The second edition added a fourth part that gave additional resources to bring about real change in church and community.Ĭhristian view of poverty (according to the authors) Īccording to the authors, the Christian view of poverty comes from a proper understanding of why Jesus came to earth, namely, to bring healing to the entire cosmos and be supreme over all the universe. The book was originally divided into three parts: the mission of the church and the Christian view of poverty, discussion on poverty and examples of harmful poverty alleviation, and strategies for addressing poverty. This prevents paternalism where outside workers provide the 'only' answer. They promote the use of asset-based community development as a strategy, arguing that focusing on what resources and abilities that the community already has is often more helpful and more empowering than focusing on what the community doesn't have. Corbett and Fikkert give several hypothetical scenarios to illustrate this cycle and then offer several solutions that they say can alleviate poverty. The authors emphasize that this can cause a harmful cycle where North American churches provide material resources and evangelism to the poor, which reinforces the poor people's sense of inferiority and lack of self-esteem, which in turn increases the original problem. Corbett and Fikkert state that the definition of poverty will change depending on who is defining it, with the poor defining it through the psychological and social scope while more wealthy churches emphasize the lack of material things or a geographical location.

When Helping Hurts uses the Bible and the Great Commission to state that the church's mission should be to help the poor and the desolate. By June 2015, When Helping Hurts had sold more than 300,000 copies and been translated into 5 languages.

In 2012, Moody published a revised, second edition. The book was first published on Jthrough Moody Publishers and explores and dissects common perceptions on poverty and the means to relieve it, from a Christian perspective. and Yourself is a 2009 non-fiction book by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor.

When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett