The last chapter of When Helping Hurts dealt with knowing how to distinguish between relief, rehabilitation, and development. Once this has been determined, Corbett and Fikkert suggest in chapter 5 that we need to start with learning our ABCDs: asset-based community development. Rather than identity the needs of the community, the best way to begin [...]
Archive for the ‘Christian community development’ Category
11 Sep
When Helping Hurts (4)
In chapter 4 of When Helping Hurts, I have identified three main points, all of which deserve a full-length post.
First, Corbett and Fikkert explain how poverty alleviation takes on three main forms: relief, rehabilitation, and development.
Relief: “urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering.”
Rehabilitation: “restoring people and their communities to the positive [...]
8 Jul
Caritas in Veritate
The recent encyclical by Pope Benedict XVI “on integral human development in charity and truth” seeks to affirm the essence of the earlier encyclical by Pope Paul VI, “Populorum Progressio.” Benedict summarizes this essence in two main points:
“…the whole Church, in all her being and acting — when she proclaims, when she celebrates, when [...]
7 May
Exploring Charitable Giving
In addition to tithes to their local church, many Christians give to ministries and organizations around the world who are doing the work of the kingdom. Since we have been working with Armonía, Stephanie and I have done some thinking in regards to what type of ministries and organizations are best to support, but we [...]
3 Apr
Social Problems and Holistic Ministry
Every day this week we have looked at various socio-polito-economic problems that call for a strategic partnership between the US and Mexico. Whether organized crime, economic development, immigration, and border issues, the report from the Mexico Institute has highlighted major social-political problems with no easy solution, and partnership between our two countries is a good [...]
24 Mar
Slum Ministry (Transformation of Cities 7)
The existence of slums is one of the saddest and most overwhelming realities that the church has to face today. It is predicted that close to one billion people in the world lives in slums, which commonly are defined as places with inadequate access to water and sanitation, insecurity of tenure, and flimsy housing. These [...]
11 Mar
Christian Aid Agencies (Transformation 7)
By Christian aid agencies, the Lausanne document “Transformation: The Church in Response to Human Need” is referring to any organization outside the church involved in Christian ministry to the suffering, poor, and needy. The following is a summarizes their main points regarding these agencies:
• Christian aid agencies facilitate local churches in fulfilling their role of [...]
3 Nov
A Partnership between the Powerful and the Powerless
Andy Crouch’s new book, Culture Making, can be commended on several levels. I have especially enjoyed reading it now as we are in Mexico in the midst of a vastly different culture, considering what it means to be Christian participants in and creators of cultures. But the aspect of the book that especially caught my [...]
7 Aug
Development and Community
“There can be no sustainable Christian development that is distinctly Christian without sustainable Christian communities.”
~Tim Chester, Justice, Mercy, and Humility: Integral Mission and the Poor, 8
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