"When Helping Hurts"- A Review

There are six things the Lord hates. Seven that are an abomination to Him- Prov. 6:16.

Pride is the first and most insidious. It is a flesh eating disease of the soul--an inhibitor of grace, mercy, and redemption, causing the ultimate poverty of spirit. Before this or any other form of poverty can be remedied, we must repent on our knees at the foot of the cross. Then and only then can we practice true and undefiled religion by lifting our hearts and hands to the call of Christ to minister to the poor and needy, the widows and orphans in distress. Such is the convicting call of When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.

There is no room for pride in God’s economy, especially when 40 percent of the world’s population is living on less than two dollars a day. That's less than the extra hot, skinny, pumpkin spice latte I bought this morning. We have been given much. Much will be required. Even in our present economic slump we are incredibly wealthy compared the rest of the world and have a massive responsibility to minister to the poor.

First, we must shift our paradigm. When Helping Hurts pushes us to do this by defining poverty. Think about it a moment...who are the poor? Like me, your answer probably focused on the economically destitute.

That is true in part, but as you will discover in reading this book, there are actually four spheres of poverty: spiritual intimacy, being, community, and stewardship. All of us are broken in one or more of those spheres and “until we embrace our mutual brokenness, our work with low-income people is likely to do more harm than good,” the authors state.

Repentance and humility must precede, envelope, and characterize all further endeavors towards poverty alleviation. Fundamentally, this means restoring people to right relationship with God, with themselves, with others, and with the world around them. This is only possible through continued reliance on Christ as we repent from our superiority and seek to restore dignity to the destitute.

This is practically achieved by understanding the situation and appropriately diagnosing the remedy. Is relief, rehabilitation or development necessary? Determining the response is pivotal, because more harm than good can come of an incorrect diagnosis.

The authors define each stage in specific detail: relief is an immediate response to an unexpected catastrophe through temporary and emergency aid; rehabilitation is working with people to help them rebuild the beneficial elements of their lives and community; and development is an ongoing process in which both those helping and those being helped are restored to right relationship with God, self, others, and creation.

“The root issue in all of these considerations is that God, who is a worker, ordained work so that humans could worship Him through their work. Relief efforts applied inappropriately often cause the beneficiaries to abstain from work, thereby limiting their relationship with God through distorted worship or through no worship,” said Alvin Mbola, a Kenyan community development worker.

We must view those we are seeking to help with honor and respect as thinking, creative individuals, created in the image of God. Every person has specific gifts. It is imperative to discover and foster those gifts.

This strategy is known as “asset based community development” or the ABCD method. Christian agencies find this an effective strategy as it utilizes the individuals’ and community’s resources of land, social networks, knowledge, animals, savings, etc. This strategy affirms those in destitute communities by helping them discover what is right with them and the ways God is already working in their community.

The “helpers” then have an understanding of what assets a community has and what they are lacking. The next step can be perilous and must be carefully and thoughtfully mapped-out. The danger in bringing outside resources into a community is that the current infrastructures such as banks, construction companies, and small businesses can be destroyed, albeit unintentionally.

The authors believe that “it would be far better to let a nonemergency need go unmet than to meet that need with outside resources and cripple local initiative in the process,” strongly emphasizing the importance of not doing things for people that they can do for themselves.

Restoration comes by allowing people to worship God through planning, envisioning, and carrying out their work. The authors give example after example of the effectiveness of participatory reconstruction and development of a depressed community. They contrast the old model of development known as “The Blue Print Approach”- a one size fits all approach with “The Learning Approach”- a method that seeks the involvement, wisdom, and participation of the community. This approach can take years to produce change, but the change is more lasting.

The emphasis is on relationships and time. Consequently, this method collides with the idea of short-term missions (STMs). The authors devote an entire chapter to discuss the disadvantages and potential ineffectiveness of the popular short-term mission trip. Sadly, more harm than good can be done through them. The time and understanding necessary for long-term change are not always in place and cannot be produced in two weeks.

One missions’ expert put it this way: “To get the job done (on our time scale), imported technology becomes more important than respect for elders, for old courtesies, for taking time. We end up dancing like elephants. We dance hard and we have big feet.”

That is not to say that there is no place for short-term missions. The authors believe that STMs can be effective and productive if they are part of a larger, already established effort. For instance, groups going to minister to missionaries already in place, or going with an organization with an established presence and relational infrastructure can be very helpful. It is also important that the host community invite the team and be willing to have them come, learn, and serve alongside them.

The final chapters of the book focus on practical ways the church can minister to the poor at home and around the globe. Most of the poor in North America do not need relief. They need basic job skills, financial education, and the ability to save and accumulate wealth. These are all things churches can provide through various ministries, which the authors generally describe. More information and training is available on their website- whenhelpinghurts.org.

The other strategies for poverty alleviation are more complex and have to do with micro financing, savings and loan services, and entrepreneurial training. They give an overview of these methods, but direct inquiring minds to seek training from the Chalmers Center for Economic Development, founded by co-author Brian Fikkert.

Though a broad sketch of how poverty should be addressed, When Helping Hurts is a rousing call to action and an informative overview of how to seek poverty restoration in our own lives and those of the economic poor. In-depth questions at the end of each chapter and thought provoking exercises make this an ideal book for small group or bible study use. Reading and studying it will compel you to “get dirty” as the hands and feet of Christ.

If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

I John 3:17-18