Christianity, starting off as a sect of Judaism, continued to build on the ideas of that faith and introduced new ideas that have since become integrated into western civilization. Namely, Christianity heavily emphasized caring for the poor and needy and creating organizations to accomplish that, and Christianity was an evangelizing universal religion that actively sought new converts. These two emphases combined with a pagan people yearning for something more, led to the meteoric rise of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire in its first 300 years.