Christian Community Development

"When Helping Hurts"

The book, When Helping Hurts, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert has become a staple in the missions world, and we believe it should be required reading for Christians involved in local and global outreach. The book challenges definitions of poverty, espouses serving the poor with dignity, advocates resisting the urge to do for others what they can do for themselves, and suggests ways to truly empower people. Using the principles from the book, we developed a short video to alert churches and missions teams to consider and apply more beneficial methods of helping “the least of these.” 


Global Frontier Missions embodies this ministry philosophy whether we are serving refugees in Atlanta, helping in the slums of South Asia, or ministering in red-light districts in Thailand.

In hundreds of Bible verses, God commanded His people to care for orphans, widows, foreigners, sick, poor, and other marginalized people. Christians must embrace God’s loving heart and obey His commands to help people, not only spiritually, but also, physically.


We have seen that many of our missions efforts unintentionally hurt the poor rather than help them. May we thoughtfully and prayerfully evaluate the ways we seek to help individuals and communities with their felt needs. May we honor God and those we are serving. May we provide not only temporary relief, but rather, permanent whole life and community transformation.


God calls His people to holistic ministry; we want to help you be part of that. Contact us if we can serve your church in any way as you “preach Good News to the poor,” fulfilling both the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.


Additional Resources:


For those desiring a deeper study, we recommend that missions teams review the small group experience videos before their next homeless outreach, Christmas box distribution, food pantry push, or global missions trip.



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