When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett

Week 1: Introduction — The Chasm Between Intentions and Results

Read the Introduction of When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.

Before diving into the book's arguments, take a moment to examine the assumptions and experiences you already bring to the question of poverty and Christian charity.

Discussion Questions

7 questions

1.Corbett and Fikkert open with a striking confession: many short-term mission trips and church benevolence programs, despite enormous goodwill, leave poor communities worse off than before. Does that claim surprise you, disturb you, or resonate with something you've already suspected? Why?

2.The authors describe a common 'god-complex' that can quietly motivate charitable work — a subtle sense that we are the solution and the poor are the problem. Where have you seen this attitude, either in yourself or in ministries you've observed?

3.The book distinguishes between three types of giving situations: relief, rehabilitation, and development. Even before the authors define these formally, how would you intuitively describe the difference between them? Can you think of a real-life example of each from your own community?

4.Fikkert shares that his own discomfort around poor people was a formative confession that shaped this book. What emotions or discomforts do you notice in yourself when you are in close proximity to people experiencing poverty?

5.The introduction argues that the way we define poverty determines the solutions we pursue. How have you typically defined poverty — primarily as a lack of money, a lack of opportunity, a moral failing, or something else? How has that definition shaped your response to it?

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Closing Prayer

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Lord, we come to this study with good intentions — and you know that our good intentions are sometimes the very thing that gets in the way. Expose the god-complex that hides in our charity. Show us where we have defined poverty too narrowly, and where we have defined our own role too grandly. Give us the humility to be learners before we are helpers, and the courage to keep reading even when the mirror this book holds up is uncomfortable. We ask this in the name of Jesus, who became poor so that we might become rich. Amen.

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