Contextual & Lifelong Learning

Video: Community Development: Joining with God for a More Just and Flourishing World

November 7, 2025

A panel of community developers explores the what and why of community development and its connection to our mission as followers of Jesus Christ. The panel features Ecuadorian Community Developer Esther Moreira, Paul Hawkinson, founder of Transform Capital, and Glenn Peterson, Senior Director of Church Planting for the ECC. The interdisciplinary dialogue extends community development to redemptive lending and church planting.


Panel Discussion Outline

  • Welcome & framing: community development as Christian mission

  • Ecuadorian Covenant Church context & national vision

  • Biblical/theological foundations for community development

  • Carlita Cabascango: local initiatives and women-led organizing

  • Esther Moreira: education/health projects and community ownership

  • Practices that safeguard dignity (listening, asset-based approach, partnership)

  • Redemptive lending: Transform Capital’s model and why it’s different from microcredit

  • How lending fuels long-term flourishing (jobs, enterprises, neighborhoods)

  • Glenn Peterson: church planting as community development

  • Integrating congregational life with neighborhood well-being

  • Practical pathways for churches to start (discern, partner, pilot, measure)

  • Q&A: funding, risk, accountability, and measuring impact

  • Closing reflections & invitation to participate