Don’t Forget the Poor: A Biblical Approach to Addressing Poverty

Third, when the family is unable to meet these responsibilities, the local church has a responsibility to fill the gap by providing help and ensuring that the poor are not hurt in the process of helping. Fourth, a healthy church can also provide the social capital or relational resources that help individuals to overcome poverty and to flourish.

Finally, the prophetic voice of the church needs to be heard clearly when social systems exploit the poor and rob them of God’s shalom. God may call some believers to serve in the area of politics in order to influence people in power and help communities to flourish.

When the church implements these steps and they prove successful, the world will proclaim, “See how these Christians love one another”²⁰ (John 13:35). In the words of the song that became popular in the Jesus Movement days, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.” The role of the church is to bring light into a very dark world full of loneliness and despair. We do this through the proclamation of the gospel and the discipleship of our spiritual brothers and sisters.

Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden … And it (a lamp) gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:14–16, emphasis added). Just as when the Jerusalem church cared for the social needs of their community (Acts 6), I believe that today our loving actions on behalf of the poor can become the greatest impetus to church growth that we have ever seen.

PR

“Don’t Forget the Poor” by Johan Mostert is chapter 11 in Stephen Lim, ed., Your Call to Work & Mission: Following Jesus 24/7 Whole-Life Discipleship, Book 1 (AGTS, 2015), reprinted here with permission. Copyright © 2015 Assemblies of God Theological Seminary at Evangel University.
To purchase Your Call to Work & Mission: Following Jesus 24/7, go to the AGTS bookstore webpage: https://www.agts.edu/book_order_form.html

Notes

1. Readers Digest, March 2009.
2. Johan Mostert, “Moving from Orphanages to Community Care,” How to Become HIV+: Guidelines for the Local Church (Harrisonburg, VA: Kerus Global Education, 2011).
3. Bryant L. Meyers, Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development Principles and Practices of Transformational Development (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1999, 2011). This is a classic in Christian developmental theory.
4. Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 2012). This book helps the local church reach out to the poor in a way that does not disempower them or destroy their dignity.
5. Ibid., 59.
6. Ibid., 54.
7. In this regard, see the prophetic word that the angel gave to John’s parents in Luke 1:17. The spirit and power of Elijah will turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
8. Donald E. Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori, Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2007).
9. The obvious exceptions here are the patriarchs of old. For example, Noah’s grandfather, Methuselah, reached the ripe old age of 969!
10. In 1 Timothy 5:9, Paul considered someone who was age sixty to be old and in need of special support and care.
11. We refer to this today as “retirement” but, of course, in a biblical sense, one does not “retire.”
12. Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power: Biblical Strategies for Making a Difference in Your Community (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 22.
13. For an excellent reference book on a Christian response to these types of issues, see Mae Elise Cannon, Social Justice Handbook: Small Steps for a Better World (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009).
14. See the work of the Jubilee campaign. http://www.jubileeusa.org/home.html.
15. See the work of Christians for Biblical Equality. http://www.cbeinternational.org/.
16. See the work of Exodus World Service. http://www.e-w-s.org/
17. “Bono hits oil companies at CGI for blocking anti-corruption Rules,” One Campaign, accessed May 17, 2015, http://www.one.org/us/2013/09/24/bono-hits-oil-companies-at-cgi-for-blocking-anti-corruption-rules/.
18. “Stories of Hope,” Project Rescue, accessed May 17, 2015, http://projectrescue.com/resources/stories-of-hope/.
19. Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, 33.
20. Attributed to Tertullian, an Early Church Father.

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Category: Living the Faith, Summer 2016