The issue of poverty is a big issue in this election and in the church. From my perspective, it often is dealt with by on a rather superficial basis (give them money). I wrestle with it every time I am approached in a parking lot by someone asking for money or see the guy standing at the end of the exit ramp (although, come to think of it, I don't see many of these people in Columbus any more; I see much more of them in California). I used to go to New York in the 80s. There were lots of homeless people. You literally had to walk over them in places. I was there a couple of months ago and it is much different today.
I seem to recall some discussions on the old pcom about how churches should hand out charity. I don't know of a church that does not have some rules on how they do this mainly because there are people who try to run scams on the church.
In any event, I'm posting the above blog because I have found it provocative and it gives a perspective not often heard. Fair warning: Dr. Gleason a conservative and not impressed with what is usually the left's (political and religious) approach to the issue of poverty, but I think he has taken time to wrestle with the scripture.
We probably also ought to discuss the context of Matthew 25. In fact, there is a new organization called Matthew 25 which is endorsing Obama. I personally think this scripture is often taken out of context but there are lots of other places
Let's discuss. What's proverty? Poort? How do we deal with it?
First, fellow bloggers, mark your calendars for October 15, 2008 -- Blog Action Day.
Blog Action Day is a day where bloggers are invited to blog about one issue from their own personal perspective. Last year was the first blog action day (on the environment). This year's topic is on poverty. I participated last year and plan to this year. It's a great topic to focus on.
How to help people is also a topic we're dealing with here in our new context. We live in my wife's church parsonage next to the church and in the 2 months we've been here, we've gotten several requests for help. Joleen's church has some sort of policy but I can see we're going to need to improve it. We'd love to hear what plans/procedures other churches have set up.
We're also in the process of learning what help is available in our community. The local ministerium appears to have a process -- churches support to the local men's shelter where we refer anyone who needs help (they maintain a list of the people they help). This centralized method prevents people from working the system by hitting up multiple churches (or is supposed to prevent). There are a couple other community ministries, too -- Salvation Army and "Community Action" (which runs the local food bank, etc.).
It will be a rough winter here (heating costs) so we need to be as prepared as we can.
My Blog: williswired.com
Our local ministerium has a transient fund established that provides a night in the motel, a tank of gas and a grocery voucher for travellers stuck in our town with no money. While the Ministerium raises the money and writes the checks to local vendors who provide goods or services, the vouchers are administered by the County Sheriff's office. Recipients must visit the courthouse and submit to a background check before receiving a voucher.
We would willingly have concord, but no man seeks after the medium of concord, which is charity.
We seek riches, but no man seeks after the right means how to be rich, namely, through God’s blessing.
We all desire to be saved, but the world refuses the means how to be saved—the Mediator Christ.
~Martin Luther
FOR NON-MEMBERS/NON-ATTENDERS
My last church and current one have both had a thing about giving out cash. So they supported food, clothing and shelter ministries that we could refer people too. So no cash aid. My present church also maintains a small food pantry that anyone can draw from once a month. It has helped quite a few people this year (demand has nearly quadrupled!) So we give mission money to the local men's shelter, Salvation Army, soup kitchen, etc. and refer people.
FOR MEMBERS AND ACTIVE ATTENDERS AT PRESENT CHURCH
We take up a Communion Offering each month that is used, in part, for a Deacons Fund. Anyone active in the church are elibible for just about any kind of help from this fund, from Utilities to Gasoline. They also can use the Food Pantry more than once a month.
The Ministerium here does nothing. In my last city it was VERY active and provided meals, gas money and hotel for transients (we were near the intersection of a lot of cross-country interestates) as well as help with medicine and utility bills. Transient aid was co-ordinated through the local police departments, and the medicine aid through the local township office, which would also get those needing help with prescriptions signed up for a state program.
bryanm (formerly bryan)
"As God is my witness, I thought Turkeys could fly!" Arthur Carlson
Our policy is that we don't keep money (any money) at the church. When a need arises, they are sent to a para-church organization in town that deals with issues like this. They are better equipped than we are at giving assistance. I am surprised at how many times I will get a call or someone stopping by asking for money. I ask them if they have talked to this organization and they say "Yes, but they won't help me.", my question is "Why won't they help you?"
We do have a local missions board that takes care of needs inside the congregation and, when no needs have arisen, send money to other organizations like the above mentioned para-church organization.
It seems that churches have been an easy target for people looking for hand-outs. I'll admit, I can be rather stone-hearted because of all the requests, especially those that come back multiple times. Sometimes it's a wrestling match between being a good steward and being a sucker.
Thom
TWITTER
"What this thing needs is MORE POWER! R-R-R!!" -Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor
So far the comments have been about individual churches and their policies on helping people in need. Since I'm not currently in a pastoral position and don't have anything new to add to the "church policy" side of the discussion, here's a different perspective, since as I understand the thread, it's about "poverty" in general.
I'm about to begin my third year of teaching at a private secular school in one of the wealthiest communities in the U.S. Parents pay approximately $17,000 per year per child for tuition, and some families have as many as five children in the school. I'll be teaching at this school three days a week this year.
The other two days, I'll be teaching at a private Christian school, approximately 10 miles away, in a decent neighborhood, but drawing students from some of the poorest communities in the U.S. Tuition is (I think) around $4,000 per year. (I'm in the L.A. area, so there is a lot of economic diversity within relatively short distances).
So - within the next few weeks, I'll be working with families on both ends of the economic scale. With all the discussion lately over the issue of "poverty," from sites like this one, and from the election, I'll be observing with interest the differences and similarities between the two populations I'll be working with.
I'll keep y'all posted.
I have been working with the poor in Asia and Africa. I think mistakes we made in the past were to give out too much money. The people don't need hand-outs but hand-ups.
Sometimes we do have to give direct aid, after a disaster for instance, but normally this is conter-productive. we perpetuate the situation instead of changing it.
Recently we have been supporting projects that help the poor to support themselves. An example of this would be a cooperative that we started in the Philippines. Around 15 families gathered together to form this co-op. We gave them a litte starting capital (around $ 2000). They were able to pool their meagre resources and work togehter. Our help let them buy seed cheaper in buik (rather than each individual buy it). They could pay cash instead of lending money at exhorbiant intrest rates.
Members of the co-op were encouraged to work in the area of their gifting (sales person, organisation etc) thus also benefiting from human resource too. We said that we would not give them the capital but only lend it to them - albeit intrest free. Oncew the money is paid back, we will use it to start another co-op.
The goal was to raise the income of these families from around $ 80 to $ 150. This enables them a better life and gives them the chance to send their children to school.
It has an aspect of empowerment too. Although we help them, they are breaking free from a dependancy on Western generosity. Hand-outs - even though they may be well menat - are degrading if they continue for too long. "Hand-ups" help to resore dignity.
Pastor Bob,
I am sorry I was not able to login onto the pastors.com earlier to reply to your request to know where I do ministry. I am in Badougbe, a village in the south eastern part of Togo the north side of the river Gbaga. I agree with your observation about giving hand - ups and not hand - outs to support the needy in our communities. In fact, our ministry works in pratnership witha christian NGO called HIS HEALING HELPING HANDS INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES (4HIM), Oklahoma who operates on the same principles. When we came into contact with them, they gave my family the hands-up by upgrading our small bakery into a modern one with increased capacity so we can do ministry among the poor village folks in our hamllets. Latter, we instituted a loans scheme whereby we give small loans to the villagers to do some business. Our bakery also partners with others to bring education to these people.It is very challenging sometimes. We have to change mentalities of the people here. People expect hands-outs so we have difficult times convincing people that we can get in more developement funds if they themselves can be seen as doing something. Also we have to convince them to send their children to school. And also to use better methods of farming. In all, I can say we are not yet there but we believe with time we will suc.ceed
I hope we can communicate on these issues more.
Ransome
This is an old thread and I realise people moved on - but in the present economic climate it is becoming more and more important.
I llived most of my adult life at the 'receiving' end of the debate. Since I left my secular job to become a pastor, I never had an income even close to the official poverty line. So I have a bit of an insider view on poverty - and I lived in Romania, UK and the US, so I've seen it from different angles...
I understand what Ron Gleason is saying in the blog article John linked to. Some of the things he says are true - a poor family in the States has a lot more than a middle class family in most African countries. But things are not quite as he says. Medicare and medicade don't quite work the way he says. My family and I simply had no chice but to go without medical care in all but the most urgent cases - we simply could not afford it. Madicare adn medicaid was simply not an option for us. And yes, we did have to go without food, and without heating - in America, not just in Europe. Of course, we did have a car - you can not survive in the US without a car. When i lived in Pittsburgh, the shopping center was 8 miles away, my church was 29 miles away, and every occasionalextra job I got was miles awauy too. There is no way to live in a place like that without a car. It's not a luxury, as Ron Gleason's article makes it sound. And, yes, we had a house that was too big for us - it was cheaper to buy a huge, run-down Victorain house, than a medium-sized modern one. So we lived in a 2700sf, 5 bedroom house that we could not afford to heat - it sounds luxurious but it was the only option available to us. I bought that house for $18,000, and spent another 20,000 or so to make it livable.
The problem with poverty is that it's a vicious circle. You can not pay a bill, so next month you need to pay the bill plus the penalties for late payment. You use a credit card to buy food - so you need to pay interest. You can not afford to wait for a well-paying job - so you work long hours in a job that pays a very low income. Besides being a pastor, i also worked 9still do) as a programmer. There is a forum for users of the software I work on, and we had a discussion about pay. Most American programmers are paid between $60 and $150 an hour. Programmers in places like India, Mexico or other poorer countries are paid between $50 and $20 an hour. But as an immigrant to the US, I was paid less than $10 an hour. Most poor people can tell you the same thing - when an employer feels that they can pay you much less than they pay someone else, they will - and a poor person has no choice but to take whatever job is available to them.
I don't know what the solution is. Christians should be willing and able to help poor people in their community get better-paid jobs. Although, in my case it was always Christians that discriminated against the poor - non-Christians almost always pay better. If the church can help in finding jobs, providing work or training, even in being an example in paying a decent salary to its own employees - it will not solve the problem but at least it will point to a way forward. Unfortunately, most churches in the US are stuck in the right-wing politics that says the poor only have themselves to blame. I seem to remember someone telling a story about a good Samaritan; but then, He was a left-leaning rebel.
I have tried to follow the thread that Marius was trying to spin and I believe I have understood enough of his submission to realise that the problem of poverty and how to deal with it in our communities is, to say the least complicated. It is very difficult to solve problems from outside. The fact that he has lived at the lowest end of the ladder before, puts him in the enviable position to propose workable solutions. My experience however is that most of the victims need a lot of education to make them take advantage of the lifeline that others would throw to them. Lack of appropriate education on the matter has made many efforts made in the past go waste as help has been largely misdirected and has provided little relief to supposed beneficiaries. It is also clear that our good samaritans should also be educated to actually know what they are doing and how to do it to benefit the target people.
Appropriate education would include impressing it upon both parties the two ends of the ladder to understand that no amount of hand outs will solve the problem and that constructive efforts are made to help people at the lower end to build their capacities to fend for themselves. Constructive effort in the sense that no half measures on the part of the donor is enough and in the same vein, the receipint should be taught and should accept to agree to change his/her situation for the better.
Most of the poor incidentaly are very hardworking but like Marius said, he or she is in a vicious cycle and it will need extra effort to break that cycle. The efforts of the donors should be both short and long term. Most of our microloan programs are designed in a way that it provides short term reliefs. In our areas, we see this disturbing state of affairs that most of our beneficiaries of microloans go into 'buy and sell' activities. Our economies at the national level are not viable enough to sustain these trading activities. We need to actually finance the youth and women to go into industrial activity and help create the neccesary markets for their products. These are long term efforts which will need greater committements than the present situations.
Finnaly, I think their should be a lot of goodwill if we are to attain a reasonable position in our quest to solve poverty challenges.
To deal with the many challenges of poverty, Christians especially those in leadership need to get out of their middle-class ivory tower. You cannot understand poverty by pushing pen & shifting paper from behind a desk.
Poverty & the poor is very much part of both the old testament & the new testament. I would dare say that unless Christians understand what it is like to weep for the poor, personal revival is going to be a very remote experience.
Let God break our hearts with the things that broke his heart.
Nelson Wong