Mandate eNewsletter, 2009 - Issue No. 2

No More Band-Aids On Broken Arms
by Ben and Chelsea Laudermilch

Our local church board is very godly and discerning, but this particular benevolence need was leaving them at a loss for what to do. A single father, who had recently become a Christian before being released from jail, had lost his job and had several medical concerns. The man had been attending the church for a few months and shared that he and his two children were living with his sister and brother-in-law and were in need of housing and financial assistance. The board wondered what they should do for this man. Did he have a good work ethic? How could he a get a fresh start at life and not slip back into past sins? How much monetary help should the church give?

From what we had just learned in our Foundations and Principles of Holistic Ministry online course through the Chalmers Center for Economic Development, there was a way to approach the situation, resulting in the edification of the one requesting assistance and leading to long term sustainable change. We had signed up for the course as a prerequisite for serving with Christian Veterinary Mission overseas, but as the course ended, we were now fired up to address the need that existed in our church for a benevolence ministry that affected positive and sustainable change in peoples’ lives. It was clear to us that the information we had just learned was exactly what the church board needed to put into practice for this benevolence situation, and could set a foundation for every other needy person that would come our way.

Our perspective of effective ministry and missions had drastically changed because of the readings from the course. We had realized our own “poverty of a being,” meaning that our thinking was impoverished in understanding of the situations and responses and that our motives were not really pure. We were convicted that we had previously wanted to do ministry on our terms, and with our methods, really with intentions of making ourselves feel good. We learned through many examples from other ministries that our way of doing things is not always the best way, especially in conditions very different from those native to us. Shared lessons convinced us that the differences between western and eastern traditions or between the Majority World (Africa, Asia, Latin America) and the wealthier nations made our ideas incompatible with effective, long term change in other cultures. We learned that our middle-class mentality was much different from the attitudes and values of those in need of financial assistance from our local church.

So, we asked our assistant pastor and a board member for some time with them to summarize what we had learned in this Foundations and Principles of Holistic Ministry course. We explained to them a diagram¹ of lines representing crisis points and challenges in an individual’s life. We shared how each different time point or situation would require one of three different responses to the needs: relief, rehabilitation, and development. Each situation that our church would be faced with should be evaluated and the appropriate response determined. If we are constantly providing relief and rehabilitation, it is unlikely that long-term change will be a result. The “development” response requires the greatest time investment, but is really what takes a person out of the previous impoverished state in which they have been living. We also shared concerning the nature of poverty and that it is fundamentally relational. We all have broken relationships with God, ourselves, others, and our environment. The consequences of these broken relationships vary, but in the lives of the poor, the broken relationships have resulted in economic hardships.

After this initial presentation, we were asked to share the information with the board at the next meeting. By the end of the next board meeting, we had been commissioned to serve as the “Compassion Ministry Co-Chairs.” We had never imagined that we would be helping with this sort of ministry in our church, but the Lord had timed our training and the needs in our church to coincide. We feel that right now our greatest ministry can occur within the relationships we already have at our local church. Effective ministry really takes a lot of patience and desire for understanding. It requires a lowering of oneself in order to listen to and build up the other. We are blessed to have a committee of four others who have experience in social work and pastoral care and who bring discernment and experience to this sort of ministry. We feel that we still have a lot to learn and need the Holy Spirit’s power in order to do a good job at this ministry. We look forward to other resources from the Chalmers Center to help us continue to understand that sometimes our best pragmatic ideas are not effective or sustainable in ministry to the poor.

Together, we have spent the last six months establishing the goals and logistics of the ministry with the focus of creating meaningful relationships that can encourage healing of the broken relationships in one’s life. Our mission is to partner with persons who agree to be mentored and accountable on a regular basis in order to facilitate their spiritual growth, life skill development and financial independence. We also hope to be able to offer Individual Development Accounts to encourage saving as an aspect of long-term change.

We presented the concepts of holistic, sustainable development to those interested in the ministry from our church, and many people were excited to build and/or grow relationships with those seeking financial assistance. The Lord has moved the hearts of the people in our community of believers to want to help. However, good intentions can often be harmful, and the teaching we were able to share with them from the Chalmers Center is important in taking our good intentions to humble partnerships that focus on the dignity of the one seeking help.

One of the main ideas we learned from the Chalmers Center’s course was that the ministry must be participatory. Hence, we are asking that those who request help be willing to commit to at least six months of meaningful relationships with 3-6 church members. Church members will offer training in areas of their strength such as budgeting and finances, job skills, parenting, meal planning, and addictions recovery. As this ministry has been established, the Lord also provided for our church to be able to purchase and renovate a re-possessed double wide trailer and set up a home for temporary housing assistance. This has eliminated geographic distance barriers that existed in following through with relationships. It has been a wonderful part of the Compassion Ministry and has brought the church together with a common goal and vision for reaching out to our community. With the training we received from the Chalmers Center, our church will not be putting “bandaids on broken arms.” We have learned how to empower those who come to the church asking for help by identifying their assets and encouraging them to strengthen their weaknesses.

Ben and Chelsea Laudermilch are members of North Rome Wesleyan Church in northeastern Pennsylvania. Ben is a large animal veterinarian and Chelsea is a stay-at-home mom to their daughter, Gracelyn.

¹Figure 4.1 from When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor...and Yourself, p.104, by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert, Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2009.

For more information about the Chalmers Center, visit us at www.chalmers.org.

12/14/09