Years ago I wanted to take a group of teens to Russia where my church was starting a seminary. I thought it would be really cool if we could help renovate the buildings they had bought for the seminary. My pastor emphatically said no. I was shocked. He then explained that we can send a few people over with the funds to renovate and they can employ locals who will do the job for far less and it will help the local economy. So much for my hope of going to Russia, but he was right.
Three books came into my mailbox today that I will devour over the coming weeks. One is an audiobook that my wife and I will listen to on our way to two weddings we are attending in the midwest. That one is Toxic Charity by Robert Lupton. A friend who works full time in missions recommended it and it’s a book that both my wife and I will be able to engage with on the road.
On that subject, many years ago now I had a friend come speak to our youth ministers about the mission trips they lead. He suggested that if we don’t do missions right, we can miss the opportunity to truly glorify God and we can actually do more harm than good. There are a few excellent articles on this whole area on The Gospel Coalition Blog by Darren Carlson, founder and president of Training Leaders International. In one he suggests…
No one wants to think their generosity hurts people, but books like Dead Aid and When Helping Hurts have alerted us to the problem. So what is going on? The answer is complex and involves issues of basic economics, power, dependency, and bad motives.
You can read his article here and the follow up TOWARD BETTER SHORT-TERM MISSIONS here.
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