CDI: Developing creative partnerships to bring spiritual, social, and economic transformation to communities around the world.
The world is full of the have's and the have-nots - those who are moving rapidly into the future and those who are being left behind. But, whether you are moving fast into the 21st century, or whether you are struggling to survive, everyone has the same basic needs. CDI exists to provide a holistic community development approach to help bring transformation to people's lives in the three major spheres of human existence:
- Spiritual
- Social
- Economic
We are all spiritual creatures. We live socially in relationship with others. We engage in economic transactions to provide for our needs and our wants. Many development approaches fail because they focus on only one or two of the three spheres. CDI attempts to address the spiritual, social, and economic needs of individuals and communities by:
- Networking: Creating networks of people and organizations, including churches, businesses, and social agencies to work together to transform a community and nation
- Resourcing: Connecting public and private resources with human and societal need
- Education/Consulting: Providing educational and training opportunities to individuals, groups, schools, churches, and businesses that enable them to more effectively participate in and contribute to society in a redemptive and creative way
- Reconciliation: Facilitating true reconciliation in communities between races and cultures by providing opportunities for communication and partnership
- Disaster Relief: Mobilizing volunteers from churches and communities at large to aid others in disaster relief in the U.S.and around the world
- True Spirituality: Raising the spiritual awareness of a community by bearing witness to the life and society changing message of Jesus Christ through church planting, missions, small group Bible studies, prayer, and discipleship both locally and globally
- Mobilizing: Activating and equipping change agents among all the domains of life (education, health care, government, business, media, the arts/culture, etc.) to work for lasting transformation and development in their domains
- Counseling: Providing counseling and life coaching to individuals and families so that the family unit will be strong, healthy, and provide a nurturing, safe environment for the 3 Sphere growth of it’s members
- Justice: Calling and working toward justice and protection for the weakest members of society and those unable to fight for themselves, so that all are able to realize their God-given potential and destiny
- Beauty through the Arts/Culture: Promoting the arts in a redemptive way that enhances culture and gives glory to God through sports, hosting fairs, concerts, exhibits, etc.
Currently, CDI is engaged in a multi-year partnership with the Uttarakhand Christian Network (UCN) in Uttarakhand, India. We are also in the process of developing projects and partnerships in the Montgomery, Alabama area.
India Child Sponshorship Project
We have also developed a new project in coordination with a residential home/school in North India called the India Child Sponsorship Project. Through this, we are trying to find sponsors for 250 children at $40 per month. This will enable us to care for these children and provide for their education and spiritual and social development. Many of these children are orphans or their parents cannot take care of them. Please consider participating with us in this vital initiative! Together, we can provide a future for 250 children in a very poor part of the world!
The residential school that we are working with is essential to the future of these children. Most come from very poor villages in the mountains and they have no other real hope for advancement or to escape the clutches of poverty. The school that we work with shows concern for the whole of the child's life and development. Identifying and developing sponsors for these children will help them in their education, healthcare, and future. Children from this school located in the Dehradun, Uttarkhand, India, approximately 250 km northeast of Delhi, have gone on to be very successful in varying professions and have often gone back to their native villages and have helped to raise the standard of living in the places that they came from. Investing in these children's future is also an investment in India and in the future development of hope in that country.
We believe that children need to be cared for and provided a good education that will enable them to care for themselves, but we also believe that spiritual development is a key component to their own participation in their future. This residential school, in addition to providing physical care and educational instruction, also helps to inform these children of the way of life in Jesus as taught in the Hebrew/Christian scriptures, helping to provide for them a strong ethical and spiritual base from which to live.
Andrew Jones, social entrepeneur, activist, blogger, and missionary, is working through CDI to develop a concept called Fringe Expressions. Andrew describes this initiative thusly,
We will encourage a new generation of fresh expressions of church that will be committed to God’s passion for the poor and vulnerable and will be structured in a sustainable way. They will be committed to social justice, active in social enterprise, and will be proficient in social media. Our plan will involve persuading existing denominations and agencies to adopt a strategy for fresh expressions and emerging churches, to sponsor their launch financially, and to support them through appropriate training materials. We will assist this process through profiling best practices, creating training bases for each region, and equipping church planters through training courses.
Through this project, Andrew hopes to help start 50 new expressions of church in the coming year (2011-12) around the world. Read more about this project on our Fringe Expressions page.
Bruno Resende (middle), a former professional international soccer player and current collegiate soccer coach, has started an organization that aims to use soccer to help aide in community development, physical growth, and spiritual growth as well. He has begun conducting soccer camps, clinics, and tournaments both in America and in Brazil and is using soccer as a platform to help bring communities together and communicate the life giving message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. See our Compassion Soccer page for more information about Bruno's efforts and the partnerships that he is creating.
