Author Archive: MendingTheHole

Extreme Poverty: What are we to do?

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Extreme Poverty… choosing which of your children gets to eat today.
What does God expect of us?

Here is a quote pertinent to us as Christians:   It’s not about charity, it’s about justice.   (Bono)

Here’s another: Meanwhile our suffering world waits for signs of God on earth….   God’s plan is that we, the church, are to be the primary evidence of God’s presence.
(Mark Labberton, in The Dangerous Act of Worship)  

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Missing the Point

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We recently heard a sermon preached in an evangelical church dismissing St. Francis of Assisi’s oft-quoted adage “Preach the Gospel always; when necessary use words.”   This called to mind one of the lines of thinking upon which we’ve based our work at Givers by Design.

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GFA Loses ECFA Accreditation

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Last week, Gospel for Asia (GFA) was stripped of it’s accreditation by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).  In addition to being of note to potential donors, this bit of news is particularly disappointing given the fact that GFA was a “charter” (founding) member of the organization.  

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HashTag Activism?

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Not Here... We want more than folks registering their agreement with a few easy keystrokes... More than sharing the resources on this site with a few friends.  Our energies are devoted to spotlighting the biblical mandate for helping the desperately poor, and providing easy-to-use tools to make a lasting difference for them -- to what end?  What is Givers by Design after?

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Rating Charity Effectiveness

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In our last post, The Overhead Myth, we noted that this welcome new initiative urges prospective donors to look at the whole picture, and in particular, indicators of program effectiveness instead of financial ratios, as the main measure of a charity’s worthiness.  So far, so good.... this kind of thinking in the charity ratings business is long overdue.  But it brings up a troubling question:  How will watchdog and ratings organizations “rate” program effectiveness? 

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The Overhead Myth

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The last 15 years have seen a strong movement towards using financial ratios to rate a charity’s effectiveness.  These financial ratios measure how much of your donated dollar goes to overhead and fundraising costs, versus how much goes to the charity’s actual programs.  This makes sense – it is wiser – and more effective – to give to an organization that can put more of your donated dollar to work for the desperately poor.  But, this has created a problem:  We have come to rely so heavily on these financial ratios, that we have forgotten to ask the more basic questions.  What are the results?  Do their programs work?  In a word, are they effective?

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Is Apathy the New Violence?

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In Noah’s day, our just God was moved to extreme action because humankind had degenerated into a pervasive, consuming violence (Genesis 6:11-13).  In 21st century America, this would no longer seem to be the case.  The vast majority of America’s citizens enjoy the benefits of what we call civil society,

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Standing in the Gap

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What is asked of us, as followers of Christ, concerning the desperately poor?

John the Baptist, preaching about bearing fruit consistent with true repentance (Luke 3), put it in very simple terms when the crowd asked “What, then, should we do?” 

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James 1:27

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The New Testament writer James, brother of Jesus, wrote in a plain, no-nonsense style that is as applicable today as it was 2000 years ago.  His provocative emphasis on everyday practice – our actions – is a message that is sometimes unpopular, as it exposes the difference between what we think or believe, and what we do.  Chapter 1, verse 27 -- which bears on the question of helping those who suffer in extreme poverty -- is a good example; let’s take a look.

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Let My Heart Be…

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Tucked away under the Advocacy tab on this site is a hidden gem -- a marvelous little video (youtube, 7:12) created and produced by the folks at the Life Center church in Spokane, Washington.  This video, our very favorite, is a beautiful, eloquent, and inspiring piece of music/prose that captures the essence of Richard Stearns' award-winning book,
The Hole in Our Gospel.

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A Scene We’d Like to See

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Giving was meant to be a joy...One of the underpinnings of our work at Givers by Design is the conviction that our nation’s churches do not do what they could for those who suffer in extreme poverty. Meanwhile, many exemplary parachurch organizations (World Vision, etc) do excellent work, in the name of Christ, in bringing sustainable improvements to the lives and communities of the world’s desperately poor.

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Leviticus 19:9-10

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Leviticus 19:9-10Throughout Scripture, we learn that God has a special heart for the poor, the vulnerable, the oppressed... a concern that He expects His people to share.  In Leviticus, God instructs them on how they can act on this concern:  a wonderfully clear, simple prescription for how His people can show intentional, compassionate generosity towards the desperately poor.

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