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

Just as When Helping Hurts served as a road map to help Willow Creek Church shape the strategy of our overall Care Center Ministry, this book will serve as an excellent resource in drilling down a strategy for one of the most challenging topics for church leaders to navigate. Brian and Steve understand the challenges of poverty alleviation yet provide hope through their understanding of Gods design for all people.

JOSIE GUTH, Director of Local Outreach at Willow Creek Community Church

Helping the man or woman days from eviction or hours from a power cutoff can be very confusing. Helping without Hurting in Church Benevolence will sort out the confusion and guide your church to craft a thoughtful approach to benevolence. Backed by practical experience and thorough research, Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert show us that it is possible to not only meet an immediate need but also to lead people to lasting change.

JEFF GALLEY, Central Group Leader for LifeGroups and Missions at LifeChurch.tv

This book will undoubtedly be a tremendous tool for churches as they seek to care for the poor with biblical wisdom, sound principles, and pastoral care. In their usual style, Corbett and Fikkert help us to look beyond the surface level requests and to identify and address the deeper issues in the lives of those we seek to serve.

JEFF WARD, Director of External Focus at Watermark Church

Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett have given the church a practical, adaptable resource for benevolence ministry! This book offers a helpful roadmap that can assist any church to restore the hope and dignity God intends for His image-bearers. Best of all, it reminds us that benevolence ministry can impact the lives of those in need and those who minister to them, bringing us all to deeper levels of transformation in Christ.

JOHN H. SATHER, Co-national Director of Cru Inner City

Often the most difficult aspect of poverty alleviation is putting good theory into practice. Helping without Hurting in Church Benevolence serves as a GPS for converting our good intentions into solutions that give dignity, promote responsibility, and foster lasting change.

STEPHAN BAUMAN, President and CEO, World Relief

I am very happy to see this practical counsel and advice to congregations on how to help the poor. One of the encouragements to me is to see a needed corrective to the first book that Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett wrote, When Helping Hurts, as some churches reading that book may have failed to realize the rich gospel ministry they can experience through needed and immediate relief to people who are in desperate situations. This work helps churches learn how to show mercy with wisdom, and how to walk with people into empowering growth and healing so they can participate in their own development.

RANDY NABORS, Pastor Emeritus of New City Fellowship in Chattanooga, TN, and author, Merciful: The Opportunity and Challenge of Discipling the Poor Out of Poverty

When Helping Hurts has become the authoritative road map for all mercy and justice efforts coming out of the church that I serve. This book will no doubt have similar impact as we align our benevolence efforts around the priorities and heart of Jesus.

SCOTT SAULS, Senior Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, TN, and author, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides

Brian and Steve have once again put together a tremendous resource for churches and the body of Christ in this book! As churches, we all struggle with how to best come alongside people with significant needs inside and outside our church. They have given us a very practical step-by-step process to do this well. This is a must read for any church that is helping those in need, which means every church!

PASTOR CHIP SWENEY, Division Director of Next Gen and Community Transformation at Perimeter Church

Serving in a church plant, we have been challenged with developing attitudes and practical strategies for church benevolence on a blank slate. This book does the best job of communicating wise and charitable engagement. Its enriching for any ministry leaders to read together regardless of experience in this area.

JEREMY TAYLOR, Deacon at East Point Church, East Point, GA

Churches are longing for a more fruitful way to address the complex dilemmas that arise in the context of benevolence ministry, and especially among the materially poor. Having used both Chalmers Faith & Finances and When Helping Hurts approach extensively in our city, I recognize the ring of truth in the stories here, and the wisdom of the approach.

DR. RANDY WHITE, Director at FPU Center for Community Transformation and author, The Work of Our Hands: Faith Rooted Approaches to Job Creation, Training and Placement in a Context of Concentrated Poverty

Finally, it is here! A practical guide for churches to come alongside low-income individuals and families looking for financial assistance. Corbett and Fikkert give excellent guidance through training scenarios and questions, tools, and downloadable forms for churches to start small, start fast, and succeed.

MARCIA TRANI, Director of Compassion Ministries at Rolling Hills Covenant Church

Caring for and responding to a neighbor requesting financial assistance doesnt have to catch your church flat-footed in how to respond. A flat-out no or an indiscriminate yes shouldnt be the only two options. Helping without Hurting in Church Benevolence provides churches a practical framework. Church leaders will not feel straightjacketed with a recipe approach, but prompted and equipped to develop an approach appropriate to their goals and community.

KIRK VANDER MOLEN, National Director of Missional Integrity at Love In the Name of Christ (Love INC)

The church is charged with a biblical mandate to help the poor in its community. And that includes the responsibility for understanding the underlying causes of poverty. This book offers valuable insights and a practical process to follow.

KIRK LITHANDER, Outreach Pastor at Fairhaven Church, Dayton, Ohio

As a pastor and missions director at our church, we have constantly struggled with having a benevolence process that empowers and builds up the recipient and the helper. Helping without Hurting in Church Benevolence gives us the theological framework, structure, and tools to implement a powerful, empowering process.

ANDREW FEIL, Pastor and Missions Director at The Well Community Church in Fresno, CA

2015 by
STEVE CORBETT and BRIAN FIKKERT

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.