Helping Without Hurting In Church Benevolence by Steve Corbett

Helping Without Hurting In Church Benevolence by Steve Corbett

When a low-income person asks your church for help, what do you do next?

God is extraordinarily generous, and our churches should be, too. Because poverty is complex, however, helping low-income people often requires going beyond meeting their material needs to holistically addressing the roots of their poverty.

But on a practical level, how do you move forward in walking with someone who approaches your church for financial help?

From the authors of When Helping Hurts comes Helping Without Hurting in Church Benevolence, a guidebook for church staff, deacons, or volunteers who work with low-income people.

Short and to the point, this tool provides foundational principles for poverty alleviation and then addresses practical matters, like:

• How to structure and focus your benevolence work
• How to respond to immediate needs while pursuing long-term solutions
• How to mobilize your church to walk with low-income people

With practical stories, forms, and tools for churches to use, Helping Without Hurting in Church Benevolence is an all-in-one guide for church leaders and laypeople who want to help the poor in ways that lead to lasting change.

Dr. Brian Fikkert is the Founder and Executive Director of Covenant College's Chalmers Center for Economic Development, as well as an Economics and Community Development Professor. Dr. Fikkert is a Ph.D. holder. Yale University, with a degree in economics, concentrating in Third World economic development and international economics. Dr. Fikkert has worked with the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the US Agency for International Development as a consultant. He was a professor at the University of Maryland in a research fellow at the Center for Institutional Transformation and the Informal Sector before coming to Covenant College. Dr. Fikkert being a sought-after speaker who has authored a number of scholarly and popular works, the most recent of which is When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor...and Yourself.