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When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself
PUBLISHER'S SUMMARY:
With more than 225,000 copies sold, When Helping Hurts is a paradigm-forming contemporary classic on the subject of poverty alleviation and ministry to those in need. Emphasizing the poverty of both heart and society, this book exposes the need that every person has and how it can be filled. The reader is brought to understand that poverty is much more than simply a lack of financial or material resources and that it takes much more than donations and handouts to solve the problem of poverty.
While this book exposes past and current development efforts that churches have engaged in which unintentionally undermine the people they're trying to help, its central point is to provide proven strategies that challenge Christians to help the poor empower themselves. Focusing on both North American and Majority World contexts, When Helping Hurts catalyzes the idea that sustainable change for people living in poverty comes not from the outside-in, but from the inside-out.
Initial Thoughts and Reflection Questions & Exercises:
http://images.moodypublishers.com/Mar...
With more than 225,000 copies sold, When Helping Hurts is a paradigm-forming contemporary classic on the subject of poverty alleviation and ministry to those in need. Emphasizing the poverty of both heart and society, this book exposes the need that every person has and how it can be filled. The reader is brought to understand that poverty is much more than simply a lack of financial or material resources and that it takes much more than donations and handouts to solve the problem of poverty.
While this book exposes past and current development efforts that churches have engaged in which unintentionally undermine the people they're trying to help, its central point is to provide proven strategies that challenge Christians to help the poor empower themselves. Focusing on both North American and Majority World contexts, When Helping Hurts catalyzes the idea that sustainable change for people living in poverty comes not from the outside-in, but from the inside-out.
Initial Thoughts and Reflection Questions & Exercises:
http://images.moodypublishers.com/Mar...
274 pages, Paperback
First published June 24, 2009
1782 people are currently reading
18621 people want to read
About the author
Steve Corbett
15 books44 followersMr. Corbett is an Assistant Professor of Community Development in the Dep. of Economics at Covenant College. He also serves as a Community Development Specialist for the Chalmers Center as Director of Field Operations and Training.
Previously, Corbett worked for Food for the Hungry International (FHI) as the Regional Director for Central and South America for two years. Before assuming these responsibilities, he served as the Director of Staff Training for nine years. In this capacity, he participated in the orientation and training of 1500 staff working in 25 countries. Corbett has a B.A. from Covenant College and a M.Ed. in Adult Education from the University of Georgia.
Previously, Corbett worked for Food for the Hungry International (FHI) as the Regional Director for Central and South America for two years. Before assuming these responsibilities, he served as the Director of Staff Training for nine years. In this capacity, he participated in the orientation and training of 1500 staff working in 25 countries. Corbett has a B.A. from Covenant College and a M.Ed. in Adult Education from the University of Georgia.
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August 19, 2012
A very good book, though it is messing up my world. Their chapter on why short term mission trips are typically more harmful then good, was unsettling (Especially since my job is to host short term mission teams), I disagree with them on some points (for example, they claimed short term trips don't result in more full time missionaries, but I am a full time missionary because of going on short term mission trips and practically ever missionary I know has the same story). but yeah, I still see how short term mission trips would likely be best within the united state, where due to there being less cultural differences, the poor won't as likely get trampled. The authors explained many ways where our helping, actually hurts the poor. This brought to mind the countless times I've been employing the very methods they condemn and I can't say it felt good to recognize this. I have so much more to learn... one thing this book shows is how freaking complex it is, oh for the days of simply giving a handout and feeling good about yourself. It is unnerving for me, because I have noticed how the governmental programs trying to reduce poverty often create a bigger mess; politicians have great intentions and mean well, but their helping truly hurts the poor. but now, I see that we as individuals, full of good intentions and good works, may be as oblivious to the devastation were leaving behind us, just as the liberal politicians are. Oh I vaguely knew much of what the authors shared in the book, but they really crystallized it to a degree that it demands that I seek more understanding and change my ways.
October 18, 2015
I read When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself by Steve Corbett and Brain Fikkert after having read Robert Lupton’s Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help. I was told that “When Helping Hurts” does a better job of giving constructive criticism of service work and poverty alleviation than “Toxic Charity” does while straying away from the ideological language so pervasive in “Toxic Charity”. Instead, I found the two books to be cut from the same cloth, and very much redundant of one another.
In “When Helping Hurts”, Corbett and Fikkert build a case for being more cautious in service work, in particular international missionary programs that are aimed at poverty alleviation. As their title implies, the central thesis is that when we set off to ‘save the world’, unless we take extra special precautions to do otherwise, we run the risk of doing more harm than good for those that we are trying to help. They stress taking into account the emotional well-being of those being served, promote taking a holistic view of the situation to understand that material poverty is just one issue facing the recipients of our charity, and encourage relief organizations to use objective business-minded measures to judge whether relief programs are having the intended outcomes.
I believe that some of the points that Corbett and Fikkert make in their book are valid and can be useful to any relief organization as they periodically self-assess as to the path that they are on. However, as presented in “When Helping Hurts”, those points come along with a lot of unnecessary editorializing and casting the subject matter with their own ideologies. In the end, I believe that the reader can be left thinking that trying to help people is such a precarious endeavor, they would be better off to not even try because they will probably do more harm than good. The irony here is that the authors have ‘hurt’ the potential for people seeking to do good when they seemingly wanted to ‘help’ that situation.
Corbett and Fikkert are direct in stating that they write their book from a distinctly Evangelical Christian perspective. As a devout Catholic Christian myself, I did not expect that point-of-view to take me into uncharted territories, but I found some of their positions to be extreme. For example, they are absolutely convinced that no aid organization will be successful unless it offers material assistance while simultaneously working to spreading the Christian faith. They write “none of the foundational relationships can experience fundamental and lasting change without a person becoming a new creature in Christ Jesus” (pg 80). [Earlier they had referenced Bryant Myers model of the four foundational relationships that must be functional in order for a person to live a fulfilled life: “a relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation” (pg 57).] I think there are plenty of very successful secular relief organizations in the world to demonstrate that this is simply not true. Just to name a few - The Red Cross, Oxfam International, Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF, Kiva, The Peace Corps, The Gates Foundation – these are all successful established relief organizations which have helped millions of people that operate with no specific religious affiliation. To proclaim that Christians have some sort of monopoly on being able to help people is rather ignorant.
In a similar vein, the authors continually come back to “The Fall”. They quite literally attribute all of our world’s current problems to the original bad decisions of Adam & Eve. To quote: “The effects of the fall are manifested in the economic, social, religious, and political systems that humans have created throughout history” (pg 61). As a Catholic, I have never been prone to interpreting the book of Genesis as a literal historical account. But regardless of that interpretation, writing off ineffective and unjust systems as the inevitable outcome of a decision made millennia ago seems to me to be a rationalization for inaction.
“When Helping Hurts” is sprinkled throughout with the ideological conservative red meat that we have come to expect from the Religious Right. There are stances against women in the workforce: “many American couples are running themselves ragged, with both parents working long hours in high-stress jobs. In the process, children and marriages are often neglected, tearing families apart and leading to a host of long-range psychological and social problems” (pg 88). There is blaming of the victim: “such a worldview [that held by ‘ghetto populations’ as Corbett and Fikkert term it] obviously contribute directly to the material poverty of their victims” (pg 86). And there is criticism of the social safety net while blaming the victim “Many poor people have behavioral problems that make them less than ideal workers. Moreover, historically some of these behaviors were exacerbated by a welfare system that penalized work by removing benefits as people’s earnings increased” (pg 186).
My fear with a book like this is that the reader can be left with the conclusion that trying to help people is futile. Corbett and Fikkert warn repeatedly that it is possible to help too much: “when considering bringing in outside resources, we must always ask…Is it too much?” (pg 127). They give plenty of other reasons why individuals would be better off to not try to alleviate poverty at all. They recommend that local organizations familiar with a specific region are likely better equipped to deal with the situation than we outsiders. Corbett and Fikkert emphasize that the charity recipients are probably suffering from more than just material poverty. If an individual has a ‘poverty of being’ (low self-esteem), ‘poverty of stewardship’ (loss of sense of purpose), or ‘poverty of community’ (self-centeredness), then the solutions are much more complicated and involved than simply alleviating physical deficiencies. All of this is coupled with pointers on how one can distinguish the deserving poor from those just seeking to take advantage of big hearted do-gooders.
In the end, I feel that “When Helping Hurts” misses the point. Bishop Untener of the Saginaw, Michigan Diocese said it best when he wrote “If you start to distinguish between the deserving and undeserving poor, you are finished – at least as far as the gospel is concerned.” If Corbett and Fikkert intended to write a book that would discourage people from wanting to get involved with service work and provide those sitting on the sidelines with plenty of justification for their inactivity, then mission accomplished. If you are seeking a book that will inspire you to give back to your fellow human and propose how you can do your part to make the world a better place, I suggest you look elsewhere.
My review of “Toxic Charity” mentioned above can be found at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
In “When Helping Hurts”, Corbett and Fikkert build a case for being more cautious in service work, in particular international missionary programs that are aimed at poverty alleviation. As their title implies, the central thesis is that when we set off to ‘save the world’, unless we take extra special precautions to do otherwise, we run the risk of doing more harm than good for those that we are trying to help. They stress taking into account the emotional well-being of those being served, promote taking a holistic view of the situation to understand that material poverty is just one issue facing the recipients of our charity, and encourage relief organizations to use objective business-minded measures to judge whether relief programs are having the intended outcomes.
I believe that some of the points that Corbett and Fikkert make in their book are valid and can be useful to any relief organization as they periodically self-assess as to the path that they are on. However, as presented in “When Helping Hurts”, those points come along with a lot of unnecessary editorializing and casting the subject matter with their own ideologies. In the end, I believe that the reader can be left thinking that trying to help people is such a precarious endeavor, they would be better off to not even try because they will probably do more harm than good. The irony here is that the authors have ‘hurt’ the potential for people seeking to do good when they seemingly wanted to ‘help’ that situation.
Corbett and Fikkert are direct in stating that they write their book from a distinctly Evangelical Christian perspective. As a devout Catholic Christian myself, I did not expect that point-of-view to take me into uncharted territories, but I found some of their positions to be extreme. For example, they are absolutely convinced that no aid organization will be successful unless it offers material assistance while simultaneously working to spreading the Christian faith. They write “none of the foundational relationships can experience fundamental and lasting change without a person becoming a new creature in Christ Jesus” (pg 80). [Earlier they had referenced Bryant Myers model of the four foundational relationships that must be functional in order for a person to live a fulfilled life: “a relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation” (pg 57).] I think there are plenty of very successful secular relief organizations in the world to demonstrate that this is simply not true. Just to name a few - The Red Cross, Oxfam International, Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF, Kiva, The Peace Corps, The Gates Foundation – these are all successful established relief organizations which have helped millions of people that operate with no specific religious affiliation. To proclaim that Christians have some sort of monopoly on being able to help people is rather ignorant.
In a similar vein, the authors continually come back to “The Fall”. They quite literally attribute all of our world’s current problems to the original bad decisions of Adam & Eve. To quote: “The effects of the fall are manifested in the economic, social, religious, and political systems that humans have created throughout history” (pg 61). As a Catholic, I have never been prone to interpreting the book of Genesis as a literal historical account. But regardless of that interpretation, writing off ineffective and unjust systems as the inevitable outcome of a decision made millennia ago seems to me to be a rationalization for inaction.
“When Helping Hurts” is sprinkled throughout with the ideological conservative red meat that we have come to expect from the Religious Right. There are stances against women in the workforce: “many American couples are running themselves ragged, with both parents working long hours in high-stress jobs. In the process, children and marriages are often neglected, tearing families apart and leading to a host of long-range psychological and social problems” (pg 88). There is blaming of the victim: “such a worldview [that held by ‘ghetto populations’ as Corbett and Fikkert term it] obviously contribute directly to the material poverty of their victims” (pg 86). And there is criticism of the social safety net while blaming the victim “Many poor people have behavioral problems that make them less than ideal workers. Moreover, historically some of these behaviors were exacerbated by a welfare system that penalized work by removing benefits as people’s earnings increased” (pg 186).
My fear with a book like this is that the reader can be left with the conclusion that trying to help people is futile. Corbett and Fikkert warn repeatedly that it is possible to help too much: “when considering bringing in outside resources, we must always ask…Is it too much?” (pg 127). They give plenty of other reasons why individuals would be better off to not try to alleviate poverty at all. They recommend that local organizations familiar with a specific region are likely better equipped to deal with the situation than we outsiders. Corbett and Fikkert emphasize that the charity recipients are probably suffering from more than just material poverty. If an individual has a ‘poverty of being’ (low self-esteem), ‘poverty of stewardship’ (loss of sense of purpose), or ‘poverty of community’ (self-centeredness), then the solutions are much more complicated and involved than simply alleviating physical deficiencies. All of this is coupled with pointers on how one can distinguish the deserving poor from those just seeking to take advantage of big hearted do-gooders.
In the end, I feel that “When Helping Hurts” misses the point. Bishop Untener of the Saginaw, Michigan Diocese said it best when he wrote “If you start to distinguish between the deserving and undeserving poor, you are finished – at least as far as the gospel is concerned.” If Corbett and Fikkert intended to write a book that would discourage people from wanting to get involved with service work and provide those sitting on the sidelines with plenty of justification for their inactivity, then mission accomplished. If you are seeking a book that will inspire you to give back to your fellow human and propose how you can do your part to make the world a better place, I suggest you look elsewhere.
My review of “Toxic Charity” mentioned above can be found at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
July 12, 2022
As a how-to guide on some of the dynamics of good community development, When Helping Hurts has some helpful insights. As an evangelical theology of poverty and "helping", it is passable – but in a field not exactly crowded with contenders. As a reflection on the causes and consequences of poverty, it is – haha – poor. As an analysis of the systems and structures that make and keep people poor, it is shamefully inadequate.
Some reviewers have labelled this as paradigm-busting or revolutionary. It's certainly on a lot of reading lists in the mission / development / Christian circles in which I move. I suppose if you – like many North American evangelicals – have been victim to teaching that leaves you unable to connect a concern for people in poverty with the Gospel, then this book does offer a few steps forward. Firmly set within a standard evangelical account of the Bible's "grand narrative" from creation, to fall, to redemption and new creation, it mounts the case that the church needs to "declare – using both words and deeds – that Jesus is the King of kings... who is bringing a kingdom of righteousness, justice, and peace." Hooray for that!
However, it poses this entirely within a framework entirely familiar to, and comfortable for, North American evangelicals – neoliberal capitalism. The solution to poverty (without hurting) it turns out is disciplining and rewarding people to strive harder as self-actualising entrepreneurs within the system that has impoverished them.
Acknowledging the positive: When Helping Hurts is modestly helpful on some of the dynamics of good development, and provides some useful tools for reflection. It highlights some of the ways in which "helping" – particularly patronising, context-insensitive, overbearing, or just plain dumb ways of helping – can "hurt". If you've never heard of "assets-based community development" (starting from a community's strengths, resources and relationships rather than its problems or deficiencies), it provides some helpful insights and tools. If you've never considered that "helping" by giving gift boxes to poor children might, in fact, exacerbate feelings of shame and powerlessness within the child's family, or that "short-term missions" might provide more good feels for participants than actual good for the communities they visit, it provides a necessary wake-up call. I agree wholeheartedly with the all too brief section on "the poison of paternalism" and its summary of the iron law of community organising: "Do not do things for people that they can do for themselves". Though it should be noted that this principle is not about encouraging a kind of "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" self-reliance nor a denial of any sense of interdependence or obligation. Rather, it is a recognition of the dignity and agency of those who are part of the community in poverty and an acknowledgement that those affected should be empowered to make decisions and take actions for themselves and with others, rather than being merely subject merely to the actions and whims of those with power over them.
It's ironic, though, that the section decrying paternalism will follow mere pages after an imaginary case-study focused on a person who knocks on doors in a neighbourhood, asking for help to pay for an electricity bill. Money, you might think, is at the root of this person's problems. No, the authors hasten to assure us.
To be fair, the book does pose a modest challenge to wealthy (North American) Christians of the evangelical persuasion to take seriously the deep scandal of global poverty, hunger and inequality. It draws on Bryant Myers' richer analysis in Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practice of Transformational Development to skewer the "god-complexes" of the non-poor, who might assume that they are superior and have the answers to the problems faced by poor people. Though – to preview some of my complaints – it undercuts this challenge fairly consistently by substituting one form of paternalism for another and by assuring the wealthy that a "material definition of poverty" is part of the problem, that sharing or redistributing wealth may cause more problems than it solves, and that people will only genuinely be free from poverty when they 1) have found Jesus and 2) have liberated their entrepreneurial selves in service of the economy's relentless demands (often via some tough love from their wealthy neighbours).
Sadly, the seeds of the work's problems are sown early and deep – arising from the book's fundamental confusion between the multidimensionality of people's experiences of poverty (which include shame, isolation, vulnerability, powerlessness, exhaustion and the like) and a univocal definition of poverty – which is unambiguously and fundamentally about material deprivation. While acknowledging that their material deprivation is what makes people in poverty worthy of particular attention and care, the authors want to argue that a "material definition of poverty" is part of the problem when it comes to helping.
Poverty, they argue (borrowing from Bryant L. Myers) is fundamentally a matter of failed relationships (with God, self, others and creation). To back up this contention, they quote from the World Bank's magisterial study, Voices of the Poor: From Many Lands in which people in poverty describe their own experiences, including hunger, vulnerability, shame, dependence, social isolation, powerlessness, exhaustion and the like. They argue that because this multidimensionality is integral to any true definition of poverty, a merely "material definition of poverty" is part of the problem, blinding well-meaning people to poverty's root causes and to its solutions.
Certainly, the experiences of people in poverty go far beyond merely material deprivation, and poverty's effects are not solely financial. But poverty's experiences and effects are rooted in material deprivation, and any sane definition of poverty is all about a lack of material resources. All other metaphorical extensions of poverty's meaning (such as "poverty of spirit" in the gospels or "poverty of being" in this work) are dependent on this root, brutely material, meaning.
Sure, as the authors argue, the poor and the non-poor may both experience shame, powerlessness, isolation, etc. and experience the same brokenness in relationships. The difference between the two groups (and the very definition of poverty) is precisely that one experiences material deprivation which drives and deepens those experiences.
The trouble with defining poverty in ways that minimise material deprivation and with promoting solutions that minimise the requirement to attend to wealth redistribution or dismantle systems that impoverish individuals, communities and nations, is that you have already come close to arguing that money and material resources (who has it, who doesn't, and what they do about that) isn't at the root of poverty and any meaningful response to it. The authors of When Helping Hurts attempt, but in my view ultimately fail, to resist the temptation to mount just such an argument.
I'm not arguing that dependence and disempowerment isn't (or can't be) a problem in responses to poverty. Nor am I arguing that giving money is always the best response to someone in need. I am simply arguing that redistributing wealth and ending affluence may well be a necessary condition for ending poverty.
Despite some acknowledgement of structural or systemic causes/drivers of poverty – such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund's imposition of structural adjustment on developing nations in the 1980s and 1990s or structural racism in the United States – the authors do not spend any time considering political advocacy, public campaigning, or revolution any part of the strategy for responding to poverty. Perhaps predictably, the authors present microfinance as the paradigmatic way to respond to poverty.
It is truly instructive, too, that their advocacy for microfinance (small loans made to poor people to establish income-generating initiatives) is presented entirely from the perspective of the lender!
They relate the story of Muhammed Yunus (founder of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank – one of the world's biggest microcredit lenders):
While they do consider what they see as some of the "pros and cons" or microfinance – again, these relate primarily to the concerns of lenders and their ability to reach particular populations of poor people. But it is not the case that microfinance's problem is simply that it fails to reach the poorest and most excluded people. There is now very good evidence that microfinance may help to smooth the incomes of (some) poor people and help them hedge their bets in the face of financial insecurity but that it simply does not make fundamental change in the lives of poor people. The authors do not engage with this research at all. It also never seems to occur to them that lending extremely small sums of money to extremely poor people selling extremely low value-added products in communities of other extremely poor people might have some limitations when it comes to ending poverty!
This blindness when it comes to microfinance is replicated in other ways. As this review is already, um, long, I'll mention only two in closing.
A bias towards capitalist, entrepreneurial solutions (as opposed to other political and communal responses) is evident throughout but one minor argument exemplifies the problem. The authors quote uncritically William Easterly's contention in The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good that aid has failed because,
At first blush, this sounds like a knockout argument that aid has failed. $2.3 trillion is, for almost everyone I know, a massive amount of money and yet 2.5 billion people, which is far larger number of people than I can imagine, still live in poverty!! Surely there could be no clearer evidence that helping by giving money is a fool's errand.
Yet, this "argument" is, to be blunt, nonsense. Like every human endeavour, international humanitarian and development assistance can be implemented well or poorly or anywhere in between. But aid has not "failed" to help vast numbers of poor people, reducing maternal and child mortality, increasing school enrolment, and supporting the basics of life. Easterly's factoid is vastly less substantial than it first appears.
$2.3 trillion is also a much smaller amount in reality than it appears to be in Easterly's big, quotable, statistic. $2.3 trillion over the five post-war decades to the time Easterly is writing amounts to just $48 billion per year. In 1981 (to take a rough mid-point of the period) the global population was around 4.5 billion people, with roughly 2 billion people living in extreme poverty.
Which means that even if every cent of that aid over those decades was directed to addressing the poverty of the world's poorest people, the supposed largesse of "Western nations" amounts to just $24 per person each year. And, of course, it is not the case that all of this aid was given to address poverty. Roughly half the aid given in 1981 was given in the form of loans, not grants. Huge sums of aid was given not to end poverty, but to prop up favoured regimes (such as Egypt or Turkey) and had no benefit at all for the poor.
What should we imagine this $24 (to play along with Easterly's unstated and unrealistic assumptions) was supposed to achieve? Even for the very poorest people, its probably unreasonable to think that 7 cents per person per day is going to go a long way towards ending poverty. Under the Marshall Plan, the US invested more than $200 per citizen in the European nations they helped back on their feet after World War II.
Oh, and the fact that there are still poor people around even after aid has been given is no argument at all. Developed nations spend billions each year on health and there are still sick people!
Finally – and, for me, most fundamentally – the theology undergirding Corbett and Fikkert's analysis and prescriptions is extraordinarily deficient. Their one and only reference to "all that the Bible says on the difficult topic" of whether or not you should always give to someone who asks – which appears to be at the heart of their thesis about helping without hurting – is a footnote pointing to Neither Poverty Nor Riches: Illuminating the Riddle. The judicious balance sounded in that book's title gets to the heart of the problem. Yes, the Bible's witness on poverty and wealth is various and not easily reconcilable. There are different and seemingly incompatible streams of tradition on the topic - from the stolid and aphoristic Wisdom traditions of the Proverbs to the extreme and denunciatory prophetic traditions of Amos and Jesus.
I can understand the temptation to seek a middle ground. Yet, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus does not call us to any sort of via media, to a balancing of extremes. God calls people to take sides because God, in Christ, takes the side of the unloved, the marginalised, and the poor. And the scandal, indeed crime, of global inequality and environmental destruction requires us to swap a comfortable and manufactured "objectivity", for a challenging and determinedly located "option for the poor".
When Helping Hurts is worth reading. But it should not be anyone's final word in thinking about and responding to poverty. A helpful next step would be to read Bryant Myers' Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practice of Transformational Development, from which the authors freely draw and the Gustavo Gutierrez's A Theology of Liberation, from which they avowedly do not draw.
Some reviewers have labelled this as paradigm-busting or revolutionary. It's certainly on a lot of reading lists in the mission / development / Christian circles in which I move. I suppose if you – like many North American evangelicals – have been victim to teaching that leaves you unable to connect a concern for people in poverty with the Gospel, then this book does offer a few steps forward. Firmly set within a standard evangelical account of the Bible's "grand narrative" from creation, to fall, to redemption and new creation, it mounts the case that the church needs to "declare – using both words and deeds – that Jesus is the King of kings... who is bringing a kingdom of righteousness, justice, and peace." Hooray for that!
However, it poses this entirely within a framework entirely familiar to, and comfortable for, North American evangelicals – neoliberal capitalism. The solution to poverty (without hurting) it turns out is disciplining and rewarding people to strive harder as self-actualising entrepreneurs within the system that has impoverished them.
Acknowledging the positive: When Helping Hurts is modestly helpful on some of the dynamics of good development, and provides some useful tools for reflection. It highlights some of the ways in which "helping" – particularly patronising, context-insensitive, overbearing, or just plain dumb ways of helping – can "hurt". If you've never heard of "assets-based community development" (starting from a community's strengths, resources and relationships rather than its problems or deficiencies), it provides some helpful insights and tools. If you've never considered that "helping" by giving gift boxes to poor children might, in fact, exacerbate feelings of shame and powerlessness within the child's family, or that "short-term missions" might provide more good feels for participants than actual good for the communities they visit, it provides a necessary wake-up call. I agree wholeheartedly with the all too brief section on "the poison of paternalism" and its summary of the iron law of community organising: "Do not do things for people that they can do for themselves". Though it should be noted that this principle is not about encouraging a kind of "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" self-reliance nor a denial of any sense of interdependence or obligation. Rather, it is a recognition of the dignity and agency of those who are part of the community in poverty and an acknowledgement that those affected should be empowered to make decisions and take actions for themselves and with others, rather than being merely subject merely to the actions and whims of those with power over them.
It's ironic, though, that the section decrying paternalism will follow mere pages after an imaginary case-study focused on a person who knocks on doors in a neighbourhood, asking for help to pay for an electricity bill. Money, you might think, is at the root of this person's problems. No, the authors hasten to assure us.
But what if this person's fundamental problem is not having the self-discipline to keep a stable job? Simply giving this person money is treating the symptoms rather than the underlying disease and will enable him to continue with his lack of self-discipline... A better – and far more costly – solution would be for your church to develop a relationship with this person, a relationship that says, "We are here to walk with you and to help you use your gifts and abilities to avoid being in this situation in the future. Let us into your life and let us work with you to determine the reason you are in this predicament."It's difficult to imagine a more patronising approach. And the framing of the hypothetical is convenient and self-serving – the imaginary beggar's problem is a lack of self-discipline, not chronic poverty, not structural unemployment, not health- or education-related debt, just to name a few... Oh, and I'm pretty sure that doctors treat symptoms (as well as the underlying disease) all the time – it's really not an either/or.
To be fair, the book does pose a modest challenge to wealthy (North American) Christians of the evangelical persuasion to take seriously the deep scandal of global poverty, hunger and inequality. It draws on Bryant Myers' richer analysis in Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practice of Transformational Development to skewer the "god-complexes" of the non-poor, who might assume that they are superior and have the answers to the problems faced by poor people. Though – to preview some of my complaints – it undercuts this challenge fairly consistently by substituting one form of paternalism for another and by assuring the wealthy that a "material definition of poverty" is part of the problem, that sharing or redistributing wealth may cause more problems than it solves, and that people will only genuinely be free from poverty when they 1) have found Jesus and 2) have liberated their entrepreneurial selves in service of the economy's relentless demands (often via some tough love from their wealthy neighbours).
Sadly, the seeds of the work's problems are sown early and deep – arising from the book's fundamental confusion between the multidimensionality of people's experiences of poverty (which include shame, isolation, vulnerability, powerlessness, exhaustion and the like) and a univocal definition of poverty – which is unambiguously and fundamentally about material deprivation. While acknowledging that their material deprivation is what makes people in poverty worthy of particular attention and care, the authors want to argue that a "material definition of poverty" is part of the problem when it comes to helping.
Poverty, they argue (borrowing from Bryant L. Myers) is fundamentally a matter of failed relationships (with God, self, others and creation). To back up this contention, they quote from the World Bank's magisterial study, Voices of the Poor: From Many Lands in which people in poverty describe their own experiences, including hunger, vulnerability, shame, dependence, social isolation, powerlessness, exhaustion and the like. They argue that because this multidimensionality is integral to any true definition of poverty, a merely "material definition of poverty" is part of the problem, blinding well-meaning people to poverty's root causes and to its solutions.
The problem [of poverty] goes well beyond the material dimension, so the solutions must go beyond the material as well.However, this is to confuse the effects or experiences of poverty (including shame, powerlessness, isolation, etc.) with its essence (material deprivation), poverty's marks for its meaning.
Certainly, the experiences of people in poverty go far beyond merely material deprivation, and poverty's effects are not solely financial. But poverty's experiences and effects are rooted in material deprivation, and any sane definition of poverty is all about a lack of material resources. All other metaphorical extensions of poverty's meaning (such as "poverty of spirit" in the gospels or "poverty of being" in this work) are dependent on this root, brutely material, meaning.
Sure, as the authors argue, the poor and the non-poor may both experience shame, powerlessness, isolation, etc. and experience the same brokenness in relationships. The difference between the two groups (and the very definition of poverty) is precisely that one experiences material deprivation which drives and deepens those experiences.
The trouble with defining poverty in ways that minimise material deprivation and with promoting solutions that minimise the requirement to attend to wealth redistribution or dismantle systems that impoverish individuals, communities and nations, is that you have already come close to arguing that money and material resources (who has it, who doesn't, and what they do about that) isn't at the root of poverty and any meaningful response to it. The authors of When Helping Hurts attempt, but in my view ultimately fail, to resist the temptation to mount just such an argument.
I'm not arguing that dependence and disempowerment isn't (or can't be) a problem in responses to poverty. Nor am I arguing that giving money is always the best response to someone in need. I am simply arguing that redistributing wealth and ending affluence may well be a necessary condition for ending poverty.
Despite some acknowledgement of structural or systemic causes/drivers of poverty – such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund's imposition of structural adjustment on developing nations in the 1980s and 1990s or structural racism in the United States – the authors do not spend any time considering political advocacy, public campaigning, or revolution any part of the strategy for responding to poverty. Perhaps predictably, the authors present microfinance as the paradigmatic way to respond to poverty.
It is truly instructive, too, that their advocacy for microfinance (small loans made to poor people to establish income-generating initiatives) is presented entirely from the perspective of the lender!
They relate the story of Muhammed Yunus (founder of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank – one of the world's biggest microcredit lenders):
The professor reached into his pocket and lent Sufiya and forty-one of her neighbors a total of twenty-seven dollars. To the amazement of observers, the loans were fully repaid on time. Contrary to the received wisdom, it was possible to lend money to very poor people and get it paid back.As if the main issue to be considered with microfinance is the rate of return for lenders!
While they do consider what they see as some of the "pros and cons" or microfinance – again, these relate primarily to the concerns of lenders and their ability to reach particular populations of poor people. But it is not the case that microfinance's problem is simply that it fails to reach the poorest and most excluded people. There is now very good evidence that microfinance may help to smooth the incomes of (some) poor people and help them hedge their bets in the face of financial insecurity but that it simply does not make fundamental change in the lives of poor people. The authors do not engage with this research at all. It also never seems to occur to them that lending extremely small sums of money to extremely poor people selling extremely low value-added products in communities of other extremely poor people might have some limitations when it comes to ending poverty!
This blindness when it comes to microfinance is replicated in other ways. As this review is already, um, long, I'll mention only two in closing.
A bias towards capitalist, entrepreneurial solutions (as opposed to other political and communal responses) is evident throughout but one minor argument exemplifies the problem. The authors quote uncritically William Easterly's contention in The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good that aid has failed because,
Despite an estimated $2.3 trillion in foreign aid dispensed from Western nations during the post-World War II era, more than 2.5 billion people, approximately 40 per cent of the world's population, still live on less than two dollars a day.
At first blush, this sounds like a knockout argument that aid has failed. $2.3 trillion is, for almost everyone I know, a massive amount of money and yet 2.5 billion people, which is far larger number of people than I can imagine, still live in poverty!! Surely there could be no clearer evidence that helping by giving money is a fool's errand.
Yet, this "argument" is, to be blunt, nonsense. Like every human endeavour, international humanitarian and development assistance can be implemented well or poorly or anywhere in between. But aid has not "failed" to help vast numbers of poor people, reducing maternal and child mortality, increasing school enrolment, and supporting the basics of life. Easterly's factoid is vastly less substantial than it first appears.
$2.3 trillion is also a much smaller amount in reality than it appears to be in Easterly's big, quotable, statistic. $2.3 trillion over the five post-war decades to the time Easterly is writing amounts to just $48 billion per year. In 1981 (to take a rough mid-point of the period) the global population was around 4.5 billion people, with roughly 2 billion people living in extreme poverty.
Which means that even if every cent of that aid over those decades was directed to addressing the poverty of the world's poorest people, the supposed largesse of "Western nations" amounts to just $24 per person each year. And, of course, it is not the case that all of this aid was given to address poverty. Roughly half the aid given in 1981 was given in the form of loans, not grants. Huge sums of aid was given not to end poverty, but to prop up favoured regimes (such as Egypt or Turkey) and had no benefit at all for the poor.
What should we imagine this $24 (to play along with Easterly's unstated and unrealistic assumptions) was supposed to achieve? Even for the very poorest people, its probably unreasonable to think that 7 cents per person per day is going to go a long way towards ending poverty. Under the Marshall Plan, the US invested more than $200 per citizen in the European nations they helped back on their feet after World War II.
Oh, and the fact that there are still poor people around even after aid has been given is no argument at all. Developed nations spend billions each year on health and there are still sick people!
Finally – and, for me, most fundamentally – the theology undergirding Corbett and Fikkert's analysis and prescriptions is extraordinarily deficient. Their one and only reference to "all that the Bible says on the difficult topic" of whether or not you should always give to someone who asks – which appears to be at the heart of their thesis about helping without hurting – is a footnote pointing to Neither Poverty Nor Riches: Illuminating the Riddle. The judicious balance sounded in that book's title gets to the heart of the problem. Yes, the Bible's witness on poverty and wealth is various and not easily reconcilable. There are different and seemingly incompatible streams of tradition on the topic - from the stolid and aphoristic Wisdom traditions of the Proverbs to the extreme and denunciatory prophetic traditions of Amos and Jesus.
I can understand the temptation to seek a middle ground. Yet, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus does not call us to any sort of via media, to a balancing of extremes. God calls people to take sides because God, in Christ, takes the side of the unloved, the marginalised, and the poor. And the scandal, indeed crime, of global inequality and environmental destruction requires us to swap a comfortable and manufactured "objectivity", for a challenging and determinedly located "option for the poor".
When Helping Hurts is worth reading. But it should not be anyone's final word in thinking about and responding to poverty. A helpful next step would be to read Bryant Myers' Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practice of Transformational Development, from which the authors freely draw and the Gustavo Gutierrez's A Theology of Liberation, from which they avowedly do not draw.
January 14, 2025
This should be required reading for anyone who claims the name of Christ. The theology is orthodox, but the concepts are so common sense and carefully explained. Ridiculously helpful little introduction to why any form of ministry should be undertaken with extreme care and aim to preserve and restore dignity foremost.
July 24, 2012
The first half of this book should get 6 or 7 out of five stars. The principles, concepts, and framework it presents are ministry and mindset altering. For me, as someone who gravitates toward that kind of instruction and thinking, it was priceless. The second half of the book looked deeper at particular areas of ministry such as short term missions or micro finance, so it was aimed a bit more at practitioners. Over all, this is one of the few books that I think every single missionary, pastor, and para church leader should read. And the congregants would benefit massively from it too.
August 27, 2016
I could not be bothered to finish this. I agreed with many of the cited information and claims that the authors made, but not with any of the conclusions that they drew from this information. I'm not crazy about short-term missions and I deplore many of the things that the author condemns, such as the "poverty as deficit" model, paternalism towards the poor, and blaming the poor for their situation. I appreciated Chapter 8, but feel that it fell short.
However, the author often backtracks or rewords what they're condemning others for as his own claim. For example, the denouncement of paternalism is followed by the idea that poor people need non-poor people to introduce a new way of life to them. This was way too Ruby Payne-esque for me to handle, as was the idea that poor people are ashamed of their situation, so charity is offensive. Nevermind that a great number of low-income people have protested for better wages and against the systems that create and perpetuate poverty throughout the world.
There were also massive oversimplifications based on anecdotal evidence that often had me shaking my head. He mentions broken systems, yet he doesn’t push for any changes within these systems. Apparently the only thing that the US needs to work on is job preparedness and financial education programs, with some microfinance thrown in for good measure.
I also find it ironic that the author takes great trouble to mention the poor people in the US constantly, yet continually refers to the US as a monolithic group made of "economically rich".
I'm also not sure what the author really wants people to do. He fully changes the definition of poverty from a lack of material resources to include a lack of spiritual resources. So essentially, if you want to alleviate poverty, just redefine the term, so by preaching the Gospel, you're reducing poverty! This belief in God will inspire the poor to take charge of their lives and focus on God instead of material wealth, so then they’ll still be poor, but they won’t think about it as much (?). He tells a story of a very decrepit slum in Africa that he visited and came across 20+ worshippers. These people put his faith to shame and he was clearly inspired by them; according to the author, these people, who lived in literal shitholes, need no material or financial alleviation, because their belief in the Holy Spirit was so strong. If you think that it’s okay for people to live in absolute squalor in cardboard shacks with fecal matter in the street and not enough food to live on, because they need no “spiritual alleviation” then you are fucking delusional. The end. I will stick to non-spiritual relief efforts if this is the crap that gets published.
However, the author often backtracks or rewords what they're condemning others for as his own claim. For example, the denouncement of paternalism is followed by the idea that poor people need non-poor people to introduce a new way of life to them. This was way too Ruby Payne-esque for me to handle, as was the idea that poor people are ashamed of their situation, so charity is offensive. Nevermind that a great number of low-income people have protested for better wages and against the systems that create and perpetuate poverty throughout the world.
There were also massive oversimplifications based on anecdotal evidence that often had me shaking my head. He mentions broken systems, yet he doesn’t push for any changes within these systems. Apparently the only thing that the US needs to work on is job preparedness and financial education programs, with some microfinance thrown in for good measure.
I also find it ironic that the author takes great trouble to mention the poor people in the US constantly, yet continually refers to the US as a monolithic group made of "economically rich".
I'm also not sure what the author really wants people to do. He fully changes the definition of poverty from a lack of material resources to include a lack of spiritual resources. So essentially, if you want to alleviate poverty, just redefine the term, so by preaching the Gospel, you're reducing poverty! This belief in God will inspire the poor to take charge of their lives and focus on God instead of material wealth, so then they’ll still be poor, but they won’t think about it as much (?). He tells a story of a very decrepit slum in Africa that he visited and came across 20+ worshippers. These people put his faith to shame and he was clearly inspired by them; according to the author, these people, who lived in literal shitholes, need no material or financial alleviation, because their belief in the Holy Spirit was so strong. If you think that it’s okay for people to live in absolute squalor in cardboard shacks with fecal matter in the street and not enough food to live on, because they need no “spiritual alleviation” then you are fucking delusional. The end. I will stick to non-spiritual relief efforts if this is the crap that gets published.
November 7, 2012
So here's the thing. This book contains radically important and often overlooked information. Sometimes the band-aids we put on what we view as poverty ends up causing much more harm than good in the long run, in ways we've refused to see. I get that. It points out that we sometimes see ourselves as some kind of savior, perfect and needing to share that perfection which is just all wrong. I get that too. I also feel more and more that we should help smarter-put our time and effort into the ways of helping that pack the most punch. "Teach a man to fish.." Yeah. I get that. But, I also felt like parts of the book were just paralyzing, like anything I've ever done that I felt God leading me to do was really just aweful and I would've been better off just going along my selfish, comfortable way. Kind of depressing and made me second guess TOO much. However, I think this book in the long run has been very helpful in teaching the church to be more effective but for me personally it was often just discouraging.
September 23, 2016
While I already knew the general direction of this book, I was surprised by all the new perspectives and light bulb moments I encountered. Even if you don't agree with everything Corbett and Fikkert say, it's worth a read for the fresh ideas and insights. Just be sure you get a recent edition, as some areas of potential misunderstanding have been cleared up.
March 15, 2010
Very good book, with the exception of chapter 8. That one was a brick, but the rest of the book is much needed.
March 11, 2022
I'm rounding up to 4 stars though in fairness my personal enjoyment was closer to a 3 star level. I blame the audio book. The reader just sounded pretentious and put me in a bad mood even though I agreed with just about everything he said.
But the content was good. It was a practical critique and provides some really good insights into how the West could do charity better. I can see what a huge influence this was on at least Millennials.
Probably will come back to this one when I can read it in print with a better attitude!
But the content was good. It was a practical critique and provides some really good insights into how the West could do charity better. I can see what a huge influence this was on at least Millennials.
Probably will come back to this one when I can read it in print with a better attitude!
March 23, 2023
WHH changed my perspective on poverty. We as humans are all impoverished in different ways: either in our view of ourselves, our relationships with others, our relationship with God, or in our stewardship/access to material resources. Until we recognize that we are all in poverty, we will be unable to help others without hurting them and ourselves.
The book also provides principles and practical strategies for engaging in Christ’s ministry of reconciliation by alleviating material poverty, all of which are integrated with the paradigm shift I described above. The target audience is North American Christians and churches, but the book is also useful for anyone who wants to help others. I’m going on an economic development trip in Kenya this summer and, honestly, I now can’t imagine going without having read this book. I would definitely recommend the later editions of this book, which are more refined and practical, instead of the first edition.
It was very encouraging to meet Brian Fikkert in the Chattanooga, TN area recently and see that this book came from such a good and kind follower of Christ who is still deeply passionate about this topic. He did tell me that WHH is basically a popularized and simplified version of Bryant L. Myers’ book Walking with the Poor, so depending on your preferences it might be worth going straight to the source of these ideas and reading Myers instead.
“Until we embrace our mutual brokenness, our work with low-income people is likely to do far more harm than good.”
The book also provides principles and practical strategies for engaging in Christ’s ministry of reconciliation by alleviating material poverty, all of which are integrated with the paradigm shift I described above. The target audience is North American Christians and churches, but the book is also useful for anyone who wants to help others. I’m going on an economic development trip in Kenya this summer and, honestly, I now can’t imagine going without having read this book. I would definitely recommend the later editions of this book, which are more refined and practical, instead of the first edition.
It was very encouraging to meet Brian Fikkert in the Chattanooga, TN area recently and see that this book came from such a good and kind follower of Christ who is still deeply passionate about this topic. He did tell me that WHH is basically a popularized and simplified version of Bryant L. Myers’ book Walking with the Poor, so depending on your preferences it might be worth going straight to the source of these ideas and reading Myers instead.
“Until we embrace our mutual brokenness, our work with low-income people is likely to do far more harm than good.”
July 3, 2019
Going in to this book, I generally expected to read "The way you're doing charity is bad, do it this way instead". I was right: the authors give examples of counterproductive (if not destructive) types of service/charity/missions, and then give more helpful alternative ways to serve those in need.
However, this book is so much more than that. The heart of this book is in it's discussions that help reframe ideas about what it means to be "poor", what it means to be someone who can "help", what God has made this world for the role he has given humans... These discussions gave me so much to think about: it is much more than just "do charity this way instead". The authors have clearly done this work themselves, and I was able to trust their insight from the many practical personal examples they shared.
I was also nervous that this book was going to load me down with guilt that i'm not doing enough to help the poor. Instead, I felt empowered and educated on how I can thoughtfully and intentionally serve, rather than being driven by guilt, impulse, and pressure. I was definitely humbled: but it was a helpful and well articulated humbling.
This book is not an easy read: it pretty dense and long, and the subject matter makes you hesitant to just breeze through it. But I strongly recommend it. Prepare yourself to hear me quoting and referencing it.
However, this book is so much more than that. The heart of this book is in it's discussions that help reframe ideas about what it means to be "poor", what it means to be someone who can "help", what God has made this world for the role he has given humans... These discussions gave me so much to think about: it is much more than just "do charity this way instead". The authors have clearly done this work themselves, and I was able to trust their insight from the many practical personal examples they shared.
I was also nervous that this book was going to load me down with guilt that i'm not doing enough to help the poor. Instead, I felt empowered and educated on how I can thoughtfully and intentionally serve, rather than being driven by guilt, impulse, and pressure. I was definitely humbled: but it was a helpful and well articulated humbling.
This book is not an easy read: it pretty dense and long, and the subject matter makes you hesitant to just breeze through it. But I strongly recommend it. Prepare yourself to hear me quoting and referencing it.
January 13, 2010
This book was a helpful reminder of things that many authors have previously said ("give a man a fish...teach a man to fish..."); but it didn't break any new ground.
But there was a general tone, especially in the Forward and the Preface, towards Marxism.
In the Forward, Dr. John Perkins calls for the need for "social justice." That has become code word not for justice and mercy for the poor, but the call for the government to redistribute wealth.
In the Preface, the authors favorably discuss the need for Christians to lobby the government "to promote justice for the poor through public policy."
These positions do not seek biblical justice (equal treatment before the law) or biblical mercy (personal and private charity) but stealing from the rich and giving to the poor by the venue of the State.
But there was a general tone, especially in the Forward and the Preface, towards Marxism.
In the Forward, Dr. John Perkins calls for the need for "social justice." That has become code word not for justice and mercy for the poor, but the call for the government to redistribute wealth.
In the Preface, the authors favorably discuss the need for Christians to lobby the government "to promote justice for the poor through public policy."
These positions do not seek biblical justice (equal treatment before the law) or biblical mercy (personal and private charity) but stealing from the rich and giving to the poor by the venue of the State.
April 26, 2020
This is a must read for every Christian- especially those interested in stewarding kingdom resources well and living out their calling of being a minister of reconciliation. I really appreciated the willingness the authors had to challenge popular Christian ideas and beliefs about poverty alleviation, but out of a desire to see God most glorified and not just to bash the Church. This was definitely a humbling read- we all get it wrong sometimes, but by God’s grace He redeems.
October 25, 2013
Outstanding book. A must read for any Christian or local church that is serious about serving the poor. This book totally challenged my existing ideas of poverty, poverty alleviation, and practical steps local churches need to take to serve the poor both at home and abroad.
Read
October 9, 2017One of the best books I've read on the issue of poverty and challenging one's definition of what poverty means and to approach relief and development. If you every work with people in any situation, this is an excellent read.
October 25, 2018
Seriously changed my view of what poverty is and how you should deal with it, also I would highly recommend it for anyone interested in, or considering short-term missions trips.
April 3, 2024
When Helping Hurts is a book I wish I had read a decade ago. It's a book on how to stop hurting poor people while trying to help them, and how to actually empower them to overcome poverty. The foundation of this book is grounded in a biblical understanding of the Fall of man and the redemption of Christ. The authors don't spend much time developing theology, but it is written from a thoroughly Christian perspective.
Some really important takeaways:
Poverty is not essentially a lack of resources. It's essentially a breakdown of relationships in 4 key areas (relationship with God; with yourself; with others; and with the rest of creation). Therefore giving people stuff doesn't fix poverty, and we all experience some aspects of poverty even if we are materially wealthy. (Some materially poor people may have much stronger relationships with God or with their community than we who have more money.) Aid groups have been "giving a man a fish" instead of teaching him how to fish, and the recipients stay hungry and dependent. Even when aid groups give fishing poles without taking the relational time to teach them how to use it, and without listening to the people in their culture who may know a lot more about which fish are good to eat, the people stay hungry.
Never steal from people the dignity of doing for themselves by doing it for them, even if you can do it faster.
Repent of your "God complex" of thinking you know best. Your ideas may not all work in their culture and context.
Understand whether people need emergency aid or development. Aid is about surviving emergencies. Development is about building up a stronger and more self-sufficient community.
Take an asset-based approach instead of a needs-based approach. Find out what people are good at, and use your network and resources (your relationships) to help them use what they have.
Understand that the cycle of poverty is often a result of broken systems that are difficult to escape. Lack of education, lack of networking contacts, lack of good role models, discrimination, predatory lending--all of these things and many more can make escaping poverty very difficult.
Material poverty sometimes looks like laziness (and sometimes it is) but it feels like hopelessness.
Short-term missions to help poor people often do more harm than good by disrupting the relational dependence on one another in the community and replacing it with dependence on an outside agency that only shows up once a year. The money spent would often be better invested in missionaries, nation church leaders, or development organizations that have ongoing relationships in the region.
Don't give less. Give more. But give more wisely, and choose the hard work of relationship over the easy but demeaning option of giving a handout.
And I haven't even scratched the surface on the topic of microfinance and community savings associations to provide micro-loans at fair interest rates to poor communities.
This should be required reading for any Christian involved with benevolence or charity work. (Which should be all of us personally, even if we aren't part of this kind of ministry organization.)
Some really important takeaways:
Poverty is not essentially a lack of resources. It's essentially a breakdown of relationships in 4 key areas (relationship with God; with yourself; with others; and with the rest of creation). Therefore giving people stuff doesn't fix poverty, and we all experience some aspects of poverty even if we are materially wealthy. (Some materially poor people may have much stronger relationships with God or with their community than we who have more money.) Aid groups have been "giving a man a fish" instead of teaching him how to fish, and the recipients stay hungry and dependent. Even when aid groups give fishing poles without taking the relational time to teach them how to use it, and without listening to the people in their culture who may know a lot more about which fish are good to eat, the people stay hungry.
Never steal from people the dignity of doing for themselves by doing it for them, even if you can do it faster.
Repent of your "God complex" of thinking you know best. Your ideas may not all work in their culture and context.
Understand whether people need emergency aid or development. Aid is about surviving emergencies. Development is about building up a stronger and more self-sufficient community.
Take an asset-based approach instead of a needs-based approach. Find out what people are good at, and use your network and resources (your relationships) to help them use what they have.
Understand that the cycle of poverty is often a result of broken systems that are difficult to escape. Lack of education, lack of networking contacts, lack of good role models, discrimination, predatory lending--all of these things and many more can make escaping poverty very difficult.
Material poverty sometimes looks like laziness (and sometimes it is) but it feels like hopelessness.
Short-term missions to help poor people often do more harm than good by disrupting the relational dependence on one another in the community and replacing it with dependence on an outside agency that only shows up once a year. The money spent would often be better invested in missionaries, nation church leaders, or development organizations that have ongoing relationships in the region.
Don't give less. Give more. But give more wisely, and choose the hard work of relationship over the easy but demeaning option of giving a handout.
And I haven't even scratched the surface on the topic of microfinance and community savings associations to provide micro-loans at fair interest rates to poor communities.
This should be required reading for any Christian involved with benevolence or charity work. (Which should be all of us personally, even if we aren't part of this kind of ministry organization.)
January 30, 2025
Corbett and Fikkert’s work, though at this point 16 years old, is still a must read for Christians looking to help the poor in their midst and abroad (which should be all of us!)
Their framework of relief, rehabilitation, and development as well as their care for each holistic person is insightful and provokes questions about the way we help our neighbors. I walked away from this book with more questions than answers, specifically in helping the houseless poor - however, I am deeply thankful for the time and thought put into this work.
Their framework of relief, rehabilitation, and development as well as their care for each holistic person is insightful and provokes questions about the way we help our neighbors. I walked away from this book with more questions than answers, specifically in helping the houseless poor - however, I am deeply thankful for the time and thought put into this work.
March 18, 2021
Fair warning, this is a very Christian-focused (specifically Protestant) book. Within that worldview, Fikkert is well-spoken and he really has thought through these ideas. He could have better explained the gospel in the beginning, but he does eventually get there in later chapters. I like the fact that he also mentioned low-income neighborhoods in the U.S., not just third world countries. Much to mull over.
Related book:
--Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass
Related book:
--Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass
June 25, 2020
“God has sovereignly chosen to work in the world by beginning with the weak who are on the ‘outside,’ not the powerful who are on the ‘inside.’” -Mark Gornik
Amazing. Too rich to review, but unpack it with me in person sometime.
Amazing. Too rich to review, but unpack it with me in person sometime.
September 16, 2019
This book only reinforces a lot of the norms and oppressive tendencies that cause harm in the first place. It sounds like it offers a solution, but it is just a rebranding of the paternalistic white savior complexes. It tries to break down the "us and them" language used regarding poverty, but it fails miserably: the bootstrapping, prosperity gospel ideals are still there under the surface, and with them, the unspoken assumption that those with wealth have it because they have done something right. It does little to address systems of power, and it rarely if ever includes the critique and/or perspectives of those in poverty. The discussion comes entirely from those in a donor/sponsor position.
Based on my own experiences living cross-culturally and among people of varying economic means, this is a book I would never in a million years recommend. I found it insufferably arrogant and sanctimonious.
Based on my own experiences living cross-culturally and among people of varying economic means, this is a book I would never in a million years recommend. I found it insufferably arrogant and sanctimonious.
October 28, 2019
The main point of this book: if you want to help people who are poor you must look at the systems we have set up to make them poor, and not just presume that you have all the power and knowledge to end poverty, is right on.
The evangelical christian theology underlying this point is quite painful. For example, a Christian worldview does not make one a better farmer than other world views.
Also, for a book based in Christian Theology the text of Matthew 25:31-46 (Where Jesus says ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’) is completely missing.
Yes, we need to find a new way to engage in mission. No, it is not good to stop offering hungry people food.
The evangelical christian theology underlying this point is quite painful. For example, a Christian worldview does not make one a better farmer than other world views.
Also, for a book based in Christian Theology the text of Matthew 25:31-46 (Where Jesus says ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’) is completely missing.
Yes, we need to find a new way to engage in mission. No, it is not good to stop offering hungry people food.
December 29, 2022
Published in 2009, Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert’s “When Helping Hurts” has been probably the most significant book published in the past two decades related to Christian charity. It has shifted the way many has thought about and practiced local and global outreach efforts. And yet the book remains as relevant and important as ever.
Fikkert, the primary author, is an economist. He considers the impact of American charitable efforts and renders the verdict that not only have America’s charitable efforts not been effective, they have hurt those they have sought to help. “Our concern is not just that these methods are wasting human, spiritual, financial, and organizational resources but that these methods are actually exacerbating the very problems they are trying to solve.” What is the evidence for this? “Despite an estimated $2.3 trillion in foreign aid dispensed from Western nations during the post-World War II era, more than 2.5 billion people, approximately 40 percent of the world’s population, still live on less than two dollars per day.”
Fikkert and Corbett first lay out the foundation concepts for helping without hurting, then move to general principles, and finally on to practical strategies. Fikkert and Corbett first lay out a theology of Christ’s mission and then a theology of the mission of the church, both of which include the care for the poor and the marginalized.
Fikkert and Corbett emphasize the relational nature of poverty and the shame attached to poverty. Poverty is not merely an issue of a lack of material resources or knowledge, it is relational, psychological, and spiritual in its existence. People live within systems and are affected by them. We cannot help those in need until we embrace our “mutual brokenness.” The fall affects us all. For this reason, “Reconciliation of relationships is the guiding compass for our poverty alleviation efforts…” and “Poverty alleviation is the ministry of reconciliation: moving people closer to glorifying God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation.” In short, hearts and systems need to be transformed for true healing.
Fikkert and Corbett emphasize the three different points in the provision of aid. First is relief, which tries to help stop the “bleeding,” then comes rehabilitation, which “begins as soon as the bleeding stops,” and finally comes development, which is “a process of ongoing change.” “One of the biggest mistakes that North American churches make—by far—is applying relief in situations where rehabilitation or development is the appropriate intervention.” This massive insight is where practical aid must begin if we have any chance in it being effective.
Equally important is how that aid is administered. The affected population must drive “the assessment, design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the assistance program.” Our impulse is to step in and take charge. But we must sit in the backseat if assistance is going to be impactful in the long-run. If the affected population is not bought-in in terms of leadership and on-the-ground help. In fact, there are many times that outside help is completely unnecessary and unhelpful. In short, “Avoid paternalism. Do not do things for people that they can do for themselves.”
Fikkert and Corbett get very practical, encouraging an approach that identifies and mobilizes “the capabilities, skills, and resources of the individual community.” The long-term goal is to have local ownership, leadership, and ties, especially with the local church. This will mean that efforts will usually need to go more slowly than Americans might be comfortable with. “When the project is ‘theirs,’ they are more likely to sacrifice to make it work well and to sustain it over the long haul.”
Fikkert and Corbett have a number of helpful charts and visuals. One of my favorites was their “Participatory Continuum,” where they moved from Coercion to the end goal of Community Initiated.
The fact that Fikkert and Corbett are dealing with such a massive issue does mean that there are some weaknesses in “When Helping Hurts.” For instance, there is much more that could be said about a biblical theology of the poor, the church, and economics. You’ll want to dive deeper into other resources if you are looking for a book-length treatment of those subjects. While they deal with some of the relational and systemic problems that contribute to poverty, they don’t deal with spiritual warfare and trauma. In a recent interview Fikkert conceded that this was the weaknest part of the book and one that he hopes to rectify. I look forward to that.
The book is set up to go through as a group (which I didn’t do), but unlike many books that purport to do so but have weak questions, “When Helping Hurts” has excellent questions and thoughtful engagement that would make a group experience excellent.
My main hope for “When Helping Hurts” is that many more would read it and be impacted by it. Fikkert and Corbett have done the church a great service in their excellent book. My prayer is that my personal response and our church’s response to offering assistance brings true care and restoration to those I and we aim to help.
For more reviews see thebeehive.live.
Fikkert, the primary author, is an economist. He considers the impact of American charitable efforts and renders the verdict that not only have America’s charitable efforts not been effective, they have hurt those they have sought to help. “Our concern is not just that these methods are wasting human, spiritual, financial, and organizational resources but that these methods are actually exacerbating the very problems they are trying to solve.” What is the evidence for this? “Despite an estimated $2.3 trillion in foreign aid dispensed from Western nations during the post-World War II era, more than 2.5 billion people, approximately 40 percent of the world’s population, still live on less than two dollars per day.”
Fikkert and Corbett first lay out the foundation concepts for helping without hurting, then move to general principles, and finally on to practical strategies. Fikkert and Corbett first lay out a theology of Christ’s mission and then a theology of the mission of the church, both of which include the care for the poor and the marginalized.
Fikkert and Corbett emphasize the relational nature of poverty and the shame attached to poverty. Poverty is not merely an issue of a lack of material resources or knowledge, it is relational, psychological, and spiritual in its existence. People live within systems and are affected by them. We cannot help those in need until we embrace our “mutual brokenness.” The fall affects us all. For this reason, “Reconciliation of relationships is the guiding compass for our poverty alleviation efforts…” and “Poverty alleviation is the ministry of reconciliation: moving people closer to glorifying God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation.” In short, hearts and systems need to be transformed for true healing.
Fikkert and Corbett emphasize the three different points in the provision of aid. First is relief, which tries to help stop the “bleeding,” then comes rehabilitation, which “begins as soon as the bleeding stops,” and finally comes development, which is “a process of ongoing change.” “One of the biggest mistakes that North American churches make—by far—is applying relief in situations where rehabilitation or development is the appropriate intervention.” This massive insight is where practical aid must begin if we have any chance in it being effective.
Equally important is how that aid is administered. The affected population must drive “the assessment, design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the assistance program.” Our impulse is to step in and take charge. But we must sit in the backseat if assistance is going to be impactful in the long-run. If the affected population is not bought-in in terms of leadership and on-the-ground help. In fact, there are many times that outside help is completely unnecessary and unhelpful. In short, “Avoid paternalism. Do not do things for people that they can do for themselves.”
Fikkert and Corbett get very practical, encouraging an approach that identifies and mobilizes “the capabilities, skills, and resources of the individual community.” The long-term goal is to have local ownership, leadership, and ties, especially with the local church. This will mean that efforts will usually need to go more slowly than Americans might be comfortable with. “When the project is ‘theirs,’ they are more likely to sacrifice to make it work well and to sustain it over the long haul.”
Fikkert and Corbett have a number of helpful charts and visuals. One of my favorites was their “Participatory Continuum,” where they moved from Coercion to the end goal of Community Initiated.
The fact that Fikkert and Corbett are dealing with such a massive issue does mean that there are some weaknesses in “When Helping Hurts.” For instance, there is much more that could be said about a biblical theology of the poor, the church, and economics. You’ll want to dive deeper into other resources if you are looking for a book-length treatment of those subjects. While they deal with some of the relational and systemic problems that contribute to poverty, they don’t deal with spiritual warfare and trauma. In a recent interview Fikkert conceded that this was the weaknest part of the book and one that he hopes to rectify. I look forward to that.
The book is set up to go through as a group (which I didn’t do), but unlike many books that purport to do so but have weak questions, “When Helping Hurts” has excellent questions and thoughtful engagement that would make a group experience excellent.
My main hope for “When Helping Hurts” is that many more would read it and be impacted by it. Fikkert and Corbett have done the church a great service in their excellent book. My prayer is that my personal response and our church’s response to offering assistance brings true care and restoration to those I and we aim to help.
For more reviews see thebeehive.live.
December 20, 2024
“If poverty is rooted in broken relationships that result from both individual and systemic brokenness, then highly relational approaches are needed to alleviate poverty.”
'When Helping Hurts,' by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, changed how I viewed poverty in our modern world. It opened my eyes to the fact that material poverty doesn't exist without the underlying causes of broken relationships and systemic systems in our society. As a Western culture, we tend to subconsciously think that we are, in some way, superior to people experiencing poverty. This book showed the many faults of our modern-day short-term missions and highlighted the "God Complex" we usually have when dealing with poverty. The main ideas and concepts mentioned in 'When Helping Hurts' helped me know where to start the next time I'm in a place of ministry, but where this Book lacked were the subtle ideas that may have left some readers with false complexes that they would later hold over the people they were ministering to. For example, ministering in the name of God is good but who is to say that our interpretation of the bible is more accurate than that of the local church in the majority world? This was mentioned once or twice as a problem missionaries have, but it was never talked about in detail. 'When Helping Hurts' dove into how we should analyze and adapt our actions to suit the culture we're working with but it never mentioned how we can have an open mind biblically when interacting cross-culturally. Another major subtle flaw this book had was the use of the word 'Poor' when describing a person, if a person had depression I wouldn't call that person the depressed person, or if a person I knew had cancer I wouldn't call that person the cancer person. Poverty is the same way when describing poverty as something that person is, as opposed to something that they're dealing with, it creates a false connotation in which a person is a problem to fix and dismays the fact that they are someone who can help fix the situation that they're in because they are human too. Those faults in the book go to show that everyone in the West should reevaluate our culture and how we minister to those in poverty.
'When Helping Hurts,' by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, changed how I viewed poverty in our modern world. It opened my eyes to the fact that material poverty doesn't exist without the underlying causes of broken relationships and systemic systems in our society. As a Western culture, we tend to subconsciously think that we are, in some way, superior to people experiencing poverty. This book showed the many faults of our modern-day short-term missions and highlighted the "God Complex" we usually have when dealing with poverty. The main ideas and concepts mentioned in 'When Helping Hurts' helped me know where to start the next time I'm in a place of ministry, but where this Book lacked were the subtle ideas that may have left some readers with false complexes that they would later hold over the people they were ministering to. For example, ministering in the name of God is good but who is to say that our interpretation of the bible is more accurate than that of the local church in the majority world? This was mentioned once or twice as a problem missionaries have, but it was never talked about in detail. 'When Helping Hurts' dove into how we should analyze and adapt our actions to suit the culture we're working with but it never mentioned how we can have an open mind biblically when interacting cross-culturally. Another major subtle flaw this book had was the use of the word 'Poor' when describing a person, if a person had depression I wouldn't call that person the depressed person, or if a person I knew had cancer I wouldn't call that person the cancer person. Poverty is the same way when describing poverty as something that person is, as opposed to something that they're dealing with, it creates a false connotation in which a person is a problem to fix and dismays the fact that they are someone who can help fix the situation that they're in because they are human too. Those faults in the book go to show that everyone in the West should reevaluate our culture and how we minister to those in poverty.
July 21, 2024
"'Poverty alleviation' is the ministry of reconciliation: moving people closer to glorifying God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and the rest of creation... 'Material Poverty Alleviation' is working to reconcile the four foundational relationships [relationships with God, Self, Others, and Creation] so that people can fulfill their callings of glorifying God by working and supporting themselves and their families with the fruit of that work." - Pg. 74
'When Helping Hurts' has fundamentally shifted my views on how to alleviate poverty as well as the church's responsibility in ministering to the material poor. Each chapter begins with questions to draw out your assumptions about the chapter's topic. The authors then explain why some of our (I am speaking of the North American Church's) efforts, while well-intentioned, end up hurting both the poor and ourselves! Not a single chapter went by where my own assumptions or actions were revealed to have been potentially the wrong thing to do. For example, we often define poverty simply as material financial insufficiency which results in 'medicating' the symptom (lack of money) rather than the underlying disease. When this happens we cause harm to both the material poor and ourselves. Corbett and Fikkart supply the following equation to illustrate this issue:
Material definition of poverty + God-complexes of materially non-poor + Feelings of Inferiority of Materially Poor = Harm to both Materially Poor and Non-poor
When Helping Hurts not only identifies common pitfalls that exacerbate rather the alleviate poverty but it charts a course around them and gives concrete action steps to help. This book is a must-read starting point for ANY faith-based organization that wants to make a real difference in the lives of the disadvantaged.
'When Helping Hurts' has fundamentally shifted my views on how to alleviate poverty as well as the church's responsibility in ministering to the material poor. Each chapter begins with questions to draw out your assumptions about the chapter's topic. The authors then explain why some of our (I am speaking of the North American Church's) efforts, while well-intentioned, end up hurting both the poor and ourselves! Not a single chapter went by where my own assumptions or actions were revealed to have been potentially the wrong thing to do. For example, we often define poverty simply as material financial insufficiency which results in 'medicating' the symptom (lack of money) rather than the underlying disease. When this happens we cause harm to both the material poor and ourselves. Corbett and Fikkart supply the following equation to illustrate this issue:
Material definition of poverty + God-complexes of materially non-poor + Feelings of Inferiority of Materially Poor = Harm to both Materially Poor and Non-poor
When Helping Hurts not only identifies common pitfalls that exacerbate rather the alleviate poverty but it charts a course around them and gives concrete action steps to help. This book is a must-read starting point for ANY faith-based organization that wants to make a real difference in the lives of the disadvantaged.
November 28, 2025
Essential read for anyone engaged in evangelism, non-profit relief/aid, and/or community development, whether on the streets, in short-term missions, or longer vocations.
Corbett and Fikkert do an incredible job breaking down the harmful impacts left behind by so many well-intended groups (of which I’ve been a part) and offer clearly articulated solutions in the form of strategies that have proven better across the board.
My one and greatest qualm is the absence of the fullness of the Gospel in their purpose and their mindset: that Christ died for you (self-sacrificially) while you were uncooperative and unwilling to change or take responsibility for your sin, and so we ought to love in the same way. I suppose the greatest solution is to implement these more effective rehabilitative and developmental practices described by the authors AND love freely, giving to all who beg of us. I have read and understand their reservations with this application of that Scripture, but I disagree with their interpretation that the broader perspective of the Bible changes the meaning it has on its own, and I don’t think Paul’s instructions to Timothy for the church should at all be taken to qualify the commands of Jesus.
With that said, I still recommend this book to all who work in ministry, and I think the world would be a better place had all these gung-ho missionaries read it and been intelligent about their spending and their work instead of dropping $3k to paint a wall and play soccer in Africa then post on Instagram about the life-changing experience and how thankful they are now for everything they have—but that’s another essay to write.
Corbett and Fikkert do an incredible job breaking down the harmful impacts left behind by so many well-intended groups (of which I’ve been a part) and offer clearly articulated solutions in the form of strategies that have proven better across the board.
My one and greatest qualm is the absence of the fullness of the Gospel in their purpose and their mindset: that Christ died for you (self-sacrificially) while you were uncooperative and unwilling to change or take responsibility for your sin, and so we ought to love in the same way. I suppose the greatest solution is to implement these more effective rehabilitative and developmental practices described by the authors AND love freely, giving to all who beg of us. I have read and understand their reservations with this application of that Scripture, but I disagree with their interpretation that the broader perspective of the Bible changes the meaning it has on its own, and I don’t think Paul’s instructions to Timothy for the church should at all be taken to qualify the commands of Jesus.
With that said, I still recommend this book to all who work in ministry, and I think the world would be a better place had all these gung-ho missionaries read it and been intelligent about their spending and their work instead of dropping $3k to paint a wall and play soccer in Africa then post on Instagram about the life-changing experience and how thankful they are now for everything they have—but that’s another essay to write.
February 16, 2022
This book was a challenging read just because of how dense and heavy a lot of the information is- so it took me awhile. I felt like this book was effective in what I was desiring to learn more about, which was what mine and the churches role is in alleviating poverty. As I find myself approaching an age where I have an independent income, I so desire to steward my resources in a way that honors God. Serving the poor is critical to our faith. This book exposed much of the pride in my own heart towards what the definition of poverty is to begin with. One of the biggest takeaways for me was the fact that we are all poor in our own ways. We lack in material, emotional, spiritual, or mental wealth/ health due to the brokenness of sin. Our approach toward helping the materially poor, should be from a place of humility and recognizing our own need for a savior as well. Material poverty is due to broken systems. In order to help the materially poor without hurting ourselves (by building our own God-complexes as the book discussed), we must come willing to learn, listen, and help empower those in poverty with the Gospel message. A relationship with the Lord and healing these broken relationships is the first step. A long review- that scratches the surface to some of the convictions this book brought me. It also motivates me to want to further invest in understanding my role and the actions I can take in poverty alleviation efforts. God’s word is of utmost authority with these truths, but this book was a great accompanying tool in helping me to better understand our current cultural moment in relation to these efforts.
May 10, 2020
This was one of the rare books that has completely transformed my perspective on a topic, and because of that I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to engage deeper with this topic.
This book provides an introduction to the causes of poverty, as well as poverty alleviation strategies. It talks about how sometimes well-intentioned strategies can actually end up hurting everyone involved, including the people that they're meant to help. As an alternative, it suggests a framework for thinking about poverty alleviation. There are lots of practical examples - most of them have to do with either churches helping the poor, or international relief examples, but I think there's plenty to be learned for the individual person as well.
This book provides an introduction to the causes of poverty, as well as poverty alleviation strategies. It talks about how sometimes well-intentioned strategies can actually end up hurting everyone involved, including the people that they're meant to help. As an alternative, it suggests a framework for thinking about poverty alleviation. There are lots of practical examples - most of them have to do with either churches helping the poor, or international relief examples, but I think there's plenty to be learned for the individual person as well.
June 30, 2022
3.5 stars. This book was heavy on practicum, light on gospel. Incredibly practical book full of statistics and real life stories of how poverty alleviation and community development goes wrong, and goes right both in our own backyards and around the world. Conservative Christians who tend to filter out authors who use certain buzzwords that are not to their liking should simply use a discerning mind to see that these authors have been richly shaped by their reformed faith in a way that has thrust them into the trenches of ministry to those most burdened in our world. I think this book should be a must read for deacons in training, and those engaging in cross cultural missions. Not everyone will glean the same amount from this book but there are some gold nuggets that will be very helpful depending on your context. For starters, I greatly appreciated the concept of discerning if someone is in "free fall", before offering them relief. In a connected way the categories of "Relief, Restoration, and Development" were very helpful. Churches needing to revisit a benevolence policy will benefit from this section. I also appreciated the great detail the authors took to illustrate how asset mapping and participatory assistance can benefit poor communities and people. Recommended read for the deaconate. Favorite quote "Loans alone cannot reconcile people to God"
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