Lesson 6: Social Work...Helping the Poor

Perhaps the most popular project for churches and individuals in missions is social work.  These acts of goodness come in the form of feeding programs, orphanages, medical work, agricultural projects and a whole host of niche projects such as rescuing women from the sex trade, outreach to AIDS victims and seasonal projects for earthquake victims, tsunami’s and hurricane relief.

One of the great challenges of career missionaries is to balance the need to help those who are poor and desperate and making sure that the Gospel is not lost in the process.  As I stated earlier, missions is an emotional issue and it is sometimes exploited with pictures of suffering and starving children. 

Working in the semi-nomadic region of Kenya the people we worked with (Pokot and Turkana) were always on the verge of disaster.  Depending on their cattle and goats for their livelihood, if there were a drought year people suffered hunger and disease.   The Turkana have a saying, “The stomach has no ears,” which translates…”If I am hungry I cannot listen to anything.”  To turn a blind eye to the suffering of the people and just preach to them would be of no benefit and would indeed be against the very gospel we proclaim – “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be that person?” (1 John 3:17).

On the other side of the issue, Jesus was well aware that many came to him, not to receive salvation but not healing.  “Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs” (John 6:26 NLT).  “Rice Christians” have been a concern for career missionaries for centuries.  The tension continues between wanting to help people in desperate situations yet at the same time not using food, clothing, medical assistance, care for widows or children as a tool to draw people to church or baptism.

The role of the local church mission team is to be (1) educated on missionary social work and (2) discerning as the team becomes more knowledgeable of missionary social work.  Your missions team should function very much like a charitable foundation that gives millions of dollars to good causes.  When a foundation receives a request for funds they put the effort, or do-diligence, to make sure the funds are used efficiently and those who receive money have a track record of integrity.  Charitable foundations do not grant monies based on emotion.

Missionary social work is attractive because Christian people, for the most part, are compassionate and caring people.  Who isn’t inspired with a Mother Teresa helping the poorest of the poor, or who is not willing to fill a shoebox full of toys for needy kids all over the world?  But social work also is trendy and, in some cases, often abused.  Orphanage ministries in Africa and India can be legitimate, or it can be just a source of foreign revenue for the national organization.  It is the task of the mission team to do do-diligence to make sure they are legitimate.  Feeding the poor is noble, but does our charity help or hurt (recommended reading, “When Helping Hurts”  by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert)? 

Social work is, in some ways, the easiest work of missions.  Starting a school for children, a work program for widows, digging wells (all good stuff) is more rewarding than trying to establish a church among the Hindus or Muslims.  During the severe drought in northern Kenya and Ethiopia one missionary related to me that he could raise thousands of dollars to feed the starving but no one was interested in helping him finish the church building.

In discerning need, it is important that the mission team find balance.  There is certainly are worthy social work that must be done to demonstrate the love of Christ.  At the same time there are 3.6 billion people in this world who have never met a Christian.  In every missionary endeavor the prevailing goal should be, how do we reach those have not yet heard of His grace?