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From Dependence to Dignity: How to Alleviate Poverty through Church-Centered Microfinance
336Overview
All of this raises profound challenges to the global church. How can churches and missionaries in the Majority World effectively address the devastating poverty both inside their congregations and just outside their doors? How can churches in the economically advanced countries effectively partner with Global South churches in this process? The very integrity of the global church’s testimony is at stake, for where God’s people reside, there should be no poverty (Deuteronomy 15:4; Acts 4:34).
For the past several decades, microfinance (MF) and microenterprise development (MED) have been the leading approaches to poverty alleviation. MF/MED is a set of interventions that allow households to better manage their finances and start small businesses. From remote churches in rural Africa to the short-term missions programs of mega-churches in the United States, churches and missionaries have taken the plunge into MF/MED, trying to emulate the apparent success of large-scale relief and development organizations. Unfortunately, most churches and missionaries find this to be far more difficult than they had imagined. Repayment rates on loans are low and churches typically end up with struggling programs that require ongoing financial subsidies. Everybody gets hurt in the process: donors, relief and development agencies, churches and missionaries, and—most importantly—the poor people themselves.
This book explains the basic principles for successfully utilizing microfinance in ministry. Drawing on best practice research and their own pioneering work with the Chalmers Center, Brian Fikkert and Russell Mask chart a path for churches and missionaries to pursue, a path that minimizes the risks of harm, relies on local resources, and enables missionaries and churches to minister in powerful ways to the spiritual and economic needs of some of the poorest people on the planet.
The insights of microfinance can play a tremendous role in helping to stabilize poor households, removing them from the brink of disaster and enabling them to make the changes that are conducive to long-term progress. Moreover, when combined with evangelism and discipleship, a church-centered microfinance program can be a powerful tool for holistic ministry—one that is empowering for the poor and devoid of the dependencies plaguing most relationships between churches in economically advanced countries and churches in poor nations.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780310518129 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Zondervan |
| Publication date: | 05/12/2015 |
| Pages: | 336 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.10(d) |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
From Dependence to Dignity
By Brian Fikkert, Russell Mask
ZONDERVAN
Copyright © 2015 Brian Fikkert and Russell MaskAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-310-51812-9
CHAPTER 1
MASAI MISSIONS
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. —1 Corinthians 1:26–29
Because of the [savings and credit association] and through the teaching we are receiving, I have accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And he has changed my life. —Member of a church-centered microfinance ministry in Togo, West Africa
A missionary stands in the front of the church gathering and shares her vision for her ministry in rural Kenya: "I want to be able to help the Masai girls far in the interior regions. The Masai fathers do not want to invest in their daughters' education because their daughters will be lost to other families when they get married. I want to teach the girls living in the interior regions, so that I can empower them to be just like us."
And what would it mean to be "just like us"? All of the women in this church gathering—including the missionary—are Masai, a seminomadic tribe in East Africa. Their ears strain under the weight of their heavy earrings. In fact, their entire bodies seem to strain under the weight of their difficult lives. Masai women are viewed as property by their husbands, relegating them to a second-class social status. They are subjected to backbreaking work, female genital mutilation, polygamy, and low levels of education. Indeed, the strain of this reality is evident on the faces of all the women gathered in this small church in rural Kenya.
But there is hope in their faces as well, hope that has come from the church's ministry, a ministry that the women run themselves: a microfinance ministry. Lacking access to formal banking services, these women have always struggled to save and to borrow, and are often forced to go to loan sharks, who charge them exorbitant interest rates. As a result, they have had a hard time accumulating the money they so desperately need to start small businesses, pay school fees, purchase medicine, and respond to other opportunities and needs.
Microfinance addresses these problems by providing poor people with access to the financial services that they lack, services like savings, loans, insurance, and money transfers, in the hope of helping them to improve their economic situation and to get out of poverty. In the past several decades the microfinance movement has experienced explosive growth, becoming one of the leading strategies for alleviating poverty in the Global South (Africa, Asia, and Latin America). Therefore, in 2006 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the microfinance movement, and to the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh that he founded.
In the case of the Masai church, the women are engaging in a simple—but powerful—form of microfinance, a savings and credit association that has enabled the women to save and lend their own money to one another. No loan capital from outsiders is needed. This is a very poor church using its own human, financial, and spiritual resources to restore oppressed women and to send them out as missionaries to other oppressed women.
Savings and loan services can do all of that? No, not on their own. But this savings and credit association does far more than provide beneficial financial services. Group meetings consist of Bible study, prayer, singing, and fellowship, providing these "second-class citizens" with a profound encounter with the ultimate solution to all of our needs: Jesus Christ.
Indeed, the women share how God has used the savings and credit association to bless their lives in multiple ways. Despite being born into an inferior social status, each of these Masai ladies now resembles the woman described in Proverbs 31, whose hard work, entrepreneurship, and faith resulted in praise from her husband and children. They hold their heads high as they describe how the association has provided them with the capital and the dignity they need to start and expand their own small businesses and to meet a variety of economic needs. This is ministry—powerful, holistic, restorative, microfinance ministry.
One lady testifies, "I bought a cow with my loan of 20,000 Kenya shillings (approximately $300 US) and then sold it. I got good profit! When I finished this loan, I took another loan of 20,000. I am so happy. This has really uplifted me. I have now started another business of selling practice tests to students to help them prepare for the national exams. With the profits I am able to pay the school fees for my children."
Another lady shares, "Some Masai women look at all my business activities and wonder if I am a pure Masai. They do not believe that a Masai woman can do all these things. But I am a pure Masai."
How do the Masai men view the empowerment of these women? One lady, who became a cattle trader as a result of the microfinance ministry, beams as she states, "Because we are born-again Christians, the Lord has helped this group of ladies. My husband is very proud of me. The Masai men don't think we women can do anything. But because I have been working so hard, my husband sees that I am a very important person." Another woman states, "As a result of this group, my husband is proud of me. Even my children are proud. I am doing business and paying school fees for my children. I am even paying the tuition for my husband to get more education. All the family members are happy."
And Masai outside the church are taking note. Seeing the improved economic and social status of these ladies, unbelievers are asking if they can join this microfinance ministry. The women anticipate that after these unbelievers join the savings and credit association, they will eventually become Christians and join their church.
And now the ladies are sending out one of their own as a missionary to other Masai girls far in the interior regions, so that those girls can be "just like us": namely, restored image bearers who are seeking to restore others.
The Upside-Down Kingdom Meets the Internet
This is more than just an inspiring story, for the Masai church's micro-finance ministry represents a highly significant development with both theological and strategic implications for the church and missions in the twenty-first century. Later chapters will unpack these implications in greater detail.
But for now, consider this: As the center of Christianity shifts from the West (North America and Western Europe) to the Global South, grinding poverty is on the front doorstep—and in the front pews—of the church of Jesus Christ. The Global South includes 2.6 billion people who live on less than two dollars per day, and it is amongst these very poor people that the church is experiencing its most rapid growth. As church historian Philip Jenkins notes, "The most successful new denominations target their message very directly at the have-nots, or rather, the have-nothings."
Moreover, as the church's missionaries strive to take the gospel to unreached people groups, they will necessarily be doing so amongst the poorest people on the planet. According to one estimate, more than 80 percent of the "poorest of the poor" live in the "10/40 Window," the band of countries that contain the vast majority of the remaining unreached people groups. "The poor are the lost, and the lost are the poor."
Reflecting on these developments, missiologist Andrew Walls states that the church of the twenty-first century will be a "church of the poor. Christianity will be mainly the religion of rather poor and very poor people with few gifts to bring except the gospel itself. And the heartlands of the Church will include some of the poorest countries on earth." Similarly, Jenkins notes, the typical Christian in the world in the twenty-first century is not a businessperson attending a mega-church in an American suburb but rather a poor woman in a slum in Sao Paulo, Brazil, or a poor woman in a village in Nigeria ... or a poor Masai woman in rural Kenya.
The Great Commission has been given to the church, and in the twenty-first century this church will largely consist of very poor people bringing the gospel to other very poor people.
Stop and think about this amazing reality: The advancement of the Great Commission in the twenty-first century is largely in the hands of some of the poorest people on the planet.
Can they possibly move things forward? The evidence from the Masai church and its missionary is a resounding "Yes!" Indeed, there is no better missionary to poor, oppressed Masai women than a formerly poor and oppressed Masai woman, whose entire life has been transformed through the power of Jesus Christ.
None of this should be too surprising, for God has chosen "the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him" (1 Corinthians 1:28 – 29). The kingdom of God is upside down; it has always been this way.
Coexisting with these materially poor churches is another group of people: Christians in wealthy nations who possess vastly greater financial, human, and technological resources than Christians have at any other point in history. Even the average Christian in North America or in other wealthy regions is one of the richest people ever to walk the face of the earth.
Indeed, there are greater disparities of wealth within the global body of Jesus Christ than at any time in its history. Moreover, due to the forces of globalization, these disparate portions of the body are coming into regular contact more than ever before. Indeed, short-term mission trips, email, the internet, Facebook, Skype, and Twitter have made our highly unequal world much smaller. As a result, poverty is on center stage for the entire body of Christ on a daily basis. And in the midst of all of this, 1 John 3:17 – 18 rings out across the ages:
If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
All of these realities raise two profound questions for the body of Christ at the start of the twenty-first century:
1. How can materially poor churches and indigenous missionaries in the Global South advance the Great Commission in the context of widespread poverty inside their congregations and communities?
2. What are the roles of financially prosperous churches, mission agencies, Christian relief and development organizations, church-equipping ministries, and donors in this process?
From Dependence to Dignity
Unfortunately, all too often the answer to this set of questions is this: well-meaning churches and organizations from wealthy countries pursue strategies that either ignore churches in the Global South or that make them chronically dependent on foreigners for human and financial support. In the process, these well-meaning outsiders hinder the ability of these materially poor churches to use their own gifts—which are actually quite substantial—to help fulfill the Great Commission.
And a second dependency is also quite common. Poverty alleviation efforts in the Global South often undermine the dignity of poor individuals and communities, making them highly dependent on the churches and organizations that seek to serve them. Therefore, the capacities of the poor are weakened, and their poverty is actually deepened by the very churches and organizations that are trying to help them.
Hence, the body of Christ needs to move away from dependency-creating strategies and toward dignity-enhancing strategies with respect to two parties in the Global South: (1) materially poor churches, and (2) materially poor individuals and communities. This requires changes in both the paradigms and practices of the body of Christ. In particular, churches and organizations from wealthy nations need to step back, listen more, follow, and be a servant. And they need to use their financial resources very strategically, placing a greater focus on training, equipping, and leadership development than on buildings and other material resources. Most importantly, they need to recognize that while many churches and individuals in the Global South possess few material resources, they are tremendously gifted in ways that are not immediately obvious to people from wealthy nations. It is essential that these gifts be recognized, strengthened, and mobilized in order to advance the Great Commission in the twenty-first century.
As the Masai church's microfinance ministry illustrates, this is all possible! Christians from wealthy nations played a vital role in this story, providing consulting, training, and some financial resources. But all of these were offered in a nuanced, backstage, complementary, and supportive role rather than a front-stage, implementing, and controlling role. And it was a role that assumed that "churches of the poor with few gifts" were actually "churches of the King with many gifts," gifts that they could use to minister in ways that no foreigner ever could.
As a result, the approach avoided the two common dependencies mentioned earlier: in poor churches and in the poor people to whom these churches are ministering. In addition, it reaffirmed two dignities. First, the Masai church was able to equip and mobilize its members to use their own human, financial, and spiritual resources for "works of service" (Ephesians 4:11 – 13). This is the church being the very embodiment of Jesus Christ, a role that is of the highest dignity. Second, in the process, oppressed women were given dignity as well, becoming productive entrepreneurs, respected mothers, and pioneering missionaries to interior regions where no foreigner would even dare to go.
It is possible for the global body to work together in such a way that both materially poor churches and individuals in the Global South experience dignity rather than unhealthy dependency. In fact, it is not only possible; it is imperative.
Helping without Hurting in Microfinance
This is a book about the global church and holistic ministry. In particular, the focus is on microfinance ministry, which can be a powerful tool for advancing the Great Commission in the Global South.
Indeed, the story of microfinance has become almost legendary: Lend money to poor people so that they can start or expand microenterprises in order to earn a living. As a result, the incomes of the poor borrowers go up, lifting them and their families out of poverty. Moreover, as the loans are repaid, the money can be lent over and over to lift even more people out of poverty. If one is looking for a sustainable approach to poverty alleviation, it does not get much better than this!
The story of microfinance is truly inspiring, so inspiring that for the past several decades providing loans to aspiring microentrepreneurs has been one of the leading strategies—perhaps the premier strategy—for alleviating poverty in the Global South. Major secular and Christian organizations have established large-scale microfinance programs, the total number of borrowers exceeding 204 million. The repayment rates on loans from these organizations have been remarkably high, and poor people, who were previously considered "unbankable," are increasingly gaining access to financial services and to associated business development interventions. Moreover, donors see their money having a perpetual impact, as the capital from repaid loans can be relent time and again.
Churches and missionaries (and small parachurch organizations) on all continents have taken note of this movement and are using microfinance as part of their own ministries. From remote churches in rural Africa to the short-term missions programs of megachurches in the United States, churches and missionaries are plunging into microfinance, trying to emulate the apparent success of the large-scale organizations.
Unfortunately, these churches and missionaries often find that microfinance initiatives are far more difficult than they had imagined. For reasons that will be discussed in this book, repayment rates on loans from churches and missionaries are often extremely low, which can lead to the complete collapse of the program. Indeed, the landscape is covered with the carcasses of failed microfinance ministries. Everybody gets hurt in the process: poor people, churches and missionaries, donors, and other microfinance organizations. And most importantly, all of this does tremendous damage to the very name of Jesus Christ.
These realities raise another set of questions:
• What challenges do churches and missionaries (and small parachurch ministries) in the Global South face when they attempt to replicate the apparently successful microfinance programs of large-scale organizations?
• How can churches and missionaries in the Global South implement holistic microfinance ministries without succumbing to the risks of doing harm?
• How can the churches, Christian relief and development organizations, and donors from wealthy nations link arms with churches and missionaries in the Global South in this endeavor?
(Continues...)
Excerpted from From Dependence to Dignity by Brian Fikkert, Russell Mask. Copyright © 2015 Brian Fikkert and Russell Mask. Excerpted by permission of ZONDERVAN.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Part 1: Foundational Principles
(Fikkert and Mask co-author each chapter)
Chapter 1: Microfinance and Integral Mission
Chapter 2: What is Poverty Alleviation?
Chapter 3: Recalibrating Expectations
Chapter 4: Coming to Terms with the Terms
Chapter 5: Know Your Target Community (This might become simply a working paper on the website rather than an entire chapter.)
Chapter 6: Making Financial Systems Work
Part 2: MF/MED in Practice
(Fikkert or Mask join practitioners from the Global South to write various chapters. Possible co-authors are listed below.)
Chapter 7: Historical Overview of the MED/MF Movement
(Mask joined by Ruth Callanta of Center for Community Transformation in the Philippines)
Chapter 8: The MF Provider Model
(Mask joined by Carlos Pimental of Esperanza in the Dominican Republic)
Chapter 9: The MF Partnership Model
(Mask joined by Luke Kinoti of Fusion Capital in Kenya)
Chapter 10: The MF Promotion Model
(Mask joined by Smita Donthamsetty of the Chalmers Center in the Dominican Republic)
Chapter 11: Offering Complementary, Non-Financial Services
(Fikkert joined by Alvin Mbola of Kenya)
Chapter 12: Incentive Problems in Service Delivery
(Fikkert joined by one of Chalmers Center’s Mobile Training Center Operators in West Africa)
Chapter 13: Next Steps
(Fikkert and Mask)
What People are Saying About This
Caring for the poor is an obvious priority to followers of Jesus. But how do we help without hurting? Fikkert and Mask’s new book, From Dependence to Dignity, explores groundbreaking ideas on how to help the poor through microfinance ministries. The result of years of research, field experience, and prayerful insight, this latest book from the Chalmers Center will empower the body of Christ to make a significant difference in the lives of the poor worldwide. — Craig Groeschel, Senior Pastor of Life Church.tv and coauthor of From This Day Forward
In this highly anticipated book, Brian Fikkert and Russell Mask of the Chalmers Center go beyond the call for charity by equipping the church to respond in ways that make a lasting impact. HOPE International has used the Chalmers Center’s training and curricula in our own church-centered microfinance ministries with amazing results, so I am delighted to see the global church being equipped on an even larger scale through this outstanding book and the resources on the associated website. I couldn’t recommend it more highly! — Peter Greer, President and CEO of HOPE International
Filled with first-rate theology and practice, Fikkert and Mask present a set of proven solutions to help people overcome vulnerability. Practical and sound, this book encapsulates the virtues of the worldwide microfinance movement. I highly commend it to you. — Stephan Bauman, President and CEO of World Relief
This is an excellent book for those engaged in the task of breaking the “dependency syndrome” that some NGOs have inadvertently created among the poor and marginalized that they have sought to help through long-term engagement. The book makes a strong case for the important role of the local church in poverty alleviation by being balanced in how it proclaims and demonstrates the gospel, in the spirit of what true integral mission is all about. Just as Helping without Hurting in Short-Term Missions had a significant impact on the uninitiated “short-term visitors” into the developing world, this book has a message for transforming the “longterm settlers”! — Dr. Ravi I. Jayakaran, Senior Associate for Integral Mission, Lausanne Movement
Churches around the world have attempted to harness the power of microfinance to reduce poverty, empower dignity, and bring Christ-centered transformation to their communities . . . but the results are often disappointing.
As a Rwandan pastor once told me, “It’s hard for a pastor to be your loan shark,” expressing the frustration of grace-centered churches attempting to enforce repayment (which often requires coercion-centered measures). In From Dependence to Dignity, Fikkert and Mask have empowered the church with a great resource — providing a gospel-centered framework,
economic best practices, and easy-to-understand tools for churches to use microfinance for the glory of God and the transformation of the world. — Joshua Ryan Butler, Pastor of Local and Global Outreach, Imago Dei Community church
Drs. Fikkert and Mask extend the groundbreaking approach of When Helping Hurts into the practice of microfinance. Their prescriptions remain biblically sound, practically effective, and generously humane — in a word, Christ-centered. If the Church is going to lead internationally in poverty alleviation that works on the ground, this is the book that must be read first. — Scott Maclellan, Chair of the Maclellan Foundation
Thank you, Brian and Russell, for sharing these stories and awesome resources about the power of dignity. Poor women and communities could have never dreamed how belonging to a church-based savings program could so radically change their lives, their family, and community. This is a book on what integral mission looks like today. This is a book about the Great
Commission and how some of the poorest people and churches are loving God, loving their neighbor, and loving themselves through microfinance. You will not read this practical, how-to book just once, but will refer back often to look at models of what Good News looks like to the poorest amongst us and those partnering with them in seeing God’s kingdom come in this generation. — G. Stephen Goode, YWAM Ambassador for Compassion/Justice, Bangkok, Thailand
Once again Fikkert and Mask are providing a pragmatic, exciting path forward to help us learn how to meet the needs of the world’s poorest people — without creating dependency. Their solution, based in the local church, is supported by strong theology, real world examples, and practical steps on how to move forward. This book is must reading to understand how to bring healthy, Christ-centered, lasting change in the interesting, complex financial world of the very poor. — Peter Ochs, Cofounder and Board Chair of First Fruit Inc.
I am honored to heartily endorse the work From Dependency to Dignity by Brian Fikkert and Russ Mask. They are making a great contribution to the church and benefiting the poor in the hardest places around the globe. Through the insights of this book, they are — with sound biblical reasoning and application — helping us to tackle poverty alleviation in the fullest sense. I am confident that the result of their labor will be helping the Church of King Jesus to be more fully the Church that Christ intended. And their work will help “the poor to see and be glad” (Psalm 69:32). Do yourself, the poor, and your church a favor by putting into practice the wisdom contained in these pages. — Gary Edmonds, President and CEO, FH/Food for the Hungry
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