Hello, I'm Christopher Marlin-Warfield
I’m a pastor and a nonprofit development and communications professional. My passion, my mission, and my calling is bringing people together to do good, with a particular focus on serving people who are experiencing poverty and other forms of marginalization.
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What I'm About
Radical Charity
Charity is love in action. I believe in charity’s power to both provide concrete help to people experiencing poverty and help others grow closer to God through their love of others. “Faith, hope, and charity abide,” writes Paul, “and the greatest of these is charity.”
Extravagant Hospitality
The church is called to welcome all people. That means more than being open to strangers. It means enthusiastically embracing people in all of their brokenness. No matter who you are, or where you are in life’s journey, you are welcome.
Christian Community
All Christians are ministers by virtue of our baptism, and all of us have both the privilege and responsibility to serve our neighbors according to our gifts. All of us have a role to play in making this a world of greater justice and mercy.
The bread you are holding back is for the hungry, the clothes you keep put away are for the naked, the shoes that are rotting away with disuse are for those who have none, the silver you keep buried in the earth is for the needy.
My Experience
First Congregational United Church of Christ | DeWitt, Iowa | Pastor (2018 to Present)
Back Bay Mission | Biloxi, Mississippi | Church Relations Associate (2012 to 2018)
Northeast Ohio Medical University | Rootstown, Ohio | Coordinator, Annual Fund and Advancement Services (2011 to 2012); Specialist, Alumni and Development (2009 to 2011)
Chicago Theological Seminary | Chicago, Illinois | Special Assistant to the President (2008 to 2009); Interim Coordinator of Development Operations (2008); Development Assistant (2006 to 2008)
Consulting | Various | Churches United of the Quad City Area (2016 to 2018); Metropolitan Community Church of the Quad Cities (2016); United Church of Christ, Congregational (Medina, Ohio) (2014)
My Education
The Fundraising School | Indianapolis, Indiana | Developing Major Gifts (2017); Developing Annual Sustainability (2016); Principles and Techniques of Fundraising (2011)
The Council for Health and Human Services Ministries | Cleveland, Ohio | Nollau Institute (2017)
Association of Fundraising Professionals | Columbus, Ohio | Fundamentals of Fundraising (2010)
Chicago Theological Seminary | Chicago, Illinois | M.Div. (2006)
Knox College | Galesburg, Illinois | B.A. (2000)
But what if someone uses the money for, say, a glass of wine? (A perfectly Milanese question.) His answer: If “a glass of wine is the only happiness he has in life, that’s O.K. Instead, ask yourself, what do you do on the sly? What ‘happiness’ do you seek in secret?” Another way to look at it, he said, is to recognize how you are the “luckier” one, with a home, a spouse and children, and then ask why your responsibility to help should be pushed onto someone else.