Our Philosophy
Our philosophy for empowerment focuses on engaging local leaders in vulnerable contexts who are better suited to impact their communities long-term.
Our Philosophy
Our philosophy for empowerment focuses on engaging local leaders in vulnerable contexts who are better suited to impact their communities long-term.
Our Process Explained
Our model for empowerment looks different
127 acts as a bridge between Christians in America seeking ways to live out James 1:27 and believing local leaders in other parts of the world doing ministry among the vulnerable. We strive to connect these parts of the body to one another and to equip them to partner effectively as members of the global church who can work together to help at-risk communities break cycles of poverty and understand the love of Christ.
We devote ourselves to three key tasks
CONNECTING
We create introductions and facilitate ongoing relationships between partners, advocates, and churches around the world through opportunities to Pray, Give, go, and Grow.
EQUIPPING
We support partners through coaching and grants for collaborative empowerment projects and we provide ongoing education and discipleship opportunities for advocates to promote healthy engagement.
EMPOWERING
Through local leaders, we provide vulnerable communities with resources and skills needed to use their God-given potential to bring about human flourishing.
CONNECTING
We create introductions and facilitate ongoing relationships between partners, advocates, and churches around the world through opportunities to Pray, Give, go, and Grow.
EQUIPPING
We support partners through coaching and grants for collaborative empowerment projects and we provide ongoing education and discipleship opportunities for advocates to promote healthy engagement.
EMPOWERING
Through local leaders, we provide vulnerable communities with resources and skills needed to use their God-given potential to bring about human flourishing.
The how behind our philosophy

Traditional models of vulnerability community care have seen Western Christians moving into developing contexts and setting up shop with robust ministries, external funding, and Western trained men and women who have the potential to do great work for empowering the vulnerable, but often bring significant challenges with them. These challenges include a lack of contextual appropriateness that can harm individuals and communities, a lack of long-term missional sustainability, a failure to connect with hearts on a level comparable to someone of the host culture that can inhibit Gospel-understanding, and a whole host of cultural power dynamics that can lead to conflict, misunderstanding, and more.Â
While 127 Worldwide recognizes that we aren’t immune to any of these challenges, we choose to work with and empower local leaders – men and women who are already doing fruitful Gospel-work in their own cultural contexts to empower the orphan, the widow, and other vulnerable men, women, and children – who know the culture and local needs, know the language, have given their lives to the work before them, and can benefit from connection to the global Church through independence-building funding, discipleship and coaching, and more. We want to connect advocates to the work of strategically chosen 127 partners and to mobilize and equip them to do the work of James 1:27 better.
Our Distinctives
As an organization, we live by our distinctives. 127 Worldwide’s distinctives are the lens that we view our work through and help guide us in decision making, strategy, and partnership.
Mutual Edification
God has gifted believers all over the world to carry out his mission, and as locals, they are uniquely positioned to see and meet the needs of their own communities. We want to join what God is already doing through them in such a way that we learn from one another and grow together.
Education & Discipleship
We don’t have all the answers, but our combined years of ministry experience have taught us that learning and adapting are always the way forward. We prioritize training advocates and partners to implement best practices in working together and caring for the vulnerable.Â
Gospel-Centrality
Gospel proclamation is central to the work of caring for the orphan and the widow because only Jesus Christ can restore hope to the suffering. As we seek to empower vulnerable communities, we hold out the gospel as the means to eternal flourishing.Â
Healthy Engagement
We seek to empower vulnerable communities with the skills and resources to tap into their God-given ability to contribute to human flourishing. We ask the hard questions about how our efforts achieve that end.