When Helping Hurts

I just finished reading "When Helping Hurts" by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert and I highly recommend it!

If you:

1) are on church staff
2) volunteer on a missions team
3) have ever wondered about how to best help the poor
4) have ever wondered if you should give money to beggars on the street
5) are breathing

then you should read this book.

Is it scripture?
No.

Will it answer ALL your questions?
No, but it will get you thinking about things perhaps in a new way. 

For a long time I have wanted to help people, but felt discouraged because I often didn't feel like I was actually helping.  Instead, I usually felt like I'm putting a band-aid on an infected wound before taking time to clean out the infection. 

I believe there is a wrong way to "help" and good intentions are not always enough.  However, I must say that although I have done many things wrong in an effort to help others, I didn't walk away from this book feeling like the scum of the earth.  I feel more hopeful and confident that, even though I have a lot to learn, I can begin to apply these concepts to assist people in an effective way.  It's empowering.

So many efforts made to help the less fortunate end up creating more long-term problems.  This book does a great job of laying the ground work for figuring out what we're doing right and wrong in our efforts and pointing us to further resources that will assist us in being more effective.

Even as I type this I feel like I'm not doing the book justice. 

Trust me, it's good. 
Certainly if you are in any place of influence, please read it and begin to think how it can be applied to your efforts.