February 2014 – When it comes to digging deep into our pockets, Americans have great potential. (See “Generous Church,” AFA Journal, 1/13.) However, simply transferring the contents of our pockets to someone else’s is not enough.

As Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert record in their book, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor, approximately $2.3 trillion in foreign aid has been distributed since World War II. Still, 2.5 billion people – about 40% of the world’s population – are living on less than two dollars a day.

The solution clearly does not depend on just the number of dollars transferred from more wealthy to less wealthy. Rather, it depends on a true understanding of poverty, so that available resources can be utilized in a way that addresses the cause of poverty, and does not just assuage its effects. 

People in poverty
As explained in When Helping Hurts, physical poverty is often rooted in a failure to recognize a person as created in God’s image. 

Corbett told AFA Journal, “God created us to be workers, with creative potential and purpose. When we just give things to people or do things for them, they miss out on being all that they are supposed to be.” 

Michael Miller, director of the DVD series Poverty Cure, agreed. “If we get the human person wrong, it negatively impacts the way we engage with the poor, and we will get poverty alleviation wrong,” he told AFA Journal. 

Both Corbett and Miller identify the most common way people get poverty alleviation wrong as treating all poverty like it demands emergency relief.

“Relief is response to some kind of uncontrollable crisis, the only place where a provider-receiver dynamic is appropriate,” Corbett said. “Less than 10% of poverty in the world is caused by crises, so relief should be a very minor part of ending poverty because it focuses on just the material element, not the responsibility that people have to steward their own environments.”

Handling poverty in this way is harmful for the impoverished, for those bringing aid and for the economy. As Corbett’s book and Poverty Cure each illustrate, relief allows only short-term, superficial benefits; as soon as aid stops, any extra influx of wealth will cease. This fosters dependency, creating a sense of inferiority that adds to inner poverty and intensifies the cycle of poverty. 

Ultimately, this creates what Miller describes as a poverty industry. 

“Instead of creating long-term economic development, it’s focused on what we can do,” he said. “We make ourselves necessary, and helping people becomes a business, a job, a career. Poor people become objects of our charity instead of protagonists in their own development – once again, misunderstanding the person.” 

Potential of the poor
For this reason, a Christian perspective is integral to understanding the spiritual dimension to poverty and a correct use of charity. 

“Normally we think of charity as giving things away,” Miller said. “But as we understand from Scripture, charity is really Christian love, which means to seek the good of another. The reason, then, that we deal with poverty is to promote human flourishing; I don’t just mean materially, but to be as God intended.”

In fact, the best people to combat poverty are those in the midst of it. 

“People have real problems,” Corbett said, “but they have the knowledge and resources to contribute to solving those problems for a truly long-term solution and better future. People should utilize available resources, and then outside resources can be brought in as a supplement, not a replacement.”

As Miller pointed out, free resources actually compete with business and trade in a struggling economy. On the other hand, developing existing assets creates true wealth. For this reason, it is important to focus on the local people, who have a better understanding of their culture, needs and available resources. 

“People in Latin America, Africa and Asia have tremendous capabilities for dealing with problems in their own communities,” Corbett said. “The direction of nationals provides better stewardship, better management and more effectiveness. Our job in the West is to discover how we can stand with them, equip them better.”

Path out of poverty
Kabum Coffee, a supplier of coffee beans to Thomas Street Coffee (See “Ministry Passport,” 7-8/13.) demonstrates just how development works to end poverty, as founder Paul Rawlins explains.AFA Journal

“We are no longer willing to just give a fish, Rawlins said. “The results aren’t there, and it is not God’s way. We show people how to be responsible by engaging them in real business – so that they can learn to fish. 

“How can you do this in emerging cultures inbred with bad patterns of aid? Only by walking hand in hand with people through long periods of time. You can’t tell them how it works; you have to show them. Some will fight you tooth and nail because a handout is what they are used to and expect. If so, move on. Soon fruit will be evident to all, and the economy will slowly rise out of poverty.” 

However, Rawlins acknowledges that poverty demands more than just a material remedy.

“Coffee is our catalyst to economic change, but money is not the answer,” he added. “People need teaching in stewardship, tithing, savings and fiscal responsibility to be healthy. Soon they are training and teaching each other and seeing results like better schools, wells with fresh water, food on tables, new homes constructed – all of which comes from them now, not from others.” 

Possibilities and challenges for ministry
Naturally, in any giving situation, tensions exist and complexities will arise. Every giving method has its advantages and disadvantages, its appropriate time and place. Determining those factors depends on each individual context. But, regardless of how dollars are placed on the scale against neediness, the crucial challenge in facing poverty is how to truly help people, and especially how to present the gospel. 

As Miller noted, charity should never appear to have a contingency agreement attached that places the needy in a vulnerable position. This creates a question for Christians: How do we avoid the impression that charity is being used to sell the gospel? 

While both are vital to Christian ministry, and while compassionate giving can draw people to the Person who motivates it, it is also important that the gospel be presented as valuable in itself.

“We don’t want to just hand out Bibles, and we don’t want to just feed people,” Miller said. “Look at what Jesus did in His own ministry. By knowing Him, we become more like Him and can imitate Him. 

“And again, what is the true goal of charity? The goal is not simply to give them bread. It is not simply to make them Christians. It is to bring the gospel to people so they can flourish here on earth in fulfillment of how God created them, and then spend eternal life with God in heaven.”  

Resources
• Poverty Cure povertycure.org
• When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert chalmers.org