The Timothy Initiative
TTI trains indigenous church planters in disciple-making, with the explicit aim of multiplying generations of churches rather than single plants — the site reports third-generation plants in Kenya and 21 planters graduating in Mexico.
Ethiopia · Kenya · Mexico · South Asia
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
The Timothy Initiative 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.
Why this is the church’s work
Paul’s instruction to Timothy is four generations deep in a single sentence — Paul to Timothy to faithful men to others also. A ministry built on that verse is aiming at the thing the verse aims at: not more converts of its own, but more people who can teach.
“And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”
2 Timothy 2:2
“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”
Ephesians 4:11–12
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
Matthew 28:19–20
Our reservations
- We could not find audited statements or a Form 990 anywhere on the site. Of everything in this directory, this is the one where we know the least about where the money goes.
- Multiplication claims compound, which means an unverified starting number compounds too. “Third-generation churches” is an impressive phrase and an unauditable one.
A judgement about the work, not a measurement of its results. We do not score souls.
Why a dollar goes further here
Income per person in Ethiopia is about 80× below the United States.
The argument is that training a local church planter who trains other church planters means later generations of churches cost nothing extra — the cost per eventual church falls with every generation. If the multiplication is real, this is the highest-leverage model on the site. Nothing TTI publishes lets anyone check the base rate, so treat the leverage as a claim about the design rather than a measured result.
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.
- Local workers, not sent staff — The work is done by believers who already live there. No relocation, no expatriate salary, no home-country cost of living to cover.
- Low local cost base — Wages, rent, fuel and materials are priced to the local economy, so the same work costs a fraction of what it costs in a high-income country.
The cost base, country by country
| Country | Income per person | Below United States |
|---|---|---|
| Ethiopia | $1,110 | 80× |
| Kenya | $2,200 | 40× |
| Mexico | $13,730 | 6.5× |
GNI per capita, Atlas method, current US dollars · World Bank · read 2026-09-19
This is a cost-of-living ratio, not a measure of how well the ministry spends. It tells you what a local wage or a bag of cement costs, and nothing about whether the work is any good — the rest of this page is for that.
Desk review
7 of 15
- Gospel centrality
- Disciple-making and church planting are the whole programme.
- Is the gospel named and central, rather than implied by the ministry’s history?
- Local leadership
- Planters are nationals trained in their own contexts; the multiplication model depends on it.
- Is the work led and staffed by believers from the place it serves?
- Financial transparency
- No accreditation seal, financial statement, annual report or Form 990 link found on the site as of 18 September 2026. This is the gap to close first.
- Can an outsider find audited statements, a Form 990, and accreditation?
- Evidence of outcomes
- Results are anecdotal — 70 baptisms in Ethiopia, 350+ widows reached, 300+ disciple makers in training — rather than annual totals with definitions.
- Does the ministry publish counts of what was delivered, defined clearly enough to check?
- Cost per outcome is computable
- Neither spending nor annual outcome totals are published.
- Are both a spending figure and an outcome count published, so cost per outcome can be divided out?
What we have not verified
- Whether TTI is ECFA accredited or publishes audited financials anywhere. Nothing was findable on the site.
- Total churches planted and planters trained per year. The site reports stories, not totals.
- Church-planting counts are the easiest figures in missions to double-count across partner organisations. Any number here needs a definition of what counts as a church.
Worth knowing
- Included as a research lead, not a recommendation. Cost per church planted is the single most useful number this directory could add, and TTI is the kind of ministry that would have it internally.
Sources
- Homepage
Ministry website · The Timothy Initiative · read 2026-09-18