The Story of TCT

The Story of Truth Centered Transformation

The Truth Centered Transformation (TCT) program started as an experiment to see if there was a way to walk with the rural poor to see God glorified, churches strengthened, and communities moving out of poverty. After years of trying the typical programs, I hadn’t seen transformation and wondered if it really was possible. In 1999 I attended a conference that flipped the little I knew about addressing poverty on its head. Instead of development programs, the speakers encouraged us to bring biblical worldview training. Instead of our organization working directly with communities, they claimed the church should be the center of addressing poverty. And they suggested that the very poorest themselves could be the ones to give and serve and love.

All of these were troubling ideas. For one thing, I wasn’t sure I knew what a biblical worldview was. It was also illegal to train churches where I lived. And in my wildly arrogant (and very incorrect) opinion, anyone with open eyes could see that the poorest had little to contribute.

However, since nothing else was really working, after four years of wrestling with God, I started what I thought would be a small experiment. I planned to work with 10 communities. I figured that was small enough that, when the whole thing failed, our organization had the budget to take over and implement “proper” development projects. I looked for churches close to the major city where I lived so I could easily visit and share all my “expertise” with the leaders.

God had completely different ideas. My first trainer—with whom I had selected the churches— found out she had cancer the day before we started (she did recover after a few years off work). My second trainer (whom I loved) didn’t really seem to like to listen. So within a few short months she had trained the pastors of 160 churches instead of 10. And to make things more difficult, the churches were in some of the hardest to reach, poorest parts of the country. In these areas, people didn’t have enough food for the year and were forced to eat grass and bark to keep their bellies full. How could they possibly give and serve others?.

But we started, continuing to add even more churches to the program (despite my insisting we wouldn’t) so that after only 18 months we were working with more than 600 churches. I couldn’t visit the pastors myself because foreigners were not allowed in these areas. So all I could do was stay home and write trainings while I desperately fasted and prayed.

The first trainings were focused on bringing truth to confront the lies that hold so many of the poorest in their poverty: we taught that God has given all of us resources, that we need to use what we have to bless our community, that even the poorest can give, that God can and does multiply our efforts, and that every aspect of our lives can bring glory to Him.

The churches received those trainings with enthusiasm and went out to love their communities. We were amazed at how sacrificially they obeyed God. Yet we started to realize that we needed to also teach skills. Children were still dying because parents didn’t know to give their children liquid when they had diarrhea. Marriages were still broken, and the poorest were easily exploited because they had no comprehension of how money worked. So we wrote trainings on health, marriage and family, and money management. Each of these trainings started with biblical truth and then added practical skills.  

And then, after only four years, the communities started to report that they had been transformed. They no longer had any needs in their community—everyone had sufficient food, a stable home, access to a well and a latrine. Preventable diseases had vanished, and all the children were in school. Domestic violence—once the norm—had ended. Where there had been government persecution, now churches were being commended for their community service. And over 80 percent of community members were Christians. Indeed, when the church went to serve the poor now, they had to go to neighboring communities to find needs. Needless to say, I was astonished.

Today, what started as an experiment has evolved into a five-year program made up of 10 trainings. Although we continue to see communities transformed, TCT is not a development program. It simply provides wholistic discipleship: pointing churches to God as their provider, challenging them to love their neighbors, and teaching them to bring every aspect of life under the lordship of Christ. By the end of 2018, TCT was in 20 countries reaching more than 10,000 churches. God has lifted approximately 1,000 communities out of poverty. These communities continue to flourish, years after graduating from the program, as churches continue to serve.

*Anna is the co-creator of the TCT program, Executive Director of Reconciled World, and the author of the Framework for Transformation booklet series. To learn more about the Truth Centered Transformation program, read stories, or access curriculum and practitioners’ resources, please visit tctprogram.org.