By Nancy Karpenske
What Every Church Member Needs to Know about Poverty
Bill Ehlig and Ruby K. Payne
Highlands: aha! Process Inc., 1999
Ruby K. Payne is the leading U.S. educator teaching teachers and social workers about the impacts on families in poverty, and the author of the best-selling book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty.
Bill Ehlig has been a minister in urban settings for more than 30 years.
God expects and commands followers of Jesus to be concerned and involved with needy people. “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has not pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?” (1 John 3:17). But it takes more than compassion and the love of God to help the poor. American churches are often unaware that ministering effectively to the poor requires as much cross-cultural training as crossing the ocean to serve in a foreign country.
What Every Church Member Needs to Know about Poverty reveals key insights about what you didn”t know that you didn”t know. Take the quiz on page 12 of the book: Could you live in poverty? I scored 1 out of 18. I don”t know the systems for survival. Similarly, the average poor person is unaware of the “hidden rules” that govern our middle-class lives.
The biggest “aha! moment” for me was discovering the difference between situational and generational poverty. Situational poverty is when events like divorce, job loss, or catastrophic illness push families temporarily into unfamiliar financial hardship. Generational poverty is handed down from mother to children to grandchildren (usually because fathers are absent). Children growing up in generational poverty absorb radically different priorities, values, and expectations for family members. Their ways of thinking, speaking, and acting are not easily understood by average middle-class American Christians. Resources you and I know how to access are often out of reach for them.
This book includes key Scriptures and discussion questions in each of its 13 chapters, making it possible to use as a Sunday school series. Each chapter begins with a real-life story. Although I would call the book a textbook, the combination of stories, explanations, and charts make it an easy read””easy to read, but difficult to absorb. The book made me aware of ways I need to adjust my attitudes and actions toward the poor. I can”t just label them as “unworthy” because my help didn”t fix their problem. Investment of my time and gentle teaching are required. It”s a little like laying down one”s life.
Who should read this book? People in your church who respond to requests for financial assistance; church leaders who make decisions about budgets and policies for giving financial assistance to people; and those who mentor someone who has long-term financial needs.
Why is this important? Without understanding the differences in values, ways of communicating, and family systems in poverty, nice church people tend to judge, or to expect money to fix the problems.
How will this book assist you in ministry? It will provide tools to help you make the best decisions about allocating resources. Also, your expression of God”s compassion for the poor will be more effective.
How will this book revise your thinking about poor people? You will be reminded that God cares deeply about the underprivileged, and that he also expects you to care. Beyond all this, you may be surprised to learn that poor people are not necessarily less intelligent or less ambitious than yourself.
Nancy Karpenske is women”s ministry director with LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colorado. A former Standard Publishing editor and later a CHRISTIAN STANDARD contributing editor, she has written a number of leader”s guides and other curriculum pieces for Standard Publishing.
THANK YOU for finally featuring this resource! Check out the original book (& training): Bridges Out of Poverty and the small group version for those who desire to work their way out of poverty: “Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World” … or the college level version “Investigations into Economic Class in America” (www.bridgesoutofpoverty.com). However, why do middle class people keep using the term “underprivileged,” which sounds like the person saying/writing it puts him/herself above the other person. Just say “poor” (biblical term) or if, if you were going to tie into the BOP concepts, try using “under-resourced.” The focus in these concepts is the idea of a person identifying which resources they are strongest in and using those to build the ones of which they have less (see Getting Ahead for descriptions of the various kids of resources; also a list in the featured book noted here): Emotional, Financial, Mental, Spiritual, Physical, Support Systems, Relationships/Role Models, Knowledge of Hidden Rules (notice, there’s more to being under-resourced than just money). For a more biblical framework of poverty (that still has links to the BOP concepts, check out “When Helping Hurts–Alleviating Poverty without Hurting the Poor and Yourself” http://www.whenhelpinghurts.org).