Kids Say the Darndest Things, Pt. 3

My housemate Richard and I hosted a sleepover for the 8th and 9th grade boys in our discipleship group a few nights ago.  Unfortunately for me, the boys had a goal to stay up all night, which was incongruous with my goal for the evening, which was to muster as much sleep as possible.  One boy watched movies on his iPod Touch (and thus was quiet), but the other three talked long into the morning.  By 6am, two of the boys had gotten quiet, but one was still rambling on for quite a while.  Finally, he (mercifully) concluded his monologue, stating, "I hate talking to myself."

NY Times Celebrates Life of CCD Hero Allan Tibbels

This week, the NY Times published short stories of 23 notable people who passed away in 2010, including Christian Community Development hero, Allan Tibbels.  Titled "Wheelchair Missionary," the brief article talks about how Allan, inspired by John Perkins, moved his family into one of Baltimore's most blighted neighborhoods (along with friend Mark Gornik) and helped to transform it by partnering with residents to found New Song Community Church, New Song Academy (an independently-run public school) and Sandtown Habitat for Humanity.  Sandtown Habitat, which Allan co-directed, had rehabilitated nearly 300 homes by the time of his passing in June.

One of the most interesting -- and effective -- aspects of Tibbels and Gornik's ministry is that they purposefully did not start any programs immediately upon moving into Sandtown.  Instead, as Gornik tells it, they simply hung out for two years, getting to know their neighbors and their needs, and growing in trust for one another.  From the beginning, it was about relationships.

You can read the excellent NY Times article here.  For more on Tibbles, see the Baltimore Sun's obituary.

Side Note:  Many of you who have spent time with me since 2001 have heard me talk about John Perkins and how he influenced my own life.  John founded the Christian Community Development (CCD) movement, which my organization, Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries, is a part of.  If you're unfamiliar with CCD and want to understand why I do what I do, I highly recommend reading John's first book, "Let Justice Roll Down."  It might just change your life, like it did mine.

Reading Material: "When Helping Hurts"

My church homegroup is currently reading "When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor... and Yourself" by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, two economics professors from the Chalmers Center for Economic Development at Covenant College.  I'm less than halfway through the book but I'm really enjoying it.  Corbett and Fikkert's main argument is that poverty has spiritual, social, psychological, and physical aspects, but most poverty alleviation efforts only treat the physical rather than taking a holistic approach.  They define poverty alleviation as a "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."

One helpful aspect of this definition is to recognize that we are all poor in some way and in need of poverty alleviation, because none of us have perfect relationships.  They write, "The goal is not to make the materially poor all over the world into middle-to-upper-class North Americans, a group characterized by high rates of divorce, sexual addiction, substance abuse, and mental illness....  The goal is to restore people to a full expression of humanness, to being what God created us all to be..."  I really appreciated this point, because too often "those who have" incorrectly assume they know what "those who do not have" need.

Corbett and Fikkert then define material poverty alleviation as "working to reconcile the four foundational relationships so that people can fulfill their callings of glorifying God by working and supporting themselves and their families with the fruit of that work."  This definition reflects the biblical view that work is (or should be) an act of worship.  When an individual is empowered to earn his own wages, and when he is not merely chasing after wealth or seeking to glorify himself rather than God, he has a healthy relationship with work.

Having worked and/or volunteered in Christian Community Development with a holistic ministry for the last 7.5 years, some of this material is not new to me, especially the practical advice.  Still, the biblical rationale behind the advice and the real world examples of institution-created poverty are enlightening, and I'm looking forward to reading on.

Kids Say the Darndest Things, Pt. 2

We had just started eating our food at last Friday's Christmas Banquet when one of the 5th graders at my table said, "This chicken tastes funny."  He was eating pork chops.