Pop Quiz: Someone walks into your church on a Sunday morning or even a week day, gives a story about the awful situation they are in, and asks for money to help get them by. What do you do?
Pastor Luke Edwards has the right answer: DON'T GIVE THEM ANYTHING. Tell them God helps those who help themselves and send them on their way.
Actually no. Luke wrote an article called "Churches Should Stop Giving Away Stuff and Do This Instead" which intrigued me so much I had to interview him about it to learn more.
Luke actually does recommend "not giving away money", but what he advises putting in its place is quite complex. He takes more of a "slow church" approach, where he and his church community gather around people and help them out of poverty over an extended time. But I'll let Luke explain it more in his own words. You can listen to my interview with him here, episode 07 of the PostConsumer Reports Podcast (check below for links to Luke's website and book recommendations):
As a pastor I kind of feel helpless when it comes to knowing what to do with all the world's problems, especially when it comes to something as mind boggling and heavy as systemic poverty. Luke offers some practical wisdom here for all of us, even if the road ahead is difficult and we can only work with what we have.
Luke mentioned a number of articles and resources in the interview. Here are links to them all, including his own websites:
Fresh Expressions national gathering http://
Luke's blog - lukesedwards.com
Luke's Twitter @lukesedwards
King Street Church - kscboone.org
Boone UMC - booneumc.org
Book: When Helping Hurts
Book: Toxic Charity
Article: Guidelines For Benevolence
Finally, if you like what you hear, please make sure to subscribe to the podcast on itunes, Libsyn (our host site!), Stitcher, or Tunein.
More is on the way. Click on the "episodes" tab to hear past interviews.
More is on the way. Click on the "episodes" tab to hear past interviews.
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