Week 1: Introduction — The Chasm Between Intentions and Results

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?

6.The authors write for an audience of North American Christians who are materially wealthy by global standards. They suggest that this wealth itself can be a source of spiritual poverty. What do you make of that idea? Does affluence carry its own kind of brokenness?

7.What personal or ministry experience are you bringing into this study? Share briefly with your group the moment that first made you want to engage with poverty, and one question you are still carrying from that experience.