Helping Without Hurting: In Church Benevolence, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, succinctly answers the question of how to put principles of When Helping Hurts into practice. A short book with an easy to follow layout, this volume refreshes the theory and hammers out the details of how to implement a truly helpful benevolence program.
Pastor John “Chip” Boyd recalls that prior to 2011, Journey Church’s ministry focus was almost 100% internal. With a small church of only 130 members, they did not expect to change their predominantly poor urban neighborhood in Joplin, Missouri. When a devastating tornado ripped through their town in 2011, they were jolted to consider how they could help their neighbors. This question was amplified by a Wisconsin-based missions company that used Journey as a platform for a short-term mission trip to assist with tornado rehabilitation.
“Researchers gave thousands of dollars to homeless people. The results defied stereotypes.” “Cash transfers help homeless to find stable housing and jobs.” “Trailblazing study gave homeless $7,500 [CAD] – and it worked.” These recent headlines and articles about a new Canadian study are a cringeworthy — and destructive — distortion of reality.
As the holidays approach, many churches and nonprofits run programs to give Christmas gifts to kids in need, and many more partner with existing national programs. The traditional toy drive is simple. Donors buy gifts and volunteers distribute them. The volunteers either go to the homes of the children or have a day of distribution in a central location. Kids smile, donors feel good … everyone’s better off, right? Unfortunately – it’s not that simple.
Feeding the hungry is one of the oldest forms of charity and seems like it should be simple. However, as many know from years of practice, even when food is collected, stored, and distributed efficiently, it still may not reduce dependency or change lives.
The good news is that there are innovative approaches to solve the issues created by the standard hand-out model.
“We normally see 30 to 40 clients a day,” said the manager of a Joplin, Missouri food pantry. “Since the pandemic, we’ve seen a sharp decrease in number of clients, sometimes as few as four a day.” This is not what I expected to hear when I visited this food pantry to learn about their programs. But their experience is not an anomaly.
