Christian World Relief

Core Values of Christian World Relief

We are committed to the Christian community

We are committed to good stewardship

We are committed to sustained service toward those most in need

We are committed to a ministry of reconciliation

We are committed to personal responsibility

We are committed to partnership with other Christian organizations

1. We are committed to the Christian community. We are a Christian relief and development agency. Our board members are all dedicated Christians. We are motivated by the example of Jesus Christ, who devoted much of his time to bringing hope and good news to the poor, to the sick, to those whose lives were shattered by disease or disaster. Christian World Relief seeks faithfully to walk today that path marked out by Jesus. As a Christian agency, we fully subscribe to the authority of the Bible, and to the traditional doctrines and practices established through the ages by the evangelical creeds and confessions of the Christian community.
2. We are committed to good stewardship. Christian World Relief is, by design, an unusual charitable agency. We have no paid staff, and all of our board members serve as volunteers. Our board has more than 50 years of combined experience in working with various Christian relief and development organizations, and serve together voluntarily because of a shared vision about the best use of our donors' resources. As a result, our overhead has always been less than five percent, meaning that more than 95 cents out of every dollar received goes to charitable work serving others. We believe this is the kind of stewardship every Christian organization should strive to achieve.
3. We are committed to sustained service toward those most in need. Christian World Relief is active both here in the United States and in various locations overseas. We go where the lack of care is greatest, where the need is most urgent, where compassion can make a genuine difference. So wherever we go, we stay. Christian World Relief carefully researches every one of our projects, and we make a pledge to continue our work there until the need is met, and the lives of people have been restored. Each project we fund, each community we embrace, becomes an adopted member of our family, and we do not abandon them. We believe this is a fundamental expression of Christian charity.
4. We are committed to a ministry of reconciliation. Christian World Relief's slogan, "Lifting spirits. . .saving lives!" is a guiding principle for us. We do not seek merely to fix other people's problems. Rather, we are intent on using the gifts our generous donors provide us to create conditions under which people suffering from natural disasters, disease, economic deprivation, war, or social conflict can be reconciled to one another and work cooperatively to renew their lives and their communities. We take our inspiration from Scripture, where the Apostle Paul speaks of such a "ministry of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18) that must be evident wherever Christians engage the world.
5. We are committed to personal responsibility. Even as we seek to encourage personal responsibility on the part of those we serve in our charitable projects, so do we expect it of ourselves as an organization. Our books are open. Our finances are a public record. As Christians, we believe we have a duty to create a safe haven for those who want to help others in need, and who willingly entrust their gifts to an organization with the expectation that those gifts will be used appropriately. Each of our board members carries out his or her God-given vocation in the world honorably and responsibly; we expect no less from this organizational ministry in which we have invested ourselves completely.
6. We are committed to partnership with other Christian organizations. No one person, no single agency, can reach every sick child, every helpless person, every broken life. We must work together, as one body in Christ. At the same time, we are selective in determining who we will collaborate with in our ministry. We pay close attention to the great number of other active relief and development organizations, and we work with the most effective and reputable of these groups. It is important to us that these other agencies also share our Christian commitment, so that we might build one another up as we participate in this common endeavor.