christian discipleship mobile

CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP

Every child was created by God to experience His love.

Our prayer is for all children to grow in their understanding of God’s immeasurable love.

“Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14, ESV).
 
With hope that comes from God, vulnerable children and their communities can overcome barriers and thrive. Life-changing transformation occurs when pastors and other Christian leaders, parents, and communities know their purpose and identity through the power of God’s Word. Not only does their outlook on life improve, but they impact their communities in ways they have never known before.

2030 GOAL

Engage 46 million* people in 49 countries with Christian discipleship activities and tools to support the spiritual nurture of children, including training 500,000 local pastors and leaders to multiply the impact of local churches.

*Reach will require additional support from other sources such as public grants, gifts-in-kind, field offices, and other funding sources.

Give to the Christian Discipleship Fund

Christian Discipleship need

The need

A child's Christian faith requires the same faith-building resources we all need: support from parents, encouragement from pastors and teachers, and active youth programs. Yet in many poor communities, parenting culture isn’t built around Jesus’ love. And churches often don’t focus on children — or aren’t equipped to teach in ways they can understand.

Read more
Instead, children face a multitude of barriers:
  • Parents often follow harmful cultural norms, including abuse.

  • Pastors and teachers possess little or no training on ministering to children.

  • Violence in relationships affects children’s ability to understand God’s love.

  • Bibles and biblical training are hard to come by.

  • Youth ministries of any kind are scarce.

  • What’s missing for these children are opportunities to grow spiritually, read God’s Word, and know their identity in Jesus.
Christian Discipleship

Our response

Jesus desires every child to have a relationship with Him.
Partnering with parents, pastors, Christian faith leaders, and local ministry partners, we create opportunities and remove barriers for children to experience God’s love—and to know Jesus’ offer of life in all its fullness.
Read more

Our programs:

  • Equip parents with principles that reflect Christian values.
  • Train pastors and Christian leaders to create programs that are appropriate for children and interest them in considering God’s purpose for their lives.
  • Strengthen children’s and youth ministries by providing churches and schools with Bibles, biblically based materials, and teacher training. We work with local ministry partners to establish mentoring programs and Bible clubs for children and youth.

Our impact

World Vision is unique in our work to support children's faith development, focusing on strengthening families and working with faith leaders, Christian churches, and other community partners to ensure the spiritual nurture of children.

Jesus showed us that children are blessings to be protected, guided, and nurtured when he said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14, ESV). That directive is at the core of who are at World Vision. We believe that the success of a community is inseparable from the well-being of its children. We desire to see every child grow in their understanding of God’s love—and to experience life in all its fullness.

With your partnership, see the impact we’re making:

7.9M Christian leaders

7,959,665 pastors, Christian leaders, teachers, parents, children and youth have been equipped with the training and resources they need to learn Bible-based life skills and to explore or deepen their faith in Jesus Christ since October 2022.

148K leaders trained
148,606 pastors, church leaders, and other faith leaders were trained in theology and children’s ministry, as well as engaged in faith-based programming, since October 2022.
40K Bibles

40,472 Bibles were made available since October 2022, benefiting 202,360 people.

Christian Discipleship

Video gallery

See the people and places whose lives are being transformed in the name of Jesus Christ. Watch videos to learn more about our work.

Our Partners

We are blessed to partner with hundreds of Christian philanthropists and couldn’t do this work without them. And we’re able to reach more people because of our highly collaborative local and global partnerships within private and public sectors.

Max Lucado

Max Lucado

Pastor and Author

World Vision completely changes the trajectory of people's lives...The good deeds lead to good will, which then leads to opportunities to share the good news.”

Andy Robblee

Andy Robblee

donor partner, Washington

World Vision demonstrates God's love and empowers the Church to reveal Christ in every corner of the world. Serving Christ isn't part of their model. It is the model.”