Empowering destitute people towards transforming communities

3.4They must enable different helpers to take each others’ hands…

…in a complementary fashion. In this way our combined efforts can aim at addressing the entire problem of destitution.
CHAM (Community Homeless Alliance Ministry) voices this principle strongly on the front page of its website: “CHAM’s current outreach strategy extends into nearly every religious, community, or politically based-coalition that deals with homelessness or poverty in any way”.
The principle is clear: empowering destitute people requires efforts from many role-players, such as the destitute themselves, government, individuals, churches, organizations such as NGO’s and CBO’s, and others. A model of missions with the destitute will make it possible for these role players to join hands.

3.5They must allow helpers to integrate sharing faith and meeting social needs

Missions with the destitute are conducted by “helpers” together with destitute people. “Helpers” in this context have been defined above. A defining characteristic of helpers doing missions with the destitute will be faith: talking about Christian faith, otherwise we will not be conversing about “missions” but merely about social services. If we keep in mind that helpers do missions with the destitute, “sharing faith” becomes a process of discovering God (at work) with the destitute, and “meeting social needs” becomes a process of empowering destitute people.

Against this background the issue of integrating the sharing of faith and meeting social needs when doing missions with the destitute arises. Offhand it seems an easy issue: surely meeting social needs is faith in action; but in reality the issue is more complex. Many helpers sense a faith-based responsibility to reach out to the world outside their walls, but they respond to this call in different ways. Helpers might focus on the spiritual dimension of human need, assisting people to develop a relationship with God. They might emphasize people's social and emotional well-being by providing services or advocating justice. Or they might blend these priorities.

Evangelism (sharing faith) and social ministries have been typically understood as important but separate activities, which are studied separately (Roozen, M & Roozen, C, 1984:34). Evangelistic churches are "otherworldly", placing stress on "salvation for a world to come," and making "a relatively sharp distinction ... between religious and secular affairs." Civic and activist churches are this-worldly, or take "with considerable seriousness this present world as an important arena for religiously motivated service and action" (1984:34). While 40% of churches in the Varieties of Religious Presence study two or more orientations combined, evangelist-activist combinations were in the minority (1984:89).
Meyers (1999:5-11) argues that our separation of faith and social services is rooted in “the great divorce that separates the spiritual and physical realms” (1999:5), brought on by our modern worldview. In this worldview loving God and witnessing is seen as spiritual work, while loving neighbours and social action takes place in the physical world (1999:6).
Hiebert (1982: 35-47), in addressing the dichotomy between sharing faith and social action, advocates a more traditional worldview as opposed to a modern worldview. The traditional worldview is holistic, with the spiritual and material worlds interrelated in a seamless whole (1982:39). Meyers (1999:8) adds that the Biblical worldview is close to the worldview of traditional cultures.

The Biblical worldview is holistic in the sense that the physical world is never understood as being disconnected or separate from the spiritual world and the rule of the God who created it. The fact that the Word became flesh explodes the claim that the spiritual and physical can be separated meaningfully.

Hence, faith becomes good deeds (material and physical action) that express the love of God (Meyers, 1999:9).

Sider and Unruh (2004:51-57) identified five basic ways in which churches (helpers) integrate the sharing of faith and meeting social needs:

3.5.1Explicit evangelism is not a part of the church’s outreach mission

Helpers are committed to serving the needy and advocating justice in Christ’s name, but without making an explicit attempt to bring those they serve to Christ. Faith motivates and shapes their outreach, but the focus of their ministry falls on meeting social needs, not nurturing faith in others.

3.5.2Evangelism is valued and practised, but not in the context of social ministry

Helpers evidence a dual mission focus, with evangelism and social ministry taking place along separate, parallel tracks. Missions focus primarily on one or the other, with little overlap. Social ministries normally do not include overt faith sharing; evangelistic ministries do not meet material needs.

3.5.3Little conventional social ministry is present

Helpers care about healing social ills, but they express this caring through evangelism and discipleship. The underlying belief is that social needs are essentially spiritual in nature. Helping people in need thus requires tackling the root of the problem through a process of conversion and discipleship that bears fruit in fundamental life changes.

3.5.4No significant social action or evangelism

A further type of church carries out no active community outreach. They might sponsor an occasional evangelistic or compassionate ministry activity (such as an annual Bring-a-Friend-to-Church day or a Thanksgiving canned food drive), but they are not oriented toward the world outside the walls of the church. Their main focus is placed on internal ministries of worship, fellowship, and discipleship.

3.5.5Evangelism and social ministry are practised

In this type, evangelism and social action are distinguishable but inseparable, like the two sides of a coin. This type is based on the belief that the physical, spiritual, moral, and relational dimensions of human nature are intertwined. Promoting social and spiritual well-being represent equally important, and interdependent, aspects of mission. Meeting social needs opens doors to sharing faith, and spiritual nurture is believed to enhance the outcomes of social interventions.
In doing missions with the destitute, helpers are constantly challenged do develop this type of integration between evangelism and social ministry.

3.5.6Conclusion

A good model must facilitate the integration of faith and social services, irrespective of the ways in which specific helpers understand the relationship between their own faith and social action. The obvious goal would be a healthy integration of both aspects; in other words a good model must incorporate both “sharing faith” (in a non-coercive way) and “meeting social needs”.