Helping Without Hurting in Church Benevolence: A Practical Guide to Walking with Low-Income People

by Steve Corbett, Brian Fikkert

When a low-income person asks your church for help, what do you do next? God is extraordinarily generous, and our churches should be, too. Because poverty is complex, however, helping low-income people often requires going beyond meeting their material needs to holistically addressing the roots of their poverty.  But on a practical level, how do you move forward in walking with someone who approaches your church for financial help? From the authors of When Helping Hurts comes Helping Without Hurting in Church Benevolence , a guidebook for church staff, deacons, or volunteers who work with low-income people. Short and to the point, this tool provides foundational principles for poverty alleviation and then addresses practical matters, With practical stories, forms, and tools for churches to use,  Helping Without Hurting in Church Benevolence  is an all-in-one guide for church leaders and laypeople who want to help the poor in ways that lead to lasting change.

Genres: Christian, Theology, Nonfiction, Poverty, Christianity, Church, Spirituality

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 2015

About the author

Mr. 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.

Reviews

[Stephen Hoogerhyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the authors of "When Helping Hurts" (whose principles are the underpinning for this book), this is an incredibly helpful manual for church benevolence workers. It is a very practical guide for working with primarily lower income individuals who approach the church for financial assistance.

The authors set a great foundation for understanding the principle causes of poverty, the complexity of poverty, and how both the helper and one being helped are broken and need the transforming power of the gospel (very important point!). They give very detailed guides for developing a benevolence philosophy and policy, for working with and walking alongside those who need the church's help, and for building and increasing the individual church's capacity for benevolence. Finally, they give a number of real life situations for the reader to work through, along with suggested ways to help.

They incorporate a number of tools throughout the book, and provide links to the tools through the Chalmers Center web site. And throughout the book, they continually emphasize that, although properly using good tools and process and intentionality in working with people is important, we should never forget that God is the one who brings healing and restoration.

This book is a MUST HAVE for every church's benevolence team or diaconal ministry! If the church wants to help without hurting (and they emphasize repeatedly that immediately giving money to one who requests it is usually not the best approach), if the church wants to be effective in working with lower income people, this guide will be an invaluable help.

[Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some wonderful practical guidelines to helping those who come to your church asking for assistance. We run into this on a regular basis and it is always very difficult to know just how to help someone who says they need money to pay a utility bill. This gives some great ideas (forms, questions to ask) and gives some suggestions on how to help that person on a deeper level. Their utility bill might seem urgent but they usually aren't in grave danger if they don't pay it and you can take the opportunity to offer some financial planning to help them gain better control over their lives...and of course in pointing them to Christ. Definitely a recommended book for those dealing with requests for aid.

[Robert Wegner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book with some helpful insights on how to love the people in your area. As we were searching for new benevolence policies, this book was a helpful resource.

[Noah Nemni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Challenged my definitions of poverty and poverty alleviation. Works as a practical workbook for developing a church benevolence ministry—and I’m looking forward to using it! While it addresses the systemic factors of poverty, the book helpfully reminded me that church benevolence work is about individuals, not fixing systems.

[PD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for churches creating, or refreshing, processes for diaconal/mercy ministries in their local context.

[Michael Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those doing benevolence work, this is a great book to start with. It will help you clarify your mission and gives you valuable tools to start. I gave it three stars because it is not comprehensive. But, benevolence work is often done by instinct and discernment. This book gives you great tools with which to evaluate and vet those who come looking for help. I'm convinced now that I've been in ministry for quite a while that we, and most likely others, are squandering resources on the wrong groups of individuals. This book has helped me to identify how we have perhaps not done damage, but delayed in others' recovery by not using the qualifiers mentioned here. Our Christian mandate is to help the poor. But to also assist them into wholeness.

[Anino · Rating 5 out of 5]

***ARC generously given in exchange for an honest review***

As a social service advocate who serves clients within my church, as well as a local library, I have often found myself wondering if I actually helped a client to succeed, or if I enabled them to fail. After having been able to read this common sense guide to purposeful giving, all I can say is that I wish that I'd read this one 10 years ago. Because not only is this book very thorough in regards to the concept of purposeful giving, but it also helps to lay a foundation for just about any nonprofit agency or even a budding/seasoned philanthropist to build upon as well.

Giving this one: 5 Stars for excellence...

[Mark Donald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly, I should note that I read this book without reading When Helping Hurts (by the same authors) and this feels like the expansion pack to that book. I intend to read WHH which will hopefully provide a bit more of the biblical argument for the main principles they are arguing.

This work however, presented an incredibly practical guide with examples and pointing to plenty of resources, but the guidance felt very [para-church]-ministry heavy, or church program driven, which many churches can't provide. Also these programs/ideas felt extremely tailored to an American, or Western, context, which they admittedly mentioned up front (p. 8). Overall, there are helpful things to be gleaned here but as I said I would like a more robust biblical argument for some of their core conclusions that they are pushing.

What I really appreciated about the book was the emphasis and need for God to work in our lives to bring transformation. In light of this I'd have appreciated a little more about how to incorporate the gospel into the work of caring for low-income people.

[Lance · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good and bad book. The authors make it obvious that they believe that Racism is alive and well in America and that it dramatically impacts people across the nation every day and is part of the problem that keeps some people poor. I don't accept this principle.

The good part is the books offers real insights on how to deal with difficult situations when it comes to church benevolence. They give real world examples and address real topics that churches have to face regularly.

Overall, because of the overt assumption of racism in America, I don't recommend this book. That being said there are some good aspects to it.

[Ian Caveny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful and practical tool for helping develop holistic church hospitality ministries.

The most significant takeaway is an assertion made at the beginning: remember that you and the person you're "helping" are both injured, sinful human beings, in need of grace. That "leveling" that comes alongside the Gospel is crucial for the foundations of holistic benevolence that heals not just those "in need" but also the people giving need (as well as safeguarding against creating hierarchies of "strong" and "weak").

[Kelly L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are involved in acts of charity, missions, service, or really any form of support to those less fortunate, then this book could be helpful. It is written from a Christian perspective. I work on a board supporting a project in West Africa and with some service organizations locally. It is always difficult to know how best to help in a sustainable way rather than just put band-aids on big wounds in our world. I can't say I embraced everything this author said, but I found the book very helpful in triaging how to help without hurting, making the book well worth reading for me.

[Mylinda B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many practical steps to take along with access to online forms and extra information. So that part was great. None of the scenarios used to illustrate the way their suggestions for “helping without hurting” could work dealt with alcohol or drug abuse or how to get past those obstacles to deal truthfully with the clients. In this day and time, at least in our community, that will need to be addressed in many of the situations.

[Madelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent followup to Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert's other books. Their first was When Helping Hurts about short term missions. They give excellent guidelines for benevolence programs at churches, when do we help, when do we say no, when do we come alongside the hurting to assist them to regain their self worth. There is so much to think about in this small book and then to put into practice.

[Tangled in Text · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent resource with well-rounded insight on many obstacles that might arise during the benevolence process and how to handle them. This book contains intake forms, questionnaires, resources, example approaches, and real life situations that have happened to help the next church be more prepared in their process of helping fight poverty.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really informative book for those working in church benevolence. It didn't really teach me anything new about poverty, but it did give me new ideas for helping those finding themselves in poverty and/or financial crises.

[Cheryl Okimoto · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is basically an instruction manual for how to implement the ideas presented in *When Helping Hurts*, by the same authors. It's not an "easy read" in spite of it's small size, but it is packed with good information. It's a great resource for starting or improving a benevolence outreach.

[C.M. Habermehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

really opened my eyes as we stategiize how to help people in our communities in a healthy way.

[Andy Huette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really helpful book for our church. My thoughts here: https://themelios.thegospelcoalition....

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical advice. Very helpful

[Heather Storey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book for an organization or institution to work through together. Not so great for an individual.

[Martin Spence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really useful thinking on this subject.

[Sarah Mayer · Rating 1 out of 5]

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[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a low-income person asks your church for help, what do you do next? God is extraordinarily generous, and our churches should be, too. Because poverty is complex, however, helping low-income people often requires going beyond meeting their material needs to holistically addressing the roots of their poverty. But on a practical level, how do you move forward in walking with someone who approaches your church for financial help?

From the authors of When Helping Hurts comes Helping Without Hurting in Church Benevolence, a guidebook for church staff, deacons, or volunteers who work with low-income people.Short and to the point, this tool provides foundational principles for poverty alleviation and then addresses practical matters, like:
-How to structure and focus your benevolence work
-How to respond to immediate needs while pursuing long-term solutions
-How to mobilize your church to walk with low-income people

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

This was a helpful guide, but I found it to be a little overwhelming. When your church has limited human, monetary and time resources to dedicate to walking alongside low-income individuals in the long-term, this book just seems unrealistic. The qualifications needed for those who would do this work are the equivalent of a social worker or community worker - I have a hard time realistically believing that a volunteer would be able to step into one of those roles. There are pieces of this that I will take away, but overall it seemed a little unrealistic and as a result was almost demoralizing.

[Shari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely indispensable for churches who want to help people who come to them for financial assistance. It's about learning how to truly help people improve their situations and become more of who God has made them to be. Yes, it was overwhelming at times. That's because this kind of work is much more difficult than handing out gift cards or doing nothing at all. Read the book to the end, where the authors remind you that it's about working with a team, learning from your mistakes and relying on God to help you. Ultimately, I'm encouraged to begin and learn as we go.

[Lance Mayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought-Provoking and Practical

I like how how everything comes back to restoring relationships, especially people's relationship with God.

It is filled with practical suggestions to not only get started in a more comprehensive benevolence ministry but also to develop a fully functioning benevolence ministry.

This book is for church staff and lay leaders who want to do more than just help the materially poor pay rent, utilities or buy food.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of the principles in the original WHH followed by some very practical advice on benevolence work including worksheets to help get a structure in place for a church. This seemed to be geared toward large churches with multiple staff, a deaconal team beyond the Deacons, etc. At times this made it seem like a huge process is needed to help people, it would have been nice to also have them address a church like ours with four Deacons and no additional staff.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good follow-up to their earlier book, When Helping Hurts. This book is more hands-on and practical with step-by-step guidelines for a church benevolence ministry. They provide sample intake forms and interview, as well as several case studies. When Helping Hurts was more theoretical; this is more practical. It's by no means comprehensive, but it's a useful addition to the toolkit.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was a bit of demonic/sin talk that I was a touch iffy about, but it was negligible in the grand scheme of a really helpful book. I kept expecting to roll up on a section that would be uninformative or just useless, but no-- all of it is very practical, with nuggets of theological goodness here and there. 4.5 stars, definitely a good read for pastors.

[Will Pareja · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent, hands-on, theologically informed guide for applying the Great Commandment to the materially impoverished in our parishes.

Put this in your church library.
Use it to help deacons or benevolence teams sharpen their ministry.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very helpful guide in thinking through church benevolence policies and procedures. Probably a boring read for many, but if you're involved in such ministries in your own church, I would highly recommend it.