Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy: The Journal of the Accord Network

From Voices to Vision

Kathryn Kraft — 2026-03-09

World Vision, a child-focused Christian organisation, seeks every child to experience God’s love, and that their perspectives contribute to theological reflection and practice. We adopted a child-participation approach, centring their voices to enrich theological reflection and programmatic development. In-depth interviews with 658 children across Bolivia, Senegal, Lesotho, Uganda, Albania, Iraq, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, reflected lived experiences of love, God’s love, and hope. The importance of human connectivity, helping children feel loved and grow in hope emerged as the overarching theme. 7 Christian theologians constructed theological understanding of how the transformative power of God’s love leads to hope, expressed through six measurable “signs of hope” rooted in Biblical doctrine and informed by the children’s voices. The child-informed, child-centred, child-relevant approach, offers theological depth, strategic programmatic direction, and a practical measurement tool. This article outlines methodology, theological insights, and implications for integrating child-voice into Christian development work, furthering practical theology and child-focused practice.

Fruit That Lasts? ROI as a Reflection of Kingdom-Oriented Impact

Kate Williams-Whitely — 2026-03-09

Abstract

Return on investment (ROI) analysis, when rooted in a theology of stewardship, can help Christian relief, development, and advocacy (CRDA) organizations steward the resources entrusted to them by God toward lasting transformation. Biblical teachings affirm the value of wise stewardship, tangible outcomes, and the just use of resources, while cautioning against treating wealth as an end in itself (e.g., Matthew 25:14–30; Proverbs 21:5; Matthew 6:19–21). Especially when combined with impact evaluation, ROI can enhance strategic decision-making, promote accountability, and align financial stewardship with kingdom values. Yet, it also raises important questions in faith-based development: Can market-based metrics capture relational, spiritual, and justice-oriented outcomes? Who defines “value” in this framework? And is monetizing outcomes always appropriate? This article explores these questions through a case study of Zoe Empowers, a faith-rooted, three-year empowerment program for orphaned and vulnerable youth. Operating in 12 countries, Zoe equips youth through micro grants, vocational training, life skills development, and spiritual formation—helping over 230,000 participants, with more than 95% achieving self-sufficiency by graduation, at a cost of just $9 per month per youth. Using both income gain modeling and the Harvard Human Flourishing Index (HHFI), the study demonstrates the potential of integrating economic and holistic outcome measures. Findings show that under conservative assumptions, Zoe delivers a financial ROI exceeding 3:1, and under standard assumptions, a 10.7:1 return per participant in the final year of implementation. HHFI results reveal that graduates are 21 times more likely than their peers to achieve ideal flourishing scores, with significant gains in happiness and life satisfaction, physical and mental health, character and virtue, and close social relationships. Together, these results suggest that ROI, when framed holistically and anchored in biblical principles, can serve as both a rigorous accountability tool and a faithful expression of love, justice, and transformation in CRDA practice.

Translation, Incarnation, and the Ethics of Faith-Based Development

Lindy Backues — 2026-03-09

This review[1] engages Philip Fountain’s The Service of Faith: An Ethnography of Mennonites and Development as a significant contribution to contemporary conversations on Christian relief and development practice. Drawing on nearly two decades of experience in grassroots development and humanitarian response in Indonesia, the reviewer approaches Fountain’s ethnography through a theological hermeneutic attentive to recurring motifs that shape moral imagination and institutional practice. The review affirms Fountain’s analysis of how the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) negotiated faith, identity, and development amid interfaith, postcolonial, and donor-driven pressures, with particular attention to translation as a guiding metaphor. At the same time, it raises critical questions about the ethical sufficiency of guesthood as a dominant image for Christian presence. In dialogue with biblical theology and missiological scholarship, the review proposes neighboring—understood through an incarnational account of translation—as a more theologically grounded and ethically demanding framework for Christian development work that sustains accountability, vulnerability, and long-term commitment.

[1] This review article, written by Lindy Backues, is almost identical to the one published in the On Knowing Humanity Journal under the title “Beyond ‘Guesthood’: ‘Translation,’ ‘Traveling,’ and ‘Neighboring’ as Animators of Authentic Christian Development” (Volume 10, Issue 1, January 2026, https://doi.org/10.62141/okh.v10i1.244). See Philip Fountain’s response in this issue.

Translation, Description, and the Value of Ethnography: A Response to Lindy Backues

Philip Fountain — 2026-03-09

Responding to Lindy Backues' review of The Service of Faith, Fountain discusses the value and service of ethnographic analyses of Christian development. Rather than being preoccupied with fixing Mennonite deficiencies, he invites a consideration of ethnography as a mirror that can facilitate new self-understandings and as an act of meditation on a world infused with grace.

The Justice of Jesus: Reimagining Your Church’s Life Together to Pursue Liberation and Wholeness

Clark Buys — 2026-03-09

Mismeasuring Impact: How Randomized Controlled Trials Threaten the Nonprofit Sector

Jeffrey Bloem — 2026-03-09

Editors’ Introduction

Roland Hoksbergen — 2026-03-09