Sustainable – Sometimes when we go around the world and meet urgent physical need, it is like we drop a pebble in a lake, but just seconds later you can’t even tell anything happened. However, Compassion’s work with local churches around the world is built on sustainability. Their focus is on ministry to the poor with long-term effect. Literally, we are joining together with them to release children from poverty in Jesus’ Name.


• Tangible – Obviously, we were looking for an avenue where we could give directly to identifiable, tangible need among children and their families. Because Compassion has a relatively small percentage of overhead costs, we can know that our giving will meet real need very quickly. 


• Scalable – Because of the variety of ways we can choose to give to meet various needs, working with Compassion on this initial gift could be scaled based on what we decided was best to give.


• Relational – Approximately 500 Compassion children are already being sponsored by Brook Hills’ members, so this provides an opportunity to build on an already wonderful relationship between Brook Hills and Compassion.


• Personal – This is ministry that we can be personally involved in through a host of different means. We are already working on ways we will as a faith family personally go to our brothers and sisters and serve alongside our brothers and sisters in spreading the Gospel and glory of Christ in India. Be on the lookout for opportunities for short-, mid-, and long-term ways to be personally involved!


• Possibility – As Compassion links us with local churches across India, we have the opportunity to explore seemingly endless possibilities for how we might not only spread the Gospel alongside these local churches, but look toward planting churches in places where there is no church (among the unreached in India!).


• Urgency – The reality is that children and their families are waiting and available to be cared for immediately in what is economically and spiritually the neediest country in the world. They are our brothers and sisters. Would we respond with urgency if it were our children?