Every year, people all over the U.S. stand before their church families on Compassion Sunday to speak up for children living in poverty. And in that one day, hundreds of children receive the hope of a brighter future in Jesus through child sponsorship.
If you want to share the gospel with children in desperate need, hosting a Compassion Sunday event is the perfect next step. Here, we guide you through what Compassion Sunday is and the impact you could have on lives around the world.
Key Takeaways:
- Compassion Sunday is a day where you, the host, encourage church members to sponsor a child living in poverty.
- Hosting a Compassion Sunday event helps release children from poverty, inspires your church family to live out their faith and empowers you to share the gospel around the world.
- Planning and hosting a Compassion Sunday event is easy. We provide all the resources you need, from videos to share with your church to a step-by-step planning guide.
What’s Here:
- What Is Compassion Sunday?
- Why Should You Host a Compassion Sunday Event?
- Your Yes Can Change Children’s Lives Forever
What Is Compassion Sunday?
Around the world, millions of children go without the essentials they need, from critical medical care to nutritious food. These children are filled with hopelessness, unable to see a brighter future beyond their circumstances.
Compassion Sunday is an event where you get to stand up for these precious children.
During the event, you’ll invite your church members to sponsor a child living in poverty. Through sponsorship, a child receives the eternal hope of the gospel as well as critical care for their right-now needs, such as medical checkups, nutrition support and disaster relief.
Children at a Compassion center in Guatemala pray before enjoying a delicious and nutritious meal.
What Happens During Compassion Sunday?
During a Compassion Sunday event, as the host, you’ll:
- Give a short testimony about your own Compassion sponsorship experience. This can be as quick as a morning announcement, or you can make it the theme of your entire worship service. It’s up to you!
- Share a short video about sponsorship. This video will highlight the hope a sponsor can bring to a child’s life.
- Invite church members to sponsor. You’ll then invite members of your congregation to sponsor a child living in poverty. Typically, you’ll have a sponsorship table set up where members can easily choose a child to sponsor and begin their journey.
- Lives are changed. Whether one child or one hundred, each little one sponsored through your event is another life released from the grips of poverty.
Worried about planning or hosting an event? Don’t be! Planning and hosting your event are simple. We give you all the resources you need, including a step-by-step planning guide, how-to videos and more.
When Is Compassion Sunday?
Compassion Sunday is typically held in the spring each year. For 2025, Compassion Sunday is set for May 4. But your church is free to host an event on any day that works for you.
Charlie, a 10-year-old boy from Nicaragua, loves it when he receives letters from his sponsor.
Why Should You Host a Compassion Sunday Event?
Hosting a Compassion Sunday event is a simple way to make a huge impact on the lives of children around the world.
To Help Children Escape Devastating Poverty
Did you know that around 333 million children around the world live in extreme poverty? This means they must survive on less than $2.15 a day. This is far from enough to meet their critical needs like food, shelter, clean water and education.
Poverty impacts a child’s entire life. Without food or medical care, children’s bodies can’t grow properly. Without clean water, they’re in danger of serious diseases. Without education, they can’t learn the skills they need to grow into self-sufficient adults. And without the gospel, there’s no lasting hope.
But the love and care of a sponsor changes everything for a child. A sponsor’s monthly support enables a local church in a child’s community to offer the consistent care a child needs to leave poverty behind.
Through your Compassion Sunday event, you’ll inspire church members to become sponsors, helping children in countries like Ethiopia, Indonesia and Brazil escape poverty.
A baby in Ethiopia receives a medical checkup at the community’s Compassion center.
To Inspire Your Church Family to Live Out Their Faith
The Bible is clear: As followers of Jesus, we’re called to serve those in need. Psalm 82:3 (NIV) says, “Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.”
By serving those living in poverty, we’re living out our faith in Jesus. After all, Jesus said that whatever we do for the least of these, we do for him (Matthew 25:40).
During your Compassion Sunday event, you’ll give your church family a simple yet powerful way to live out their own faith. Not only will this change the lives of the children sponsored, but it will also impact the lives of the sponsors themselves, helping them grow and bringing them closer to Jesus.
Child sponsor Mallory meets the child she sponsors and his family for the first time in Ecuador.
To Share the Gospel Around the World
Mark 16:15 (NIV) says, “He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’” Known as the Great Commission, these words were given by Jesus to his disciples. But they’re also for us! We’re to share the good news of Jesus with the world, including those in poverty.
Sharing the gospel with the nations is no easy feat. It takes all of us doing what we can from where we are. While some are called to missions, others are called to serve in other ways. Through child sponsorship, you can share the gospel with a child in need without ever leaving home.
Compassion is Christ-centered, meaning Jesus is at the center of all we do. Every child in our program hears the gospel and sees it in action through local church pastors, volunteers and sponsors around the world.
Each sponsor who says yes to serving a child is helping us further our mission of releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name. Not just physical poverty but poverty of the soul.
With every sponsorship from your event, a child is being shown that there’s more beyond the devastating circumstances of poverty — there’s eternal hope in Jesus.
Deiker, an 8-year-old boy from Colombia, prays with his friends.
Your Yes Can Change Children’s Lives Forever
Grace from the U.S. is passionate about serving others. After getting to know Gabriela, a 9-year-old girl from El Salvador that her family sponsors, Grace wanted to do more.
So, at just 9 years old, she set out to plan and host a Compassion Sunday event at her church. She stood up in front of her congregation and gave a presentation, introducing church members to Gabriela and discussing Jesus’ call to serve those in need.
At the end of the event, twenty-six children were sponsored, all because one 9-year-old believed in the importance of sharing hope with the most vulnerable. That’s twenty-six lives forever changed thanks to the yes of one young girl.
You can change lives too, just like Grace. By hosting a Compassion Sunday event, you’ll empower new sponsors to offer the love and care children need to escape poverty. Most importantly, you’ll introduce children to the hope found in Jesus, which changes everything.
Inspired to Host a Compassion Sunday Event?
Your yes to sharing your heart with your church could change the lives of so many children living in poverty.
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