When Helping Hurts Small Group

Our four session high-level small group about poverty has ended and we are planning for our next small group. There already is strong interest here in our next topic starting in January, God willing, when we will be studying the book, When Helping Hurts - How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor ... and Yourself, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.

The authors are associated with Covenant College through the Chalmers Center. They bring a solid biblical foundation and years of practical experience to the problem of poverty alleviation.

The premise of their book is that there are quite a few pitfalls that we can easily fall into when we try to help the poor. If we truly care about helping the poor, we as Christians need to be informed and aware of how to provide help that actually is help.

What I really appreciated about the book is that it shattered some of my assumptions about what really helps and what doesn't. I would recommend this book to anyone who really has a heart to help people and wants to make the best use of their time and resources ... and who does not want to hurt anyone in the process.