Christar
Christar is an interdenominational sending agency working almost entirely among least-reached Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim communities, plus the Deaf living among them and refugees who have left them. Its stated aim is churches "not merely started but firmly established so they can continue to multiply the reach of the gospel long after our workers are gone". It names eight regions rather than countries — Central Asia, Europe, the Far East, the Middle East, North Africa, North America, South Asia and Southeast Asia — and says its workers serve in over 25 countries. In the calendar year 2024 it spent $15,297,776 on programmes out of $19,104,009 of total expenses, and as of May 2026 it reported about 240 active missionaries.
Central Asia · South Asia · Southeast Asia · East Asia · Middle East & North Africa · Europe
We read the ministry’s own pages and accreditations. We have not found published numbers we can divide, so no cost per outcome is shown.
We cannot tell you what $100 buys here
Christar has not published a spending figure and an outcome count that can be divided into each other. Any number we printed would be invented, so there is none. The specific documents we looked for are listed further down.
What the ministry advertises
“Our mission is to establish churches in least-reached communities—those without access to a fellowship of believers that proclaims the gospel in their language and in a culturally relevant way.”
“That’s why Christar seeks to see churches not merely started but firmly established so they can continue to multiply the reach of the gospel long after our workers are gone.”
“Christar workers serve among the least-reached in over 25 countries worldwide.”
“To ensure that each dollar makes the greatest impact, we allocate a small portion of gifts to essential support services that enable our workers to thrive.”
“10% of gifts given to workers and projects is dedicated to supporting the Christar Mobilization Center U.S.”
“As of May 2026 there were about 240 active missionaries.”
Why this is the church’s work
Paul would not build on another man's foundation; he went where Christ had not been named. Christar has taken the same restriction as its whole reason for existing — it works where there is no church that preaches in the local language, which is the one situation in which a sent worker cannot be replaced by a cheaper local one, because there is no local believer to support yet. Christar also cites 3 John itself, as the standard for how sent workers should be treated on the way.
“and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.””
Romans 15:20–21
“Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.”
3 John 5–8
“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
Revelation 5:9
Doctrinal position we read: What We Believe — What We Believe
Our reservations
- Christar publishes no financial statements. Its stewardship page says independent annual audits are conducted by CapinCrouse and that "Audit reports are available upon request" behind a phone number and an email address. A donor who wants to check the figures on this page has to ask for them, and everything financial here comes from Christar's ECFA profile instead.
- The latest annual report on Christar's own site is the 2021 edition — five years old. It reported 382 workers in 33 countries among more than 60 people groups. The current ECFA profile reports about 240 active missionaries as of May 2026 and the website says over 25 countries. That is a fall of more than a third in the field force with no published explanation anywhere, and no annual report since to give one.
- Christar names eight regions and no country. The security rationale is obvious and defensible for work among Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist communities, and it means there is no national cost base on this page and no way to see how spending divides between, say, Central Asia and Christar's North America region, which is diaspora ministry inside the United States and Canada at United States and Canadian living costs.
- The stewardship page describes the fee structure as allocating "a small portion of gifts to essential support services" and then names 10% of gifts to workers and projects plus a further 3% on card donations. Those are clearly disclosed and are normal for the industry. A donor should also know that on ECFA's restatement of the same year's statements, administration and fundraising together were $3,806,233, or 19.9% of total expenses. The two figures measure different things — a fee charged on gifts against a functional allocation of all costs — but a reader of the give page would not guess the second from the first.
- Christar's only published counts are of itself: workers, countries, people groups. There is no count of churches planted, established or handed over, which is the outcome its own mission statement names.
- Total expenses exceeded total revenue in 2024 by $478,468, and net assets fell $518,810 to $12,314,047. That is a manageable deficit against a $19 million expense base, and with no statements published there are no notes explaining it.
A judgement about the work, not a measurement of its results. We do not score souls.
Why a dollar goes further here
Christar works where there is no church, which is the one setting in which the cheap option — funding a believer who already lives there — does not exist yet. That is the honest argument for a sent worker at roughly $64,000 a year, and it is not a cost argument: it is an argument that nobody else is there. The only lever Christar claims is multiplication, and it states it precisely — churches "firmly established so they can continue to multiply the reach of the gospel long after our workers are gone". That is the right thing to aim at and the right thing to count. Christar publishes no count of established churches, no count of handovers and no count of national leaders, so the lever remains a stated intention. Note also that one of its eight regions is North America, where the cost base is the highest in the directory rather than the lowest.
What creates the leverage
- Multiplies without more money — The thing funded goes on to produce more of itself — a church that plants churches, a leader who trains leaders — so later results are not paid for again.
The cost base, country by country
Christar reports regions rather than countries, so there is no national figure to put here.
Desk review
6 of 15
- Gospel centrality
- Unambiguous. The mission is establishing churches that proclaim the gospel, the stated reason for existing is that "our Savior is worthy of worship" and over 40% of the world cannot glorify His name, and a full statement of belief is published. Christar quotes 3 John on its own about page.
- Is the gospel named and central, rather than implied by the ministry’s history?
- Local leadership
- The stated aim — churches that multiply "long after our workers are gone" — is genuine handover language and better than most sending agencies manage. But the only unit Christar counts or funds publicly is its own sent workers, and no figure for national staff, national leaders or established churches exists to score against. Scored on evidence rather than intent.
- Is the work led and staffed by believers from the place it serves?
- Financial transparency
- Three real accreditations — ECFA since 1986, Missio Nexus, Excellence in Giving — and the fee structure is stated in plain numbers, which many agencies do not do. Against that: no audit, no Form 990 and no financial statement of any kind is published, the audit is available only on request by phone or email, and the newest annual report on the site is from 2021. Every financial figure on this page comes from ECFA restating statements a donor cannot read.
- Can an outsider find audited statements, a Form 990, and accreditation?
- Evidence of outcomes
- A finding. The most recent count of anything Christar publishes in its own report is from 2021: 382 workers, 33 countries, more than 60 people groups. Five years later the only newer figure available anywhere is a worker count in a third party's profile. No churches, no established congregations, no leaders, nothing delivered is counted at all.
- Does the ministry publish counts of what was delivered, defined clearly enough to check?
- Cost per outcome is computable
- A spending figure and a worker count both exist, which is why this is not a 0, and they are seventeen months apart — money for the year ended December 2024, headcount as of May 2026. We show the division in the notes below and refuse to put it in a cost model, because a denominator taken nearly a year and a half after the numerator is not a denominator.
- Are both a spending figure and an outcome count published, so cost per outcome can be divided out?
What we have not verified
- Why the field force fell from 382 workers in 33 countries to about 240 in over 25. That is a drop of more than a third, it happened across the five years since the last published annual report, and nothing Christar publishes acknowledges or explains it. This is the single most important thing we could not verify, and it is the question we would put to Christar first.
- Any Christar financial figure at source. The audit exists — CapinCrouse conducts it — and is released only on request. The figures on this page are ECFA's restatement of statements that are not public.
- Anything Christar produced. No count of churches planted or established is published, despite that being the mission statement.
- Where the work is. Eight regions, no country, and one of the eight is North America. A donor cannot tell what share of $15,297,776 is spent in Central Asia and what share is spent in Dallas or Toronto.
- How the 10% fee on gifts to workers and projects, plus 3% on card gifts, relates to the 19.9% of total expenses that ECFA's restatement puts into administration and fundraising. Both are disclosed; the relationship between them is not.
- What an undesignated gift funds. Christar's giving page routes donors to a named worker or a named project, and the stewardship page asks donors posting a cheque to "include a note specifying the worker or project you're supporting". No figure for the undesignated share of income is published.
- Executive compensation. No Form 990 is available. We deliberately do not publish an EIN for Christar: the only matching IRS record we could find is "Christar International Inc", a separate and much smaller entity reporting $536,367 of revenue in 2023, and putting it on this page would send donors to the wrong accounts.
- How long a Christar worker stays, which for an agency whose stated aim is churches that outlast its workers is the number that matters most.
Accreditation seen
- ECFA accredited since September 1986
- Missio Nexus member
- Certified by Excellence in Giving
Displayed by the ministry on its own pages. We have not re-checked each seal with the accrediting body.
Worth knowing
- Restated financial data from Christar's ECFA profile for the year ended 31 December 2024: cash donations $17,495,798, other revenue $1,129,743, total revenue $18,625,541. Programme $15,297,776 (80.1%), administrative $2,011,746 (10.5%), fundraising $1,794,487 (9.4%), total expenses $19,104,009. Total assets $14,141,334, total liabilities $1,827,287, net assets $12,314,047.
- Nothing here to divide, so there is no cost model. For scale only: $15,297,776 of programme spending for calendar 2024 against about 240 active missionaries as of May 2026 is roughly $63,741 per missionary-year. That is arithmetic across a seventeen-month gap using a third party's restatement and a third party's headcount, not a verified figure. It sits in the same band as the audited divisions elsewhere in this category — $59,988.94 for ABWE, $64,227.91 for Frontiers USA, $74,129.28 for Serge — which is useful context and not a substitute for Christar publishing its own.
- Programme spending has grown steadily on ECFA's figures — $13,798,388 in 2022, $15,034,636 in 2023, $15,297,776 in 2024 — while the worker count has fallen. Administration rose from $1,544,211 to $2,011,746 in the most recent year, a 30.3% increase.
- Christar reports its earliest church-planting work reaching back to 1909 and was founded in its current form in 1930. The 2021 annual report names BLESS and the Alliance for the Unreached among its strategic partners.
- Christar names eight regions of operation, so there is no national cost base to show on this page. One of the eight is North America, which is diaspora ministry among least-reached people who have moved to the United States and Canada.
Sources
- Homepage
Ministry website · Christar · read 2026-09-19
- Who We Are
Ministry website · Christar · read 2026-09-19
Source of the mission statement, the "long after our workers are gone" aim, the citation of 3 John 1:6, and the claim of over 25 countries.
- What We Believe
Ministry website · Christar · read 2026-09-19
- Who + Where
Ministry website · Christar · read 2026-09-19
Names the eight regions — Central Asia, Europe, Far East, Middle East, North Africa, North America, South Asia, Southeast Asia — and no individual country.
- Stewardship
Ministry website · Christar · read 2026-09-19
Source of the three accreditations, the 10% plus 3% fee structure, and the statement that CapinCrouse conducts the annual audit and that audit reports are available upon request.
- Give
Ministry website · Christar · read 2026-09-19
- 2021 Annual Report
Annual report · Christar · 2021 · read 2026-09-19
The annual report link on Christar's site serves the 2021 edition, which is the newest one published. Source of the 382 workers, 33 countries and more than 60 people groups figures, and of the strategic partner list. Those counts are set in a designed layout rather than printed text.
- ECFA accredited organisation profile: Christar
Third party · Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability · 2024 · read 2026-09-19
Confirms accreditation since 1 September 1986 and carries the only current worker count Christar makes available anywhere: about 240 active missionaries as of May 2026. Financial figures are marked as taken from the organisation's financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2024.
- ECFA comparative financial data: Christar
Third party · Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability · 2024 · read 2026-09-19
Three calendar years, 2022 to 2024, restated by ECFA from Christar's own financial statements, which Christar does not publish. The only source for the programme, administrative and fundraising split on this page.