Related Links Foreword Why We Wrote this Book Scope How to Use this Book Table of Contents Excerpts Video Interview with the Authors Errata/Correction to the Text

When Helping Hurts
How to Alleviate Poverty
Without Hurting the Poor...and Yourself

Churches and individual Christians typically have faulty assumptions about the causes of poverty, resulting in strategies that do considerable harm to poor people as well as to themselves. When Helping Hurts is a book by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert of the Chalmers Center for Economic Development that directly addresses these assumptions.

The book provides foundational concepts and clear principles for helping the poor without hurting them. It then presents proven interventions and relevant applications for churches to use when ministering to the poor both at home and abroad, including advice about short-term missions programs. Many of the principles in the book are from the Chalmers Center's highly regarded "Foundations and Principles of Holistic Ministry" distance learning course.

What You Will Learn
When Helping Hurts begins by establishing a solid biblical foundation for understanding the nature of poverty and its alleviation. This is more than an academic exercise, because people's understanding of poverty shapes the strategies they use to minister to poor people. Building upon this foundation, the book then outlines several general principles for all poverty alleviation efforts including: the importance of distinguishing between relief, rehabilitation, and development; the difference between asset-based and needs-based strategies; and the advantages of participatory over blueprint approaches. These general principles are then applied to short-term missions efforts and to various economic development strategies appropriate for North American and international contexts, including jobs training, financial literacy, individual development accounts, and microenterprise development.

Who Should Read This Book
The book is intended for those who want to minister to the poor more effectively, including pastors, deacon boards, mercy ministry teams, home and foreign missions committees, missionaries, and donors. It is appropriate for an individual or for a group such as a Sunday school class, a ministry team, or a small group Bible study.

Authors
When Helping Hurts is written by Steve Corbett and Dr. Brian Fikkert of the Chalmers Center for Economic Development and the Department of Economics and Community Development at Covenant College. Steve and Brian draw upon decades of experience as practitioners, researchers, and trainers in economics and community development both in North America and around the world. More about the authors »

Self/Group-study Guide at No Cost
To help you study the topics of the book further, the Chalmers Center has made available at no charge a four-lesson self/group-study course that complements the book. This course provides additional readings, reflection questions, application questions, and learning exercises. It is appropriate for an individual or a group such as a Sunday school class or a ministry team.

Access the self/group-study course for:

       •   Ministry Internationally (Africa, Asia, and Latin America)

       •   Ministry in the US/Canada