How Does Compassion Choose Churches to Partner With?

Compassion is on a mission to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name. Around the world, millions of children live in extreme poverty. And we can’t reach them all on our own. Instead, we partner with local churches in impoverished communities across the globe.

But how do we choose which churches to partner with? Compassion follows a prayerful and detailed selection process, ensuring each local church partner can serve the children in their communities effectively.

What’s Here:

• Church-Driven: Partnering Only With the Local Church
• How We Choose Churches to Partner With
• See a Church Partner: Comunidad y Servicios Cristianos

Church-Driven: Partnering Only With the Local Church

At Compassion, we’re proud to have three core distinctives that guide our sponsorship program: we’re Christ-centered, church-driven and child-focused. What does it mean to be church-driven?

We empower local churches in impoverished communities to serve children in need. These churches become consistent sources of light and hope, representing Christ, making disciples in their communities and caring for children as they grow.

Compassion partners only with local churches. Local churches that are already established in their communities know the unique needs of the families around them. They are best equipped to deliver the care children need instead of what they don’t.

By partnering with the local church, we don’t deliver aid and then leave. Instead, children are served and supported by pastors, volunteers and friends who live around them. Children have a consistent support system at their Compassion center as they journey out of poverty.

How We Choose Churches to Partner With

Serving children living in poverty isn’t a mission to take lightly. These children may be malnourished, sick, suffering from abuse or homeless. Their hearts may be full of fear, sadness or hopelessness.

A church partner must be willing and able to step into these children’s stories and deliver consistent love and care. That’s why we carefully choose our church partners by following a prayerful and detailed selection process.

The Selection Process

The vision, commitment and capacity of each church partner will determine how effectively they can minister to children. Our selection process follows three steps to ensure a church has what it needs to serve:

1. A written evaluation of the church’s qualification for partnership: This written evaluation includes all evidence of a church’s ability to serve the children in their community. It helps the country’s national Compassion office determine if a church should become a partner. Those of us in the U.S. do not make the final decision. Instead, those living and serving in the country where the church is located do.
2. A written application: We require churches to provide a written application that details their ministry and other important information.
3. A visit to the church: We visit each church to check for requirements such as ample space to serve children in the community.

During our visit to the local church and as we get to know those who serve in it, we look for specific must-haves. These requirements must be evidenced by a church before we’ll consider it for partnership:

• Alignment between the church’s doctrine and Compassion’s Statement of Faith, as well as a positive view of the local church’s role.
• Proof that a church can legally operate, such as a legal registration.
• Existence of sufficient space and a physical environment able to accommodate our child development programs.
• Evidence that the church has an active commitment to minister to children.
• Capacity of the church leadership to champion our program and enroll children and caregivers.
• Ability of the church to recruit committed Christians to serve as leaders and volunteers.
• Commitment of the church to use some of its own human, financial and physical resources to minister to children.

As you can see, we don’t take partnership decisions lightly. We want to make sure each church is well equipped to support the children in their communities as they leave poverty behind.

We’re blessed to have over 8,000 local church partners throughout 29 countries. Through the support of these churches, we currently serve 2.3 million children (and counting)!

See a Church Partner: Comunidad y Servicios Cristianos

The Comunidad y Servicios Cristianos (Community and Christian Services) Compassion center is in a little community outside of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Looking at the church now, you may not believe the community of Normandia was once a garbage dump.

The community of Normandia was surrounded by trash on three sides. And those who lived there, including the children, were afflicted by constant skin and respiratory infections.

Pastor Raúl and Sister Graciela followed God’s call and moved into this community. They began serving by gathering the children of Normandia under a tree to sing and hear Bible stories. Soon, especially after seeing funerals for children who died in these conditions, they realized they needed a partner to effectively serve those in desperate need.

After discovering Compassion, they knew they had found their partner. The two began fundraising to construct a building for church services and Compassion programming. Shortly, the Comunidad y Servicios Cristianos was built and opened as a Compassion center that began serving the children and families of Normandia.

Fast forward 20 years, and the Compassion center is thriving and has transformed the community. The church now includes classrooms, a fully functioning kitchen, a computer lab and even a medical clinic for the community.

Children receive hot and nutritious meals. Families have access to critical medical care. Where trash and desperation once darkened the streets, the hope of Jesus shines. Thousands of lives have been changed through this local church, including Ricardo’s.

Our local church partners are on the front lines of the fight against child poverty. We’re so incredibly thankful for each and every one of them. You too can join the fight against poverty by partnering with Compassion through child sponsorship.

This blog post was originally posted on May 31, 2011 and was updated on February 4, 2025.