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

it is often the most appropriate response for people who are experiencing a one-time crisis.

freezing.

In particular, the legacy of institutionalized racism—both historic and contemporary—continues to wreak havoc with the lives of many people who are poor in ways that Caucasian North Americans often fail to see.

We cannot change broken people, nor can we change a broken world.

most of the low-income people who approach your church for assistance are probably not experiencing a one-time crisis. They are battling a chronic state of poverty created by a complex set of forces.

it is an ongoing problem.

Unfortunately, some churches became paralyzed and were afraid to help low-income people at all, lest they hurt them in the process of trying to help.

Don’t become paralyzed by trying to categorize people

systems that they did not choose to be born into