Jonathan Mitchell’s roots reach deep into Pakistan’s past. While he now calls Cary, North Carolina, home, Mitchell’s family has lived and worked in Pakistan for four generations. Though his work in Pakistan looks different than his predecessors, he has carried on his family’s legacy of sharing Christ’s love.
Through a non-profit he established in 2011, Mitchell, a ruling elder at Peace Presbyterian Church, helps to ensure philanthropic money is used effectively in Pakistan and that Christians there can pursue a better quality of life by participating in the marketplace.
Pakistan is the world’s fifth-largest country with a population of approximately 255 million people, of which more than 90 percent are Muslim. Just 1.8% of the population is Christian.
Most Christians in Pakistan came out of the lowest castes of Hinduism and are often relegated to menial jobs, such as cleaning sewer systems, dealing with waste, or hard labor. Those who do get an education often struggle to find employment.
Mitchell’s background has uniquely prepared him for this mission. Having grown up in Pakistan and attended a boarding school, he has relational capital that benefits his work.
“For me, it was absolutely an amazing experience. Pakistan is home to some of the most hospitable people in the world,” he says.
After completing degrees at Wheaton College, Princeton University, and the University of Colorado Boulder, he pursued a career in international development.
In 2002, he was helping to reopen the USAID mission in Pakistan when his family was impacted by a suicide bomber attack while at church. Mitchell’s wife Kate was seriously injured in the blast.
For safety reasons, he moved his family to the U.K. while he lived in Islamabad and traveled back and forth. Eventually, the Mitchells moved back to the U.S. to work for a scientific research institute and began travelling globally, helping organizations and governments improve their return on investments.
Because of Mitchell’s Christian faith, he noticed a problematic pattern.
“Wherever I’d go I’d look and see what Christian organizations were doing, and I became increasingly just distressed at what I felt were well-intentioned but ineffective efforts to make a difference in the lives of the poor.”
He began volunteering on boards and consulting in his free time.
Recognizing the significance of the work he was doing, a friend suggested in 2011 that Mitchell should start his own company and move into a full-time career assisting Christian organizations. The friend pointed out that Mitchell could come alongside Christian organizations and help them achieve far more with the resources God had given them.
Taking a leap of faith, Jonathan quit his job three months later and launched a nonprofit called Concentric Development.
The Case of the Malfunctioning Water Pumps
One case that illustrates his approach to development involved a Christian group in India that installed water pumps. Over nearly a decade the group had installed thousands of pumps to provide clean water to underserved villages with the hopes that the gift of the pumps would show goodwill and open doors for sharing Christ’s love.
Mitchell wondered how many of the pumps were still functioning. He investigated and discovered that 34% of the pumps were having difficulties of some kind. More concerning to him was what he learned when he asked when the pastor had last visited the village.
“I was stunned to discover – and they were even more stunned to discover – that in 40% of the villages, the pastor who nominated the village had never visited,” he said.
To address these problems, Mitchell suggested that the communities commit to establishing a $100 repair fund to keep the well in good operating order. The fund ensured that pastors had a vested interest in the community and could minister to the villagers, while also maintaining the pumps.
By Mitchell’s estimates this small change resulted in a 40% jump in the effectiveness of achieving the desired goal of providing water and sharing Christ’s love.
“I add value to each donor’s dollar,” he said.
Initially, Mitchell worked primarily with U.S.-based organizations, but eventually he started working with indigenous groups. He says he has become a scout for Christian foundations that can help innovative and energetic organizations.
Since 2013, Mitchell has been exclusively focused on Pakistan and is encouraged by the country’s younger generation, which he says is fostering a culture of collaboration.
“Leadership in Pakistan is sort of driven by two things: rivalry and fear,” he said. “It comes from this zero-sum mentality that if resources went to you, those are resources that didn’t come to me.”
Those attitudes have been pervasive even in the church. That’s why he’s happy to see a new generation that is willing to consider a more collaborative approach. The ones who seem to buck the fear and rivalry trend, he said, are those who have been mentored, which highlighted to him the value of investing in mentorship.
“Something that I’m very focused on now is trying to introduce mentoring into the leadership culture of Pakistan.”
Jonathan emphasizes the importance of letting Pakistanis lead the effort.
“At the end of the day, they’ll have ownership of it,” he says.
In addition to mentorship, Jonathan sees entrepreneurship as a vital path forward. He encourages Pakistani Christians to take part in the local and global marketplace online, where they can gain dignity and opportunity through remote work and earn a living wage.
Creating Pathways for Outreach
Jonathan’s wife Kate is also assisting with his efforts wherever possible. She is a fitness trainer and has used her expertise in that area to begin offering fitness classes for young people who want to become fitness coaches. She’s discovered that health and wellness are becoming increasingly popular in the country. Her goal for the future is to help train athletic trainers who can then offer classes in their churches.
The Mitchells believe the work they’re doing can help Pakistani Christians engage more fully with their neighbors. Mitchell said Christians in the country have often viewed sharing Christ’s love with Muslims as the job of Westerners.
“They felt they didn’t have the stature, they certainly didn’t have the resources, and they didn’t have the education to be respected by their Muslim neighbors,” he said.
That mindset is changing as Pakistani Christians gain confidence and learn skills that are valued not only in other parts of the country but around the world.
“There’s a new generation that really feels that God has placed them strategically all over the country – in places that Westerners could never go,” he said. “They want to be a blessing to their neighbors and to the nation.”
He said he’s noticed a trend over his lifetime of fewer foreigners in the country, and that trend has accelerated in times of turmoil, such as following 9-11.
That could become relevant again if tensions between Pakistan and India escalate as they have recently.
“The Pakistani Church is beginning to step up to the plate, and I’m very excited about it,” Mitchell said. “I see my role as encouraging, equipping and advocating for Pakistan.”