Empowering destitute people towards transforming communities

4The model

The development of a model for missions with the destitute is now explained step by step in order for it to make sense.

1. Missionary action of three kinds

The model starts with a distinction between the different kinds of missionary actions in which helpers can engage when doing missions with the destitute. These three kinds of action do not follow a chronological order. They are:

4.1.1Missionary action to prevent people from becoming destitute

This should form the basis of our efforts, based on the tenet that God never intended people to live in destitution. Therefore our communities should enable the poor not to become destitute when they experience hard times. There are many poor people in our world, and many become destitute – which is the worst kind of poverty. Our efforts should empower the poor, so that they do not drift into destitution.

4.1.2Missionary action to heal destitute people

Once people become destitute, they enter a vicious circle where they are broken down as people. In this process, their dignity, personhood, ability to fend for themselves, self-worth, physical condition and ability to maintain relations are wounded and damaged. At the same time their access to power, security, employment, housing, education, skill, and information is damaged as they become more marginalized. Missionary efforts of this kind should empower already destitute people to become “whole” again, where this wholeness is captured in the word SHALOM. In this way we empower destitute people to heal.

4.1.3Missionary action to stop people from becoming destitute again

Once destitute people have broken out of the trap of the poverty cycle, they need to be empowered to sustain their new life, so that they will not become destitute again. Efforts of this kind help them to sustain a good quality of life.

4.2Missionary action…

Missions with the destitute must remain missions, with the whole range of meanings associated with such missions and developed in Chapter 3 being incorporated into our involvement with the destitute. Broadly speaking, this includes the realization and motivation that:

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  Missions with the destitute flow from the Missio Dei
  
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  Missions with the destitute must be contextual
  
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  Missions with the destitute bring about (reciprocal) conversion
  
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  Missions with the destitute discover SHALOM
  
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  Missions with the destitute require a Public Church.
  

The word “missions” also implies action, where we “engage” or “become involved” with the destitute, a conscious choice to act instead of accepting a distorted reality that causes people to be and to become destitute.

2. Missions “with” the destitute

This is a very strong principle inherent in doing missions with the destitute, such missions must be “with” them, and not “to” them or “for” them. In the model this is depicted as two figures holding hands, journeying together. In their journeying together, interaction takes place that would cause conversions, this is illustrated with an arrow between the two figures, an arrow that works reciprocally to both sides. These conversions would always be reciprocal, as we influence one another, and change one another while we journey together (Chapter 3)

3. Growth to discover and experience SHALOM more and more

The arrow in the diagram below, building on the basis of missionary action to prevent destitution, represents growth, where already destitute people are empowered to discover and experience SHALOM more and more (we would prefer that people do not become destitute at all, but if they do…). Once people move out of destitution (represented by the broken line), our efforts can be focused on empowering them to sustain their new life.

4. Empowerment towards SHALOM

Whether we are involved in action to prevent destitution, to heal destitute people or to prevent them from becoming destitute again, this action must be defined by the word “empower”. In this sense empower denotes the process of self organisation and self assertion in which the destitute help themselves. The role of the helpers then becomes one of facilitator, catalyst and advocate of processes of transformation.

5. Empowerment from both the inside out, and the outside in

In exploring the causes of and factors contributing to destitution in Chapter 2, a model was developed that distinguishes between the internal and external factors involved in and contributing to destitution. Internal factors require an “inside-out” approach: the destitute are empowered to develop on the inside, so that they can then change their external situation.

Empowerment from the inside-out focus mostly on the internal empowerment of individual destitute people, and the processes involved in or linked to this internal empowerment. This implies approaches that will enable helpers to empower destitute people to become whole, grow, change and develop on the inside, so that they will become self-motivated to change their own lives on the outside (“inside-out”). This is explored in greater detail in Chapter 6.

In the same way external factors would require an “outside-in” approach; this focuses mostly on strategies and interventions that should empower destitute people by creating an external environment or situation that could enable them to grow, change, develop and become whole as they choose to. “Outside-in” empowerment deals with issues mostly outside of the direct control of destitute people, therefore “external” to them: such as access to housing, or clinical services, or access to empowering communities, or advocating social justice and a number of other issues. These issues are sometimes also called “structural” or “societal factors” contributing to destitution. This is exploered in greater detail in Chapter 7.
These two sets of factors interact, and often overlap, so that no one reason for destitution can be singled out. The proposed model depicts these two approaches to empower destitute people, and the way they overlap.

6.