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Tools and guides

A short introduction to the CCT theory of change

How church and community transformation is achieved

2022

A steep, winding dirt road leading up the side of a mountain in Nepal

The road leading to a Village near Nawalparasi, Nepal, where Tearfund Partner United Mission (UMN) to Nepal are working through their Partner Isai Samaj Nawalparasi (ISN). Photo: Chris Hoskins/Tearfund

This short guide offers an explanation of how church and community transformation (CCT) works: our CCT theory of change. 

It brings together Tearfund’s understanding of poverty and our well-established Light Wheel approach for measuring holistic change, connecting them through the various CCT processes that churches can use to bring about transformation in different contexts, effecting change at four levels: individual, church, community and national.

CCT practitioners from across Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East contributed to the guide, with input from peer agencies. As such, this theory of change should effectively represent how change happens whether the church seeking church and community transformation is:

  • urban or rural
  • the majority faith tradition or in the minority
  • within a settled or transient community

The guide introduces each element in turn of the CCT theory of change diagram, and then uses the metaphor of a journey to represent the whole process of change in CCT.

A short animation explaining how church and community transformation (CCT) works, including a summary of  Tearfund’s understanding of poverty and our well-established Light Wheel approach for measuring holistic change.

Other languages

Close-up photo of a smiling African man wearing glasses with banana palms in the background. Gilbert Irahari, AEE - CCT Project Officer. Kigali, Rwanda.

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