Tearfund’s Sam Fagan recently travelled to India to witness the impact of EFICOR, one of our long-standing Christian partners. What he encountered was a theology lived out in action. Read Sam’s reflection on what it means for the Church to be a compassionate presence in the world.
I was born into an evangelical home and raised attending a Pentecostal church—characterised by charismatic leaders, large crowds, and expressive worship. The main teaching frequently centred on Matthew 28:18–20, the Great Commission: “to spread the gospel and make disciples.” Stories of figures like Smith Wigglesworth, Billy Graham, and Reinhard Bonnke were often shared as role models of faith.
The climactic moment of every week came in the final ten minutes of the service: a passionate and persuasive altar call. Hands were raised in response, and on Sunday nights, people would even come forward to the front of the auditorium. This was the emphasis, the focal point, the core gospel business I grew up with—and believed in.
Until recently.
In many ways, this is representative of Western evangelicalism, shaped over decades by a focus on personal conversion as the highest priority—with far less attention given to social involvement. In the 1980s, missiologist Lesslie Newbigin critiqued the West’s tendency to privatise faith. He warned that the Church had retreated from its role as a public truth-bearer to merely a personal spiritual option. He wrote:
“The Church is not meant to call men and women out of the world into a safe religious enclave but to call them out in order to send them back as agents of God's kingship.”1
To me, this is an invitation into a more compassionate, inclusive, and effective gospel—the kind Tearfund has helped me understand and believe in.
On Sunday, 27 April 2025, I boarded a flight from Sydney to Bengaluru, India. It was my first time in a land rich with dreams, wisdom, and beauty—and my first international trip as a Tearfund staff member. Alongside two colleagues, I travelled to attend the 45th anniversary celebration of EFICOR’s training program. EFICOR is one of Tearfund’s longest-standing partners and has educated and empowered thousands of community leaders, social workers, and pastors to practise integral mission—a gospel that centres social concern alongside evangelism.
This feels especially significant given that India has the highest number of people living in multidimensional poverty—approximately 234 million.2 Unlike income-based poverty measures, multidimensional poverty accounts for overlapping deprivations such as poor health, limited education, inadequate living standards, and lack of access to essential services.
EFICOR’s training has directly responded to these complex needs, prioritising basic human rights like clean water, education, self-determination, access to information, and income generation. And yet, even in a place like India, social concern wasn’t always central to Christian faith.
I learned from the keynote speaker, Dr. Vinay Kumar Samuel—one of EFICOR’s founders—that India’s independence in 1947 marked a turning point. With new legislation restricting proselytisation and regulating conversions, many foreign missionaries were forced to leave.3 This created what Dr. Samuel described as a “vacuum of leadership,” prompting a new wave of indigenous leaders to determine for themselves how to express and embody their faith—especially among communities impacted by deep poverty.
This period of reflection gave rise to what is known as a “neighbourhood theology”—a belief that poverty results from broken relationships, and that the gospel Jesus preached is centred on restoring those relationships: with God, self, others, and creation. This is the heart of integral mission—an approach that sees the whole person in the context of family and community.
To preach the gospel, then, is first and foremost to demonstrate the Kingdom of God: which includes restoring dignity to the poor, providing access to resources, equality, respect, and self-determination, and to reject the narrative that poverty is an inescapable fate.
This vision came alive in the days following the conference, as we visited four village initiatives supported by EFICOR. These communities shared many stories of transformation including: a woman with the information and courage she needed to advocate for government resources; children with opportunities to gain numeracy and literacy skills; a village setting aside old systems of dowry payments and empowering women in leadership roles; a young man set free from stigma relating to his caste; self help groups establishing small businesses; a man with a kitchen garden bursting with eggplants and tomatoes; a band of teenagers getting paid to play drums for surrounding village ceremonies and events; elders sharing their hope for the future being in their children’s education and work opportunities. These and many more stories are a witness to the Kingdom of God!
The gospel teachers I met in India summarise their belief with a striking phrase: “Social gospel or no gospel.”
This challenges the version of Christianity I grew up with—a gospel focused on conversion and “populating heaven.” What I experienced on this trip was a gospel made tangible in social transformation, a vision of the Kingdom of God—on earth as it is in heaven—especially in the hardest places.
Now back in Australia, I sit at my desk writing this reflection to help process and integrate what I’ve seen—and to hopefully articulate something of the authentic faith that Tearfund and partners like EFICOR embody.
I’m reminded of a Tearfund staff gathering in February, which now seems prophetic. A local pastor had been invited to share what was on his heart. He referenced the Great Commission, the same passage that once shaped my early theology. But rather than focusing on what we must do to save the world, he reframed it by asking, “What came before the Great Commission?” He answered: the Great Compassion (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 20:34).
Then and now, it must be the same. Mission must be informed by compassion, which is affirmed by missiologist, David Bosch:
“Mission is not the work of experts sent out to instruct and solve problems; it is the sharing of the compassionate presence of God in the world.”4
This kind of sharing reveals the dignity in others, listens deeply to stories interwoven with place, empowers people to flourish, commits to solidarity through hardship, and fosters unity in relationships. It is a journey of growing together, not apart.
I wonder: is the Australian Church a compassionate presence? Is that how the poor and vulnerable—here and globally—experience Christians?
As Jesus declared, the gospel is good news for the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, and the blind. It cannot be good news in Australia if it is not good news in India, the Middle East, Africa—or anywhere else.
Yet, if it is good news in India, then there is hope it might be good news for all people, everywhere.
We invite you to prayerfully consider joining this work of restoration and hope by supporting Tearfund’s partners to overcome poverty and injustice.
1. Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society
2. https://hdr.undp.org/content/2024-global-multidimensional-poverty-index-mpi#/indicies/MPI
3. https://indianculture.gov.in/reports-proceedings/report-christian-missionary-activities-enquiry-committee-madhya-pradesh-1956
4. Bosch, Transforming Mission, chapters 6-8
