When Helping Hurts, How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert

Book Review: When Helping Hurts, How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself. Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. Moody Press, 2009

When Helping Hurts is an invaluable book for group discussion by North American mission teams, mission committees, groups taught by mission pastors, all those committed to God’s kingdom agenda for the poor and those involved in the outreach and missions budget of a church. The authors’ thesis highlights their challenge:

“We believe the local church has a unique role to play in poverty alleviation and we are delighted to see the recent resurgence in church-based holistic ministry to the poor at home and abroad. At the same time we are grieved when we see churches using alleviation strategies that are grounded in unbiblical assumptions about the nature of poverty and that violate ‘best practice’ methodologies developed by theorists and practioners over the course of many decades” (p.15).

One of the chief reasons for this “violation” lies in a fundamental difference in understanding poverty. The authors say, from their extensive research and teaching experience, that many middle class North American Christians think of poverty materialistically “in terms of lack of food, clothing, sanitation, medicine, money and clean water. But when the poor in the Majority world have answered the question [what is poverty?], they mention shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness” (p.53). This is a “poverty of being” which is also “a problem for the economically rich who often have god-complexes, a subtle and unconscious sense of superiority in which they believe that they have achieved their wealth through their own efforts and that they have been anointed to decide that is best for low-income people, whom they view as inferior to themselves” (p. 65).

The problems are compounded, the authors say, by a blurring of distinctions between relief, rehabilitation or development. “The failure to distinguish among these situations is one of the most common reasons that poverty-alleviation efforts often do harm” (pp.103-104). “Relief is the urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering from a natural or man-made crisis…Rehabilitation seeks to restore to people the positive elements of their pre-crisis conditions [by] working with the victims as they participate in their recovery…Development is the process of on-going change where the ‘helped’ are better able to fulfill their calling of glorifying God by working and supporting themselves and their families…It’s an empowering process... [We] North American Christians often project our own idea of what is an acceptable standard of living into a situation and are quick to take the relief approach, doling out money in ways that the local people would consider unwise and dependence-creating. And in the process, we can undermine local judgment, discipline, accountability, stewardship, savings and institutions.” (pp. 103, 104, 108).

Problematically, many North American Christians also approach poverty alleviation from a needs assessment base which focuses on what is wrong in a poor community (p. 125). This approach can feed into paternalism as the donor wants to “help fix the problem.” The authors insist that paternalism with its many faces is “poisonous” between North American middle and upper class believers and Majority world believers because it leads to Americans doing “for others what they can do for themselves” and a tendency for Americans “to take charge and run things” (p. 119). The authors note that “the poor do not need to take charge because they know that we will take charge if they wait long enough; they have internalized the messages of centuries of colonialism, slavery and racism: that Caucasians run things and everyone else follows; and they [also] know that by letting us run the show it is more likely that we will bring in the money and other material resources to give to them” (p. 119). As a result, North American paternalism and its relief approach violates “best practice methodologies” (p. 15). 

Instead, the authors advocate asset-based community development, where the poor people involved are empowered to use their gifts and strengths and “participate in all aspects of the project, proposing the best course of action, implementing a chosen strategy, evaluating how well things are working and determining the appropriate behavior modification” (p.144). “Middle to upper class North American believers who step in for relief poverty alleviation (based on their understanding of the nature of poverty), have to accept that our power has silenced their brethren at home or abroad more than we realize” (p. 172).

The authors illustrate how well-intentioned short term mission teams sent out from the middle and upper class North American church aggravate this problem. Citing statistics in 2006 - that 50% of short term mission trips from the U.S. were for under a 2 week period of time but totaled 212 million participants and cost $1,600,000,000 (p. 161)- the authors lament that:

· often the teams are not versed in cross-cultural engagement issues;

· they come to materially poor communities experiencing chronic problems that need long-term development not relief

· they generally have a needs based approach not an asset based approach to the community

· they come with a task they hope to achieve in their brief stay without understanding or sufficiently involving the indigenous people they hope to serve (pp.162-166).

One example illustrates the harm that is possible:

“An American staff member who works with an indigenous organization trying to bring development to poor communities in a Latin American country noted: ‘The indigenous staff in my organization lead weekly Bible studies with children in low-income communities. These Bible studies are just one aspect of my organization’s over-all attempts to bring long-lasting development in these broken communities. After a short term team (sent by a North American middle class church) conducts a Bible study in one of these communities, the children stop attending the Bible studies of my organization…because we do not have all the fancy materials and crafts that the short term teams have and we do not give away things like these teams do. The children have also come to believe that our staff are not as interesting or as creative as the Americans that come on these teams’” (p.169).  

Therefore, the authors suggest to the churches or mission organizations who send out short term teams:

· “Make pre-trip learning a requirement (including a summary of the major concepts in this book);

· have a substantial presentation of at least several hours for perspective team members to clearly explain what the trip is and is not about;

· be sure prospective short termers are already actively involved in their church’s local outreach efforts;

· require short termers to pay at least a portion of the trip from their own pocket;

· design the trip to be about “learning” and “being” as much as about “doing”;

· ensure that the “doing” portion of the trip avoids paternalism;

· and do both on the field and post trip reflections for at least a year following the trip” (pp. 175-178).

· The authors even suggest renaming a “short term missions trip” a “Vision Trip” or a “Go, Learn, Return and Respond” trip (p.176).

Corbett and Fikkert’s book is replete with examples of North American middle class believers’ good intentions for poverty alleviation gone awry. But in all the chapters in the book the authors also give practical guidelines for what ‘best practice methodologies’ do work. Each chapter is also bookended by excellent reflection questions that will help small groups grapple with people’s own preconceptions and methodologies. That makes the book invaluable to all churches intent on responding to God’s kingdom agenda globally.

Wisely, the authors say their book is only the beginning of the learning cycle. They close the book encouraging readers “to pursue even deeper learning through the Chalmers Center for Economic Development (www. Chalmers.org)” (p.219). It is hoped their advice will be more fully utilized in the near and distant future.

Reviewed by Mary Lou Codman-Wilson, Ph.D. 1/27/12

Ethnic Blends by Mark Deymaz and Harry Li

Book Review: Ethnic Blends. Mark Deymaz and Harry Li, Zondervan 2010

Every so often a book comes along that challenges a dominant mission and church growth principle.  In Ethnic Blends Deymaz and Li take on the Homogeneous Unit Principle (HUP) which has been the mainstay of the church growth movement since the 1950’s.  Deymaz and Li say

 “HUP is promoted as a pragmatic guide for planting or replicating churches that target individual people groups or certain segments of society.  It has proven quite successful in its application.  But it begs the question: Should rapid numerical growth be so prominently upheld as the standard of a church’s success?...I believe the HUP is a valid strategy for evangelism but a strategy that is misapplied to the local church…In Ephesians 3 Paul makes it clear that it is God’s intention that the local church reflects the Father’s love for all people through members who love one another beyond the distinctions of the world that so often and otherwise divide...Establishing a church that reflects God’s love for all people is Biblical…The multiethnic church in Antioch, rather than the homogeneous church in Jerusalem, is our model” (pp.76-77, 43, 42).

The authors have chosen the term multi-ethnic because they say: “’Ethne’ is the Biblical word for one race that has different ethnicities.”  The term “multi-cultural” by contrast has “become associated with postmodern universalism and the doctrine of tolerance” (p.39).  Their thesis is that the multi-ethnic church demonstrates a Biblical oneness since Jesus Christ Himself broke down the dividing walls of hostility between Jews and Gentiles and created in Himself one new humanity out of two (Eph.2:15) and made that unity a singular focus of his high priestly prayer: “I pray that all those who believe in Me…may be one, Father,…as we are one – I in them and you in me so that they may be brought to complete unity.  Then the world will know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you loved me” (Jn.17:21-23). 

The 7 core commitments the authors hold up as a model for the multi-ethnic church are:

1.      “Embrace dependence – it must all be the work of the Holy Spirit and of faith…Only God’s Spirit can cleanse the mind, heal damaged emotions and provide strength for the will to overcome the pain of negative past experiences rooted in racial or class prejudice” (pp. 44, 162).

2.      “Take intentional steps to accommodate each one’s culture” (p. 45).

3.      “Empower diverse leaders…seeking leaders outside your same race and friendship circle” (p.46-47).  One way to tell if a church is genuinely on the track to multi-ethnicity is whether or not the staff and volunteer leadership are of different races and cultures.

4.      “Develop cross-cultural relationships…deal with prejudicial feelings and thoughts through dialogue and determine to work through misunderstandings” (pp.47-48).

5.      “Pursue cross-cultural competence [by] surrounding yourself with cross-culturally competent people who can be trusted to provide insight and training across the board, from the nursery to the pulpit and every station in between” (p.48).

6.      “Promote a spirit of inclusion…creating an environment where diverse people not only feel welcome but also, in time, feel they are a significant part of the whole.” [This] in no way implies a commitment to embrace doctrines or practices that in one way or another violate God’s Word” (p.49).

7.      “Mobilize for impact…The outcome of establishing a multi-ethnic church…is to turn the power and pleasure of God…outward in order to bless the city, lead people to Christ, encourage the greater body, and fulfill the Great Commission (Mt.28:19-20)” (p.50).

The bulk of the book is a series of chapters that deal very practically with overcoming the various obstacles to establishing multi-ethnic churches – personal obstacles (of misunderstandings, discouragements, etc.), theological obstacles (of a dogmatism that is actually “personal, preferential or culturally bound” p.84), philosophical obstacles (illegal immigrants, intended exclusion, long-range planning, etc.), practical obstacles (i.e., differing music agendas, etc.), cross-cultural obstacles (“your effectiveness in ministering to a broad range of people within the church will hinge on your ability not only to understand but also to respect and rightly interpret for others various cultural perspectives related to Christ, the church and the gospel” p.149), relational obstacles (“through our prayer and actions we are called to love all people  with the love of Christ.  By this uncommon, unnatural love, the world will witness the power of God and give glory to Him” p.185). [Yet] “the very nature of a multi-ethnic church guarantees that at some point you will offend someone with a different ethnic or economic background… Many people are driven by deep-seated insecurities, sensitivities and loyalties of which they are largely unaware. Consequently they live in a state of self-deception and bondage to the hurts and regrets of their past…Therefore leaders need to be equipped in the art of conflict resolution”).  (pp.171, 173)

Finally, the last obstacles discussed are spiritual obstacles (these are spiritual forces of wickedness that cause spread slander, party spirit, criticism and undermine the whole church. “Satan’s desire is to destroy… leaders through persecution, false accusation, temptation and discouragement.”  The authors acknowledge such spiritual struggles in all churches but say “the multi-ethnic church represents a bold frontal attack on Satan’s strongholds…of racism and human hatred…The pursuit of unity is a collective struggle against unseen forces of darkness that will seek to separate us from one another and subvert the gospel...the flaming darts of the evil one seek to divide and conquer…Hence we need collectively to put on the whole armor of God and fight as a church and stay the course, guided by a most powerful truth – ‘the one in you is greater than the one who is in the world’ (I Jn.4:40). (pp.194-207).

One of the great values of this book is the intentional effort to connect people so there can be interactions and growth for all those committed to the vision of a multi-ethnic church.  Deymaz has a blog where he encourages these interactions: www.markdeymaz.com.  He and Li have also cited numerous pastors and church leaders who give testimonials about the issues they face in multi-ethnic ministry.  These additions in each chapter are insightful.  All of the leaders quoted are also cited with all of their contact information in Appendix #1 at the back.  In addition, Appendix #5 on the conflict principles used in the authors’ Mosaic Church is most helpful.  There are many books on conflict resolution but these principles are particularly relevant to cross-cultural Christian ministry. 

Hopefully, the collective wisdom and experience in this book will do for churches bound by the homogeneous unit principle what happened to the western missionary movement when Shoki Coe first presented his paper on Contextualization at the World Council of Churches in 1972 – bringing new challenge and Biblical relevance to the church universal, still caught in the grip of ethnocentrism and division. It is supernatural, indeed, when the church is a model of heaven where people of every tribe and tongue love one another and worship the Lord Jesus together (Rev.7:9).  My hope is that this book will have a wide readership and wider application to that end.

                                                            Reviewer: M.L. Codman-Wilson, Ph.D.                    1/23/12

Invitations from God, by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun

Book Review: Adele Ahlberg Calhoun.  Invitations from God.  (IVP, 2011).

 

Adele Calhoun’s second book, Invitations from God, is in the spiritual formation genre. She says: “Invitations from God bring healing and liberation from the gnawing lies of the enemy”(p.11).  The invitations she chose for the book are meant “to mend, shape and anchor us into the character of Christ” and are chosen because they “are the ones our achievement and entertainment-addicted [western] society tends to ignore or avoid”(p.16).  Some of her observations:

1.        The invitation to participate in our own healing:  “The invitation to get up and walk [to the paralytic at Bethsaida], was the first in a series of invitations. Now the man was to stop sinning… [God wanted] character change and deep down renovation of the heart. This man, like us, would have to keep the healing process of change alive inside of him…A ‘yes’ to one invitation is always a ‘no’ to another” (pp. 30, 32).

2.        The invitation to follow: “Jesus didn’t buy the pyramid structure of leading and following. He said that following and ruling (leading) are both about serving. Serving flattens the pyramid into a circle. Serving bring us down…Following Jesus means identifying with God’s broken heart over poverty and his holy anger at injustices in our world. It means following his lead on who and what matters” (pp. 40, 47).

3.        The invitation to rest: “The body-satisfying, soul replenishing rest to which God calls me happens when 1.) I pay attention to my physical limits and the toll that work has taken on my soul. 2) I become intentional about creating space for treatment, healing and renewal. 3). God can reach out to me with his healing hand (p.82).

4.        The invitation to weep: “How remarkable that God has hard-wired us to weep when we come to the end of our resources.  Tears wash away the buildup of toxic chemicals that accrue under stress. They are part of the process that can restore psychological and physiological balance”…You need to stand in solidarity with Jesus and this hurting world. That means accepting His invitation to vulnerability, weeping and redemptive love” (pp.88, 96).

5.        The invitation to wait: “To wait expectantly and with open hands requires a relinquishment of control that gets at the roots of our motivations, fears and idolatries…I come face to face with anxieties, demands and my need to control and direct the Holy One…Waiting on God is like waiting in the wings for God’s grace and presence to help me live in a very difficult present” (pp. 135, 148).

6.    The invitation to admit I might be wrong: “A relationship with the One who is the Truth is an invitation to teachability...Being in error and needing help, guidance and a teacher to set us straight are not things we outgrow…The type of humility that admits you’re wrong when you know you are wrong is confession. The humility that admits you might be wrong when you’re pretty sure you’re right is maturity…Owning our own faults, blind spots and failures…can be a freeing thing…Confession opens us wide to Jesus and one another”(pp.112,114, 115).

 7.    The invitation to the most excellent way: “Our [western] culture is obsessed with excellence,[but] it is a merciless idol…Paul’s assessment of the most excellent way is love (I Cor. 13)…Here is a heavyweight theologian making a case for excellence not being limited to the gifted, talented, powerful or successful” (pp.183-5).

Calhoun’s book is particularly helpful for those seeking spiritual transformation because the book has exercises within each chapter to help the readers apply each point of her teaching. For example:

·         The invitation to remember: “Memories govern our choices, give us our bearings and form our futures… When someone asks you to tell your story, notice what you tell and what you leave out.  Talk to God about these things.  Notice how family history has shaped your story in good ways and deforming ways” (pp. 170, 169).

·         How does my need to be right affect my relationships with others? (Invitation to Admit I’m Wrong - p. 103)

·         Describe the feelings you experience when you have to wait. What do these feelings reveal about the way you think life should work? (Invitation to Wait - p. 137).

·         How can catching a glimpse of God’s image in another person change the way you pray for them? (Invitation to Practice the Presence of People - p.68).

·         How is God’s kingdom shaping your choices and plans? (Invitation to Pray – p. 161).

Calhoun’s combination of spiritual insights coupled with application questions throughout the book engage the reader and make the book a helpful guide in spiritual formation.     

M.L. Codman-Wilson, Ph.D.              1/13/12

Champagne for the Soul, Discovering God's Gift of Joy by Mike Mason

Book Review: Mike Mason, Champagne for the Soul, Discovering God’s Gift of Joy.

(Regent College Publishing, 2011)

Review:

New Year’s Eve is often associated with champagne in the West, so the title of Mike Mason’s book seemed appropriate to read over the New Year’s holiday!  The champagne he advocates imbibing generously is God’s gift of joy.   That is God’s “champagne for the soul” (p.1). 

Mason admits to be “addicted to the cheap wine of melancholy” (p.1) for decades in his own life.  He writes to Christians whose joy seems elusive and asks: ‘Is something missing from your Christianity?’ (p.3).  His answer is God’s gift of joy.  He writes “to demystify joy, to make it common fare for every Christian, to help people see that happiness is taught in the Bible and that God wants us to have it, starting now” (p.69).  As part of that demystification process, he tries to “dismantle the dichotomy or spiritualization of joy that has kept it in the ethereal, spiritual realm without its needed spill over to what makes for practical, happy living” (p.33).  He is intentional, therefore, in applying the practical implications of a joy-based lifestyle through a series of brief chapters, each based on an individual scriptural text that he uses to describe an aspect of joy or happiness.

What keeps the book from just being a theological treatise is Mason's own 90 day experiment in joy. He started that experiment at the prompting of God the day after two teenage boys, “the only children of our friends” (p.5), had been killed in a car accident.  The timing of his experiment made sense to him only after he realized that “Christian joy is rooted in darkness, chaos, sorrow. Joy isn’t an airy ideal but a hard reality inextricably enmeshed with conditions in the real world” (p.5).  Although he understood that joy and suffering are not mutually exclusive, to undertake his experiment he had to “change beliefs…Believers cling to a certain degree of melancholy, thinking melancholy is inevitable in this world and that joy is the exception rather than the rule…An experiment in joy is a resolution to give up all doubts about God…I’m convinced that what keeps us from a joy-filled life is a lingering resentment of God, a latent conviction that God isn’t fair and that life is too hard” (pp.53, 109, 131). “We’re so sure we’d be happy if only we could get free of our troubles, but going through life without troubles is not an option. It’s one’s attitude toward trouble that makes all the difference” (p.130).

Joy is God’s free gift to the Christian, he emphasizes, but faith is our part in receiving it (p.174). “The manna of joy falls in limitless supply but each day’s rations must be gathered afresh” (p.141). “Joy is not cheap.  Joy involves a sacrifice. If I am not joyful, something is standing between me and joy.  Am I willing to give that thing up?” (p.101).  “If we want joy, we will have to fight for it deliberately and fiercely” alongside our Commander in Chief, Jesus. “He longs for us to rise up out of our misery and apathy, to take arms against the foe and to feel the joy of victory flowing in our veins. He’ll supply the weapons, the courage, the power …but only we can supply the will to fight”( pg.46). “Joy is like a muscle and the more you exercise it, the stronger it grows” (p.1). “A decision to live in joy is a decision to overcome every earthly problem by the power of heaven” (p.73). “To uncover the wells of joy one must search for them.  Unless we define for ourselves the specific personal ways we experience joy and deliberately make room for these pleasures, happiness will escape us” (p.154). 

Given those convictions, Mason intentionally sought, during his 90 experiment and in the 3 years since, to “locate the one moment in each day that holds the most joy...By nourishing one ray of joy like a seedling, joy takes root in me and grows and grow until it fills my heart” (p.114). He does not minimize the “struggle” it is to succeed in living a joy-filled life.

Mason’s critiques of melancholy Christians are telling.  His own effort to dig out from that mental lifestyle is exemplary and gives hope to others who want to follow suit.  And his scriptural exegesis on individual passages about joy is thoughtful.  But his insistence that joy and happiness are inextricably linked creates some dissonance for the reader.  The word happiness is based semantically on the root word ‘to happen.’ Thus happiness by definition has been linked to one’s gladness when circumstances are favorable.   Using that definition of happiness, joy is separate from happiness, not synonymous with it.  Joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal.5:22) and a gift from Christ (Jn.15:11, Jn.17:13) that transcends our circumstances.  Mason tries to alleviate this disparity by redefining happiness as “doing my best in bad circumstances, cutting myself lots of slack, appropriating God’s grace and mercy in such a way that I don’t feel pressured to perform” (p.26). He wants “to demonstrate that happiness is not happenstance but…a profound spiritual discipline” (p.24). “Happiness involves an act of will…It is a series of choices, a series of steps taken one after another in the same direction” (p.51).  He insists that “unhappiness is based on a “fog of lies” [about God’s character, the nature of life and our ability to overcome whatever difficulties face us] (p.176).  “Becoming unhappy is not God’s doing but the devil’s,” he says (p.48). …People are unhappy because they don’t believe in happiness” (p. 53). 

Those points are arguable, but if such statements about happiness and joy will challenge defeatist melancholy thinking, then Mason has achieved part of his goal.  Perhaps more significantly, his effort to “demystify joy” and make it real in everyday life might be experienced by others if readers tried his 90 day experiment with joy for themselves-- using scriptural passages on joy, understanding the battle required to continue in the experiment, and anticipating the victory and life-transforming work of the Spirit needed to make joy their dominant life-style. 

This is a challenge for the New Year worth considering. As the Lord told Joshua after the Israelites had fought to inhabit the Promised Land: “There are still very large areas of land to be taken over.” (Josh.13:1).

A lifestyle of joy is one of those areas to be possessed.

M.L. Codman-Wilson, Ph.D. 1/3/12