When Helping HurtsHow to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself

Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert          Moody Publishers, 2009.

 5.0 / 5.0 

When Helping Hurts wasn't the most enjoyable book I've ever read, but it was one of the best. Surely this is partly because I work in a very poor country. Questions about the poor and doubts about how to help them come to me every day, but don't they come to every Christian, if not with the same frequency?

The authors have put together the type of book that every missionary wishes they had before they went on the field and wishes they could write after a few years of work. Utilizing research from projects in North America and the Majority World they present Biblical, general and specific ideas about the Christian's role in alleviating poverty. Drawing also on personal experience they recount the failures and successes they have seen and the root causes behind them.

The book can be neatly summed up by their warning about paternalism: “Don't do for others what they can do for themselves”. Lest anyone think, though, that the book is all about the poor pulling themselves up by their bootstraps; it's not. Corbett and Fikkert's book defines poverty not as lack, but as brokenness. They don't pick a political side. Their definition includes the brokenness of the individual and the brokenness of systems. While not everyone is lacking materials, everyone has an area of their life in disrepair. They are calling Christians to do now the work of reconciliation that Christ started and will finish one day.

This would be a great study book for short term mission teams to go through in preparation for preparing for a trip. If they aren't willing to commit to that much, just reading the sections on paternalism and short-term missions would go a long way in limiting potential damage to the people to which they are ministering. This is a must read for Christian leaders. If you meet a missionary or pastor that hasn't read When Helping Hurts, ask “Why not?”

***This review is for the original edition. There is a new, expanded edition in 2012.***