Working with the Poor: When Our Helping Hurts

I have been doing a lot of thinking about working with the poor. I think it's been coming up in my sermons and in my blogging over the last couple of months. I'm not sure what it is about this that has lit some intellectual fire under me, but it has. Perhaps I struggle, somewhat, with a church setting that is mostly insulated from the poor. Perhaps the Shane Claiborne visit (COMING JULY 4) has convicted me. Perhaps the various conversations I've been having at the Conference level concerning mission and ministry has effected me. Regardless, I'm trying to think more critically about our work with "The Least, The Last, and The Lost."

There are several internal struggles I've been dealing with here.

• The paternalism of much of our help. At what point is it "just a hand-out and not a hand-up?"
• The cultural perspective that makes poverty and homelessness the problem of the poor and does not put the burden on those who have enough in life.
• The ease of taking up a special offering for a cause and the difficulty of getting out to work alongside those who are poor.
• A guilt concerning my own complicity in the problem of poverty in the world.
• A desire to not be involved and keep this part of ministry far away from where I am...keeping with the more "spiritual" or "intellectual" or at least not so "messy" pursuits.
• The sheer size of the problem of poverty and all the related problems.

Well, through a wide selection of links I wound up over at Simple Church Journal. It's a journal about house churches and a lot of the stuff I have swimming around in my brain--missional church, relationships, etc. Over there, they have a post concerning the book, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor...and Yourself. It's by Fikkert and Corbett. The point of their book is that, all work with poverty on behalf of God's kingdom is "to restore people to a full expression of humanness, to being what God created us all to be, people who glorify God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation." From this basis, the authors come up with some key principles for serving the poor that got my attention:

1. Know the difference between relief, rehabilitation, and development. Know which one is needed in the given situation and apply it. Providing ongoing relief (meeting critical needs in a time of crisis), for example, when community development (empowering people to help themselves) is called for will simply exacerbate the problems and helplessness of those we want to help.

2. Beware the poison of paternalism and “do not do things that people can do for themselves.”

3. Begin with assets not needs. Asset-Based Community Development:

“ABCD is consistent with the perspective that God has blessed every individual and community with a host of gifts, including such diverse things as land, social networks, knowledge, animals, savings, intelligence, schools, creativity, production equipment, etc. ABCD puts the emphasis on what materially poor people already have and asks them to consider from the outset, “What is right with you? What gifts has God given you that you can use to improve your life and that of your neighbors? How can the individuals and organizations in your community work together to improve your community?”

“In contrast, needs-based development focuses on what is lacking in the life of a community or a person. The assumption in this approach is that the solutions to poverty are dependent upon outside human and financial resources. Churches and ministries using a needs-based approach are often quick to provide food, clothes, shelter, and money to meet the perceived, immediate needs of low-income people, who are often viewed as “clients” or “beneficiaries” of the program. Pouring in outside resources is not sustainable and only exacerbates the feelings of helplessness and inferiority that limits low-income people from being better stewards of their God-given talents and resources.”

4. Use a participatory process that engages and energizes as much of the community as possible.

I really like the notion of Asset-Based Community Development. This seems to be much more of a grass-roots approach to work with the poor and seems like it would have much more sticking power. So much of our ministry with the poor is done just like it is through the car window when we see a homeless person with a sign that says, "Homeless vet. Any help is appreciated." We drive by. We throw our money at the problem. We don't work with the person on the street.

This makes me wonder about many of the ministries that I've been part of over the years...food pantries, clothing drives, special collections.