History of Servants of Christ International (SOCI)
We are a channel for Christians to give of their time, talents, and treasures to the cause of reaching the world for Christ. We seek to enable and empower volunteers and faith-supported missionaries by providing administrative assistance for those who are called by God and sent by their supporters. Our motto is Serving People – Sending Hope.
Our HISTORY
Servants of Christ International was founded in Dallas, Texas in November of 1987 at the urging of Ken Brittain, a graduate of Criswell Bible College, and with Jim Walters, who at the time was serving as Arrangements Coordinator for International Crusades, Inc.
These two, along with several others, were men and women who had been on “short-term” mission trips with International Crusades, Inc., a ministry that empowered regular people with no second language or cross-cultural skills to go and partner with a church in a foreign nation for ten days. (Today they are known as International Commission, Inc., of Lewisville, Texas.)
These people had experienced a new dimension of seeing God’s work in action through International Crusades’ two-week partnerships, but they wanted to do more missions work in the same place (more often than International Crusades could return to a prior location).
Some of them planned to move on to the field where they had served short-term; others would remain “at their day jobs” in the USA but make repeated trips and/or send supplies and funds to the partners they had met through International Crusades.
The original vision was simple: set up a non-profit 501(c)3 tax-exempt ministry that would provide administrative handling of contributions as well as basic oversight and accountability, to virtually any believer of like mind and faith, who had a calling to go somewhere and do something that would result in bringing divine resources to meet human need. The original group cared about evangelism and church growth, but also about the needs of widows and orphans and health and hunger issues.
No one at the time imagined that over 35 years, more than $4,000,000 would flow through the little checking account, touching lives in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and India. Over the years two of the “Servants” ministries became so large they spun-off into their own ministries, including Acts Today Ministries International – men who specialize in preaching the gospel among remote tribes where no “white man” has ever been seen and where no gospel of Jesus has ever been heard.
Over the years about 80 different people qualified and served as Servants under this ministry. Today about 61 are still active, including several who live on other continents.
We believe the greatest days of our ministry lie just ahead, and we are anticipating a rapid surge in our ability to minister through “Serving People—Sending Hope.”
Purpose Statement
We are a channel for Christians to give of their time, talents, and treasures to the cause of reaching the world for Christ. We seek to enable and empower volunteers and faith-supported missionaries by providing administrative assistance for those who are called by God and sent by their supporters. Our motto is Serving People – Sending Hope.
Purpose of the board of directors
- To see that the organization operates in accord with its by-laws and conducts affairs in accordance with civil statutes and biblical ethics.
- To provide administrative assistance to staff as able.
- To support the process of reviewing, interviewing and voting on new program applications.
Purpose of our servants and
their programs
- Each of our Servants operates a program of ministry that seeks to reach, teach, win, or develop people as disciples of Jesus Christ. This may be full-time, part-time or occasional. We have no employees -all of our Servants work as “independent contractors” or as volunteers.
- Servants who are US citizens normally reside here and work domestically or travel overseas but keep a home base in the USA. Nationals of other countries may reside in those nations where they work in partnership with SOCI personnel who live in the USA.
- While we are not a foundation and have no funds to provide missionaries, we do train Servants in how to raise support from their friends and partners and we also provide them with materials and a platform to post videos and web-based content.
Have other questions? Contact Us!
We would love to answer them for you. Contact our team today with any questions, needs, or other inquiries, and we will get back to you shortly.