When Helping Hurts: Healthy Relationships Require Transformed Hearts

 

I have actually read several books on poverty for my secular job. Interestingly, those authors reach the same types of conclusion about dealing with poverty. Somehow, our politicians ignore those recommendations and instead prefer to pass out the freebies! In this book, the authors explain some of the assumptions that Christians make about the causes of poverty. Those assumptions result in strategies that do considerable harm to poor people and themselves. 

What most encouraged or challenged you from the book? 

Steve Corbett writes, “The same is true when we work with poor people. If we treat only the symptoms or if we misdiagnose the underlying problem, we will not improve their situation, and we might actually make their lives worse.”  This is so important to understand because we American’s have a tendency to just want to toss money at things. That is not the best fix!

People are messed up because of sin, because of unbelief, not because of lack of money.

Corbett sums it up this way. “Long-standing debate in the political arena concerns the extent to which people are materially poor due to their personal failures or to the effects of broken systems on their lives. Political conservatives tend to stress the former, while political liberals tend to emphasize the latter. Which view is correct? Many of us learned as children in Sunday school that Adam and Eve’s sin messed up absolutely everything, implying that both individuals and systems are broken. Hence, Christians should be open to the idea that individuals and/or systems could be the problem as we try to diagnose the causes of poverty in any particular context. This much we learned in Sunday school. Unfortunately, what few of us seem to have learned in Sunday school is that Jesus’ redemption is cosmic in scope, bringing reconciliation to both individuals and systems. And as ministers of reconciliation, His people need to be concerned with both as well, the subject to which we now turn.” 

Yes we give a cool cup of water, and we minister in love and kindness, but we share the gospel too. Otherwise, we are just like the Red Cross or some other secular organization. And if we come along and toss out some money we are honestly making the situation worse.

What verses of Scripture from your book stood out to you? 

We are not bringing Christ to poor communities. He has been active in these communities since the creation of the world, sustaining them. Hebrews 1:3 says, “by His powerful Word.” Hence, a significant part of working in poor communities involves discovering and appreciating what God has been doing there for a LONG time.” 

How did you experience spiritual growth in your reading? 

The need for spiritual growth does not apply just to “the poor.” It applies to me. Disappoints and sadness often have a spiritual basis, not a financial basis. For me, my children and my wife.

“If we reduce human beings to being simply physical—as Western thought is prone to do—our poverty-alleviation efforts will tend to focus on material solutions. But if we remember that humans are spiritual, social, psychological, and physical beings, our poverty-alleviation efforts will be more holistic in their design and execution.” 

Were there any areas of your reading that you disagreed with, or would like more in depth evaluation? 

This paragraph needs more attention, more study from me. It is such a paradigm shift for me. For me personally, for more work, for other people I know. Or Lord forgive me for approach this wrong over the years.

Corbett writes, “If you are a North American Christian, the reality of our society’s vast wealth presents you with an enormous responsibility, for throughout the Scriptures God’s people are commanded to show compassion to the poor. In fact, doing so is simply part of our job description as followers of Jesus Christ (Matt. 25:31–46). 

While the biblical call to care for the poor transcends time and place, passages such as 1 John 3:17 should weigh particularly heavy on the minds and hearts of North American Christians: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” 

Of course, there is no “one-size-fits-all” recipe for how each Christian should respond to this biblical mandate. Some are called to pursue poverty alleviation as a career, while others are called to do so as volunteers. Some are called to engage in hands-on, relational ministry, while others are better suited to support frontline workers through financial donations, prayer, and other types of support. Each Christian has a unique set of gifts, callings, and responsibilities that influence the scope and manner in which to fulfill the biblical mandate to help the poor.”

Wow, this caught my eye because as a political science major, I really thought it was the other way around. Government taking over the role of the church not the church giving up its role. 

Corbett writes, “It is important to note that the Great Reversal preceded the rise of the welfare state in America. Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty did not occur until the 1960s, and even FDR’s relatively modest New Deal policies were not launched until the 1930s. In short, the evangelical church’s retreat from poverty alleviation was fundamentally due to shifts in theology and not—as many have asserted—to government programs that drove the church away from ministry to the poor. While the rise of government programs may have exacerbated the church’s retreat, they were not the primary cause. Theology matters, and the church needs to rediscover a Christ-centered, fully orbed perspective of the kingdom.” 

How will this book inspire you regarding missions? 

Until we embrace our mutual brokenness, our work with low-income people is likely to do more harm than good. I sometimes unintentionally reduce poor people to objects that I use to fulfill my own need to accomplish something. I am not okay, and you are not okay. But Jesus can fix us both. This is a reminder each of us needs and something to pray about as a team ever time we serve in an area of low income.

What insight have you gained for being a field team leader? 

Healthy relationships require transformed hearts, not just transformed brains or transformed pocket books. Poverty alleviation occurs when the power of Christ's resurrection reconciles our key relationships. Wow that is a counter cultural thought!