ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the early phases of the several aspects of Tearfund’s work and looks at some of the dynamics and challenges in trying to mainstream faith-based approaches to development. One set of concerns springs from the emphasis of the mainstream development community on working with ‘the poorest of the poor’ and ‘leaving no-one behind’. As Tearfund has sought to encourage Southern evangelical churches to start doing CCM it has come up against a different set of issues, some practical and some theological. Many of the countries that are classified as ‘fragile states’ are countries with no religious freedom, often Muslim. The restorative economy concept built on the biblical notion of jubilee, which it saw as something wider than just the cancellation of debts that was highlighted in the Jubilee 2000 campaign. Going back to the Bible Tearfund noted that the jubilee year was also a time of environmental restoration, when land was left fallow.
