Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 5(2), Winter 2024  
 

Hoksbergen and Bronkema, Editors’ Introduction and a Tribute to Chad Hayward  i 
 

 

Editor’s Introduction, with a 

Tribute to Chad Hayward  
 

Roland Hoksbergen and David Bronkema – CRDA Co-Editors 
 

The current issue of the CRDA journal comes out 

at a time when we are still mourning the passing of Chad 

Hayward just a few short months ago on January 27, 

2024.  Chad had served as the Accord Network’s CEO 

for 17 years and was instrumental in getting CRDA 

adopted as the Accord Network’s official journal.  By 

virtue of his position, Chad served on CRDA’s executive 

board right from the inception of the journal in the 

summer of 2019, and he was a constant source of 

enthusiastic encouragement, prayer, and support for all 

that we were doing.  He is sorely missed by all of us.   

We think Chad would be particularly pleased by this 

issue of the journal, not only because of the specific 

articles that anchor its content, but also because it is the 

first issue in which we are publishing curated content 

from follow-up webinars focused on articles published in 

this journal.  These webinars have become a central 

feature of the way we try to promote continuing 

reflection and discussion on the insights and topics raised 

in these pages, and, based on attendance, appear to be 

appreciated by our community. 

The current issue leads with an article by eight 

authors from Tearfund who played important roles in 

Tearfund’s rigorous evaluation of its church and 

community transformation (CCT) program in Africa. 

This synopsis of the evaluation discusses both the results 

of the study and the methodology, and we hope that their 

account leads to vigorous conversation leads to vigorous 

conversation among the Christian NGO network about 

how best to undertake the work of serving Christ’s 

community the world over.   

The second contribution to this issue is a 

retrospective reflection on the state of the creation care 

movement and efforts of the Evangelical Environmental 

Network (EEN) over the last thirty plus years to promote 

and shape the movement. The author, Stan LeQuire, 

founding director of EEN in 1993, finds that the 

movement is flourishing. He is especially hopeful 

because of the energy and commitment he sees from 

youth-led organizations like Young Evangelicals for 

Climate Action (YECA) and the ongoing engagement of 

NGOs like Plant with Purpose and A Rocha.  

The issue also includes polished transcripts of the 

two webinars organized by the Accord Research Alliance 

(ARA), a subgroup of the Accord Network. One was a 

follow-up to the CRDA special issue (5[1]) on 

decolonization. It opens with reflective comments from 

practitioner Maria Fernanda (Mafer) Madriz Bolaños 

and academic Charlotte Bray, followed by a moderated 

discussion that includes four of the authors from the 

special issue and two webinar participants.  

The second webinar discussion refers back to 

Richard Slimbach’s provocative article, “Asking Tough 

Questions About Transformational Development,” 

from CRDA’s Winter 2023 issue (Slimbach 2023). 

Three practitioner/scholars were invited to respond to 

three sets of questions revolving around (1) the 

relationship of Christian faith to development in general, 

(2) macro issues of political economy, and (3) the 

character and management of field partnerships. The 

questions Slimbach poses are ones that Christian 

development workers must continue to wrestle with over 

the course of their lives. Definitive, final answers are not 

the point. Instead, Slimbach pushes us all to “live the 

questions” in the continuing hope that “organizations will 

give them sufficient airtime in honest conversations 

around conference tables or virtual tables to build more 

nuanced understandings, strengthen relational bonds, 

and ultimately help shape more thoughtful, inclusive, 

collaborative, dynamic, and impactful organizations” 

(62). We invite you to read the thoughtful comment and 

to join the conversation. 

This issue offers only one book review, which is on 

former CRDA editor Stephen Offutt’s book, Blood 

Entanglements: Evangelicals and Gangs in El Salvador 

(New York: Oxford University Press 2023). 

We conclude with a brief overview of Accord 

Network history to highlight how CRDA became its 

official journal, and then to report on what happened at 

OneAccord23 in October of 2023. 

In the next year we expect to publish special issues 

on both peacebuilding and gender. Other special issues 

in various stages of development will address the 

following topics: The church’s role in transformational 

development, WASH, microfinance, and agriculture. If 

the Spirit moves you to write something that explores the 

relationship between Christian faith and our global 

mission to love our neighbors, we welcome your ideas. 

 

References 

Slimbach, Richard. 2023. “Asking Tough Questions 

About Transformational Development.” Christian 

Relief, Development, and Advocacy: The Journal of 

the Accord Network 4(2): 51–63. 

https://crdajournal.org/index.php/crda/article/view/547
https://crdajournal.org/index.php/crda/article/view/547