Poverty, at it’s very simplest, is a matter of “not having,” either in absolute terms or relative to others. There are many forms of poverty in our world – economic, relational, cultural, spiritual. Continue reading
Overview: Making a Difference
This archive category will contain discussions centered on the idea of making a difference. The desire to have an impact has been built into us, made as we are in our Maker’s image. Still, a creeping sense of futility keeps many of us from doing what we could. So, in this space we will highlight time-tested ways to make a real and lasting difference in the lives of the world’s poorest people. We hope you’ll join the discussion — joy awaits us as we discover what we need to know to exercise our stewardship privileges responsibly and effectively.
For an easy to use, information packed list of organizations whose programs have proven effective in helping the world’s poorest people to lift themselves out of extreme poverty, go to Best Christian Humanitarian Organizations.
Overview: Foundations for Generosity
This archive category will contain discussions exploring Christian foundations for generosity. Christian generosity has been described as living with an open hand as opposed to a closed fist — a relevant and convicting metaphor for a modern-day consumer culture characterized by independence, busyness, competition, and stress.Continue reading
Overview: The Church’s Response
This archive category will contain discussions around the Church’s response to the problem of extreme poverty. We notice that Christ did not just preach the Good News, He tangibly demonstrated it, backing His words up with action. As His disciples, we are called to do the same; in this way, the Great Commission and the Great Commandment are wedded into an undeniably powerful whole.Continue reading
Overview: The Biblical Mandate
This archive category will contain discussions focusing on the the biblical mandate for serving the least and last. Throughout all 66 books of the bible, in over 2000 separate verses, our Father reveals His heart for the poor. Ponder the fact that Christ entered this world as one of them, a manger His first bed. So complete is His identification with the poor, His compassion for them, that He considers love shown to the poor to be love shown to Him. More than a set of rules to be obeyed, we are shown that in helping the least and last we are in communion with Him.Continue reading
Overview: The Least and Last
This archive category will contain discussions focusing on the nature and extent of what has been called extreme poverty — that is, the world’s most desperately poor people. Extreme poverty is often defined as those who live on less than $1.00 per day. While poverty is present to some degree in every American town or city, most of us never witness the extreme poverty that one billion of earth’s inhabitants live in. Our discussions here will tell their story.Continue reading
Donor-Directed Giving
Article Summary: Christians wishing to address the problem of extreme poverty by giving through their churches face twin challenges. First, are the projects they support truly effective? Second is the issue of dilution: Giving to a church’s general budget results, on average, in only 2% of the gift being applied to lifting those who live in extreme poverty out of their suffering. While acknowledging that giving directly to parachurch organizations with demonstrated expertise in this field is an effective and biblically sound option, this article makes the case that there are significant advantages to allowing and encouraging congregants to direct sacrificial contributions to these organizations through their local churches. Among these advantages are the revitalization of local congregations as they focus upon a purpose outside of and larger than themselves, and the enormous positive impact on the broader Church’s witness. Accordingly, this article advocates (and urges congregants to do the same) for the inclusion of carefully selected parachurch organizations within the local church’s framework of donor-directed giving opportunities.Continue reading
Short Term Missions and Helping Well
Dollar spending on short-term mission trips in the U.S. has grown 20-fold in the last 20 years; for 2006, this figure stood at $1.6 billion (1). A key question arises when church missions and service projects are viewed through the lens of helping well: Where the goal is transforming communities by empowering them for self-sufficiency, how do church-based short term missions measure up? The answer depends on the extent to which best practices for helping well are utilized. Continue reading
Book Review: The Hole in Our Gospel
The Hole in Our Gospel, by Richard Stearns, President Emeritus, World Vision US
Winner, ECPA 2010 Book of the Year
Why is this book so important?
Why have church leaders around the country chosen this book for sermon series', for small group work, for whole-congregation book studies?
Why have so many readers -- individuals and churches -- called it transforming?