Why do Christians care?

Church-related hospitals, health centres and dispensaries are of high importance for the provision of health-care services in many developing countries. In East Africa particularly, the heritage of missionaries as well as the newly established church-related hospitals form the backbone of the hospital system. They are still strongly supported by church-related development agencies from Europe and the United States. The reasons why Christians engage in health care are analysed in this paper and a goal system for church-related health services is formulated. The intention is to bridge the gap between theologically correct but rather impractical values and functional objectives suitable for real-life decision-making. In particular we demonstrate that the most prominent Christian values (equity, love) are achieved by a health-care system that follows the objectives of affordability, quality, sustainability, participation and efficiency. It is realized that the transformation of values into concrete objectives must be accomplished jointly by health economists and theologians in order to support practical work of church-related health services as well as remain loyal to the biblical basis.