Empowering Churches in Georgetown, Guyana for Community Development and Transformation: A Research Plan for the Establishment of a Community Resource Foundation

This dissertation explores the launching of Community Resource Foundation in Georgetown, Guyana; it aimed at empowering local churches in Georgetown to contribute towards the development and renewal of under-served communities in which they are located. The rationale for undertaking this project is the conviction that local churches, as extensions of God’s love and grace in these communities, have a responsibility to redeem all that is broken and to work towards the shalom of these communities as much as possible (Is. 65:17-25). This duty is greater where the designated individuals and organizations fail to carry out this mandate. Several biblical themes were explored to underpin this conviction, including stewardship, salt and light, and incarnation. The overarching theme running through this dissertation is that the gospel, properly understood, transcends evangelism.
The dissertation’s central thesis is that local churches in Georgetown intrinsically desire to do much more than evangelize their communities; however, they lack the financial resources to do so. This thesis was tested by surveying a representative sample of thirty churches from Georgetown, drawn from the twelve recognized Christian denominations in Guyana. Two main groups were targeted: overseers and pastors, as it was necessary to determine their interest in the proposed foundation and the extent of their current community outreach efforts. The survey responses received were tabulated and graphed to facilitate analysis of the findings.
The findings of this research conclusively proved that local churches need financial support to meaningfully contribute towards the development and renewal of the communities they serve. The findings also highlighted that churches have an urgent need for development expertise. The study concluded that local churches need to be taught the importance of being externally-focused, recommending an alternative development model in the eight components Christian Community Development (CCD) to be introduced by the proposed foundation.