WHEN HELPING HURTS…
“Connecting
Connecting People in Need with People Who Care
Care”
R: “Sometimes I would like to ask
God why He allows poverty,
suffering, and injustice when He
could do something about it.”
D: “Then why don’t you ask Him?”
R: “Because I’m afraid He might
ask me the same question.”
The fundamental purpose of
Community Development is
the restoration of fallen man
and his community to a right
relationship with God through
the salvation of Jesus Christ.
When Helping Hurts:
How to Alleviate Poverty Without
Hurting the Poor and Yourself
Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
Moody Publishers 2009,
paperback 208 pages
What is our ministry?
Salvation or Good Works?
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to
himself through Christ and gave us the
ministry of reconciliation…” 2 Corinthians 5:18
Reconcile – “to make
right relationships”…
literally, “to change to
the same position…
restoration to favor.”
Foundational Relationships
1.! Relationship with God
2.! Relationship with Others
3.! Relationship with Creation
4.! Relationship with Self
Christian Views of the poor and Responses (from Corbett)…
If we believe the primary
cause of poverty is…
Then we will primarily try to…
A lack of material resources
Give “things” to the poor
A lack of knowledge
Educate the poor
Oppression by powerful people
Work for social justice
The personal sin of the poor
Evangelize and disciple the poor
The fall of man…
Poverty of spirit
Poverty of
Community
Poverty of
being
Poverty of stewardship
Adapted from Myers, “Walking with the Poor”
When Does Helping Hurt?
When we try to help the poor and we don’t
embrace our own mutual brokenness
It is a two-way street (embracing brokenness)…
“Have-nots” poverty of being = see themselves
as inferior to others, cannot help themselves…
“Haves” poverty of being = god complexes in
which we self-anoint ourselves to decide what is
best for the poor…
When Does Helping Hurt?
Priorities … people matter
View of Time … there is always time
Work Ethic … functional
Resources … Use of Money
Personal Concept … Communal
Cultural differences … animism
Material
Definition of
Poverty
God Complex
of Materially
Non-Poor
Feelings of
of
Materially Poor
Harm to Both
Materially Poor
and Non-Poor
From Corbett and Fikkert, When Helping Hurts
Missions Strategy Can Be One of Preaching and Ministering
(and still be effective!!!!)
We can minister to people’s needs and still share the
Gospel. In many cases, we can even more effectively
share the gospel through meeting needs. When we use
the model of Jesus and touch people where they are
hurting, it opens avenues/windows into their lives that
allows us to speak truth.
Most mission strategies today focus on the Lost and the Last.
A “holistic” strategy focuses on the “Lost, Last and Least”.
HUNGER FACTS:
•! 950+ Million people are
chronically hungry at any
given time
• Every day, almost 16,000
children die from hunger
related causes; that’s
about 1 every 5 seconds
• Chronic undernourishment
compounds the problem
leading to weakness, lack
of productivity, stunted
growth, and susceptibility
to illnesses
ECONOMIC FACTS:
•! Out of 6.5 B people in
the world, 1.3 B live in
absolute poverty (less
than $1/day) and 2.6 B
live in moderate poverty
(less than $2/day)
•! Over 60% of the world’s
population lives in some
type of poverty
•! The Developing world
spends $13 on debt
repayment for every $1 of
grant money received
BASIC SERVICES STATS:
•! Almost 1 B people still
cannot read
• 1.1 B people still lack
adequate access to
clean drinking water
• 2.6 B people still lack
adequate sanitation
• 20% of the world’s people
consume 86% of the
world’s goods
HUMAN NEEDS MINISTRIES / MISSIONS STRATEGY…
What they cannot do
for you…
* Evangelize, disciple
or start churches on
their own
(Rom 10:17) Faith
comes by hearing the
message, and the
message comes through
the word of Christ…
HUMAN NEEDS MINISTRIES…
What they can do for you…
A – Access to People
B – Behind closed doors
C – Care for the Needy
D – Discipleship
E – Empower the local
church and believers
(Romans 10:14) - And
how can they hear….?
Community Development
A transformational process in
which a community is enabled to
meet its own needs: physical,
spiritual, emotional, psychological,
social, economic and political.
Process is more important than the product.
Connecting people in need with people who care
Two General Categories of
Human Needs
Acute - These needs arise
from disaster events such as
wars, famine, earthquakes,
floods, etc., and are highly
unpredictable as to when or
where they will happen.
They can and do open
windows for ministry usually
of shorter duration periods
than chronic needs.
Chronic - Human suffering
due to hunger, poverty, poor
health, etc., and are generally
massive in proportion.
Because the problems
causing chronic suffering are
deeply rooted in societies and
cultures, they require longterm, transformational,
education-based solutions.
Relief versus Development…
RELIEF…
DEVELOPMENT…
1.! Acute needs
1.! Chronic needs
2.! 24 hours response
2.! Long-term
3.! 3 to six months
3.! 3 to five year programs
4.! Mercy oriented
4.! Transformational
Community Development is
not a PRODUCT but a PROCESS
Products (The WHAT)
Process: (The How)
1.  Improved roads
How the community prepares for CD
2.  Schools/buildings
How they implement CD plan
3.  Water systems
How they manage improvement of
their community…
4.  Food projects
5.  Income generation
6.  Health centers
7.  Livestock
8.  Etc., etc., etc.
Emphasis:
How THEY, the community, get
to a self-sustaining solution!
Connecting people in need with people who care
The Dilemma . . .
NEED BASED:
People and communities
have deficiencies and needs
ASSET BASED:
People and communities
have skills and talents
Connecting people in need with people who care
Relief Work…
Development Work…
•!Disaster Response
•!Food Security
•!Disaster Mitigation
•Primary Health Care
•!Disaster Management
•Water/Sanitation
•!Recovery and Rehabilitation
•Education/Literacy
•Community Development
•Micro-enterprise/finance
THE RIGHT APPROACH FOR THE RIGHT TARGET…
APPROACH
DEVELOPMENT
TARGET
NON-POOR VULNERABLE
Poverty Line
POOR (MODERATE)
EXTREME POOR (ABSOLUTE)
RELIEF
DESTITUTE (INVALID,
MAJOR DISASTERS,
CONFLICT VICTIMS, ETC.)
Adapted from Corbett and Fikkert, When Helping Hurts
Pitfalls of Poor Planning
✘  Addressing “Symptoms” and not major issues
✘  Relief instead Development solutions
✘  Misdiagnosing underlying problems
✘  Outsiders are seen as experts
✘  Solutions that create ongoing dependency
✘  No local ownership or autonomy
✘  Time consuming
✘  High profile in a non-secure area
✘  Ethical issues such as making “Rice” Christians
Connecting people in need with people who care
DOS AND DONTS FOR SHORT TERM MISSION TEAMS
1. Do let local people determine your project.
2. Do undertake projects that are sustainable by local people.
3. Dont create expectations that will burden future short-term
mission teams in that place. Most problems of poverty and
disease are long-standing and have no simple solutions, so it
is better to do the little that the short-term mission can do
without making promises about what will be accomplished.
4. Dont do anything that they can do for themselves.
WHOSE REALITY COUNTS?
Whose knowledge counts?
Whose values?
Whose criteria and preferences?
Whose appraisal, analysis and planning?
Whose action?
Whose monitoring and evaluation?
Whose learning?
Whose empowerment?
Whose reality counts?
Ours or theirs?
JUST DOING SOMETHING OVER DOING NOTHING
IS NOT ALWAYS SOUND ADVICE…
CASE STORY….
A Water
Project in
Guatemala
CASE STORY….
Health Care,
Food Security
and CPM –
PRACTICAL MODELS – AGRICULTURE…
Home gardening for food…
Seed/plant prop and horticulture…
Animal systems
Reforestation…
PRACTICAL MODELS – HEALTH CARE…
Mobile clinics and services…
Simple clinic and services…
Literacy…
Village Pharmacies…
Ministry to disabled…
Primary Health Care Education…
PRACTICAL MODELS - WATER…
Wells, Springs, etc.
Water Filtration/Purification Systems…
Rainwater harvesting systems…
OTHERS MODELS – MED, MFI,
ETC.
Added value income project…
Livelihood skills and startup…
Small home
marketing…