Today we’re reviewing, discussing, and giving away a copy of Mary’s Son by Darryl Nyznyk. Keep reading to learn how you can win a free copy.

Mary’s Son is a modern-day Christmas tale first told by author Darryl Nyznyk in front of the fireplace during his daughter’s sleep-over birthday party. It’s the story of two angry young people bent on their own destruction, who are visited by a mysterious old man just before Christmas. He tries in vain to help them until, in desperation, he whisks them back in time to witness the first Christmas. They learn the real meaning of both Christmas and their own lives.

It’s a heart-warming, family friendly story along the lines of Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life and Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. It’s no stretch to imagine it being made into a movie some day.

Get a Free Book

If you’d like a free copy of Mary’s Son, all you have to do is

1. Retweet this post or share it on Facebook, and
2. Post a comment answering the question: what’s your favorite Christmas story of all time? (If it’s the original story of Christmas found in chapter 2 of Luke in the bible, let us know your second favorite story as well,) Be sure to include in your comment the Facebook or Twitter profile where you shared the link, too.

One person who has shared and commented will be selected around 5 PM Eastern time Wed. 12/7 to receive a free copy.

Of course, you can also buy a copy of Mary’s Son on Amazon. And for a limited time the Kindle edition is only $0.99!

Live Intentionally is all about inspiring each of us to make the most of every situation, which includes a trip to Disney World. That’s my best attempt to make this book review sound relevant to this blog.

The truth is, I had the opportunity to get a free copy of The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World by Susan Veness from Thomas Nelson’s in exchange for a review, and since I only live 90 miles from Disney, I jumped on it. Since this is not really on topic for Live Intentionally, I’ll keep it short.

The book has the sub-title, “Over 600 secrets of the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom.” I expected those “secrets” to include way to save time or experience special opportunities the average Disney visitor isn’t aware of. A handful of the secrets are along those lines. But the majority of the “secrets” are how many of the names and numbers on various attractions are tributes to the imagineers who created them.

For example, on Splash Mountain, just as you begin the final climb before the big drop at the end, there’s a gopher who pops his head out and yells “F S U!” the alma mater of one of the imagineers who worked on the ride.

So, I was a little disappointed with the book, but if you’re going to drop $100 for a day at one of the Disney parks or $1600 for a family of 4 to visit all for Orlando area parks, the enjoyment you’ll get out of seeing all the little “secrets” the author points out is probably worth the $10 you spend on this book.

As long as we’re talking about Disney… are you a Disney fan? Got any secrets to getting the most out of the theme parks?

Today we’re reviewing, discussing, and giving away The Great Cow-mission by Kevin Weatherby. Keep reading to learn how you can win a free, autographed, hardcover copy of the book.

The Great Cow-mission, written by Kevin Weatherby of Campfire Cowboy Ministries, is a collection of short stories from Kevin’s life as a cowboy. Each cowboy story conveys a spiritual truth which is then explained, usually with a supporting passage from the bible.

Kevin is an excellent storyteller. Many times while reading The Great Cow-mission I found myself laughing out loud, literally. Other times I found myself wishing I could experience the cowboy life – the camaraderie and sense of accomplishment that seem to come with it – until I got to the parts about it being chased by bulls or being kicked in various parts of the anatomy while branding calves. At that those points I was once again content just to read about it.

What makes The Great Cow-mission a unique book, though, is that Kevin is rare person who can speak three languages – English, Cowboy, and Christianese – and translate from any one to the other two. In doing so he’s able to connect with both cowboys and Wal-Martians (Kevin’s term for people who live within 10 minutes of a Wal-mart) like me and convey the truths of God in simple ways that make sense.

If you like cowboy stories, you’ll like this book. If you’re a pastor looking for good stories to use in your sermons to convey spiritual truths, this could be a good resource. Or… (begin cowboy speak) if you know some cowboys or cowgirls who ain’t yet walkin’ with the Lord, you might consider givin’ ‘em a copy as a gift or stuffin’ a copy in their saddle bag when they ain’t lookin’. (That’ll do it for this Wal-Martian’s attempt to speak cowboy.)

Discussion

1. Who is your favorite storyteller?  Why?
2. What’s your favorite fable, parable or story from your own life that taught you an important spiritual truth?
3. What do you think it is about stories that make them so good at conveying truth?

Get a Free Book

I’ve got a signed, hardcover edition of The Great Cow-mission to give away. To win one…

1. Retweet this post or share it on Facebook, and
2. Post a comment that addresses one of the discussion questions  (include your Facebook or Twitter usename in your comment so I can connect your comment to your share/tweet).

I’ll draw a winner at 5 PM Eastern time Thursday (June 16). Heck, if you comment and share/tweet this post both Wed & Thu I’ll give you two entries in the drawing so you can double your odds.

Of course, you can also buy a copy of The Great Cow-mission now on Amazon now.

Today we’re reviewing, discussing, and giving away Getting Things Done by David Allen. Keep reading to learn how you can win a free copy.

Getting Things Done, written by David Allen, is recognized around the world as one of the most important personal productivity books ever written. David Allen has been teaching the principles and methods contained in Getting Things Done to CEOs and fortune 500 companies for decades, resulting in remarkable gains in performance and reductions in stress.

The premise of the book is that we experience a lot of stress and lost productivity from constantly trying to remember and figure out what we need to do. We can reduce stress and increase productivity if we capture outside of our heads everything we need to do and clarify the next action step needed in each project.

The trick, however, is that the system we put in place to capture inputs, define actions, and remind ourselves of what needs to be done has to be completely trustworthy. If we don’t trust the system, our minds won’t let go and we won’t experience the reduced stress and increased performance that is possible. That’s where most people are. Most of us have a system that includes things like inboxes, to-do lists, calendars, and files, but it either doesn’t capture everything, or action steps are unclear, or it doesn’t provide adequate reminders.

In Getting Things Done, David Allen not only explains his comprehensive system, but walks the reader through setting up and getting started with the system.

Personal Thoughts

I am a pretty organized person. I’ve got good systems in place. Ask anyone who’s ever worked or volunteered with me and they’ll tell you I’m the “Action Item Czar.” No meeting I’m in ends without defining action items and making sure those action items get into the assigned person’s to-do list or priorities. I didn’t think I had a whole lot to learn when it comes to managing time, action, and priorities. But, let me tell you…

Getting Things Done is flat out awesome!

Getting Things Done showed me that I had holes and ambiguity in my system. It showed me where my system wasn’t working because certain aspects of it were too much of a pain therefore I wasn’t following it. Now I’m working to implement the Getting Things Done methods into the way I manage my stuff.

Just to be clear, Getting Things Done isn’t software. It isn’t something you have to buy or subscribe to (though, they now offer software to help). It’s a system of processes and methods to help you capture everything in your life that demands your attention, process those inputs into action steps, and organize those action steps in a way that is simple, trustworthy, and freeing.

If you are a busy person, I want to stress that GTD is extremely practical and produces immediate results. Unlike some of the Things You Don’t Have Time NOT to Do that are big-picture things that require a significant investment of time up-front and eventually pay off by saving more time in the long run, you can start implementing Getting Things Done methods quickly with a very small investment of time and they will immediately reduce your stress and free up time.

Getting Things Done is one of the top 3 books I’ve ever read.  I highly recommend you read it. It will change your life.

I’m going to do several most posts about GTD concepts and methods over the coming days.

• The 3 minute overview of the Getting Things Done method
• 46 Insightful Quotes from Getting Things Done
• How to End Anxiety and Frustration From All the Stuff You’re Not Getting Done
• Experience Getting Things Done with This 2 Minute Experiment

Discussion:

1. What do you use to manage your time, actions, and priorities? One big to-do list? Create a daily to-do list? Write everything into a calendar?
2. To what extent do you find yourself stressing over and trying not to forget things you need to do?
3. How would your life change if everything you need to do was captured in a system you trusted and didn’t need to think about?
4. If you’ve read Getting Things Done, what do you think of it and how has it impacted your life?

Get a Free Book

Getting Things Done is soooo good, I’m going to buy one LiveIntentionally.org reader a copy. To win it…

1. Retweet this post or share it on Facebook, and
2. Post a comment that addresses one of the discussion questions  (include your Facebook or Twitter usename in your comment so I can connect your comment to your share/tweet).

Get multiple entries into the drawing by sharing/commenting once each day.

I’ll draw a winner at 5 PM Eastern Monday February 28.

Today we’re reviewing, discussing, and giving away Almost Isn’t Good Enough by Wayne Elsey. Keep reading to learn how you can win a free copy.

In Almost Isn’t Good Enough, Wayne Elsey, founder and CEO Soles4Souls, challenges the conventional ways most non-profits operate and shares the principles that have made Soles4Souls successful.

Wayne began his career in the shoe business and rose through the ranks to become president of the company. A passion for putting shoes on the feet of those who have none led him to leave the corporate world and start Soles4Souls. What sets Wayne and Soles4Souls apart from most non-profits is their whatever-it-takes, results-oriented operating philosophy, which is common in the business sector but not so much among non-profits.

Each chapter in Almost Isn’t Good Enough, explains a different principle such as:

• Hire the best and pay the best
• Awareness is worthless, but engagement is priceless
• Cash creates margin. Make no apologies for increasing the bottom line.
• Make decisions
• Take action
• Focus on solutions not processes

Personal Thoughts

Almost Isn’t Good Enough is for non-profit leaders what Rework is for small business leaders – a kick in the pants!

Some people will bristle at what sounds like bringing corporate culture to non-profits, but I found the book to be a breath of fresh air. A lot of non-profits seem to be more concerned with not rocking the boat – not upsetting donors, not doing anything that might fail, avoiding change – than solving problems. In my opinion, we need more boldness, more risk-taking, more action-oriented people in the non-profit sector.

If you are involved in a non-profit, ministry, or church, I think you’ll find Almost Isn’t Good Enough refreshing, challenging and motivating.

Discussion

1. In what ways have you seen non-profits get bogged down from indecision, lack of action, an unclear mission, or fear of failure?
2. Which of the principles above resonates with you most? Why?
3. How could your own non-profits, ministry, or church be better if it was more decisive, action-oriented, and solution oriented?

Get a Free Book

I’ve got 2 copies of Almost Isn’t Good Enough to give away. To win one…

1. Retweet this post or share it on Facebook, and
2. Post a comment that addresses one of the discussion questions  (include your Facebook or Twitter usename in your comment so I can connect your comment to your share/tweet).

Get multiple entries into the drawing by sharing/commenting once each day.

I’ll draw two winners at 5 PM Eastern Monday February 14.

If you’d like to buy a copy go to http://www.wayneelsey.com/almostisntgoodenoughbook/. 100% of book proceeds go to Soles4Souls. For each book purchased, TEN people in need will receive shoes.

Yesterday, I posted a review of To Transform a City. (Click over to read, discuss, and win a copy for yourself.) Today I’ve got 45 quotes from the book I hope will inspire you to a greater vision for your city and inspire you to take action.

1. It’s time for the church to call a party… a street party… where the church acts as host and servant.
2. We have been blessed to bless.
3. Cities compress and unleash the creative urges of humanity. -Joel Kotkin
4. There is far more connectivity in the city—financial transactions, knowledge transference, media production—that provides the seedbed for social change.
5. We believe that God is intentionally bringing the peoples of the world into the cities. What first appears to be a problem, the influx of immigrants to the cities, may actually be a part of God’s plan of redemption.
6. The story line of the Bible may begin in a garden, but it ends in a city.
7. Those who would transform a nation or the world… must know how to kindle and fan an extravagant hope. -Eric Hoffer
8. Community transformation not only changes the outward appearance of a community but also alters the very character or nature of the community.
9. Spiritual transformation comes from helping people love God with all of their mind, heart, souls, and strength. Societal transformation comes from helping people love their neighbors as themselves.
10. We should never underestimate how important an individual believer with a changed heart can be and how much impact he or she can have upon the world.
11. Serving others changes and transforms the very people who are serving.
12. What a different message we would convey to the world if the church showed the world an alternative story of a truly transformed life, infused with kingdom values lived out through missional actions. The latest research shows us that although 84% of young people say they personally know a Christian, a mere 15% think they lifestyle of those Christ followers is any different from the norm.
13. Where is our “street cred” when we preach about having healthy families yet we fail to hold our own families together?
14. It’s important to remember that we don’t engage in the needs, dreams, and pains of our communities so that they will become Christians; rather we engage the community because we are Christians. We don’t serve to convert, but we server because we have been converted.
15. Transformation… is more like the North Star than the North Pole—a direction to pursue rather than a destination we arrive at.
16. If you want to change society then you must tell an alternative story. –Ivan Illich
17. The only way to change culture is to create more of it… Cultural change will only happen when something new displaces, to some extent, existing culture in a very tangible way. –Andy Crouch
18. All who want to preach and live like Jesus must place the kingdom of God at the center of their thought and action. –Arias Mortimer
19. “The Kingdom of God” or Matthew’s equivalent, the kingdom of heaven) appears 122 times in the first three Gospels—most of the time (92) on the lips of Jesus. Himself. –Arias Mortimer
20. Jesus created a compelling and alternative vision called the kingdom of God.
21. The gospel is much bigger than just a personal relationship with God—the gospel of the kingdom can literally change the world!
22. The kingdom of God is larger than the church—it is built by people of goodwill working together with people of good faith to accomplish God’s agenda.
23. Historically, the church has drifted to one side of the pendulum or the other—trying to bring the King to people without helping to bring the kingdom, or bringing the kingdom to people while failing to tell them about the King. Both approaches fall short.
24. Have we co-opted God’s story by making faith in Christ the end of a journey rather than the beginning of an adventure? In doing so, we have reduced the gospel to simply a way of escaping from danger, rather than embracing the compelling call to follow Christ into our broken world—a call to adventure?
25. There is no holiness apart from social holiness. –John Wesley
26. Transformation can only happen when the whole church takes the whole gospel to the whole city.
27. It is the responsibility and privilege of the church, the body of Jesus Christ, to bring heaven a bit closer to the people in our world through defining acts of love and service.
28. Faith void of deeds [is] an opiate that serves to promote complacency rather than a remedy to redeem a broken world. –N.T. Wright
29. We serve because Jesus serves.
30. We must never lose sight of the fact that we are kingdom workers, not just community volunteers.
31. We may have unique opportunities to help [nonbelievers] connect their story to God’s bigger story of the kingdom and show them how their passion fits in with God’s bigger plan for our world. We may even have an opportunity to introduce them to the King.
32. Good deeds create an openness to the gospel, while good news creates knowledge of the gospel.
33. Good deeds are a universal language of love.
34. The easiest entrance point into someone’s life is a simple deed done in kindness. –Steve Sjogren
35. The key to successful community transformation requires all three sectors—public, private, and social (the church)—working together for the good of the city.
36. There is no welfare program we can offer that is as effective at changing lives or as empowering to an individual as a full-time job with benefits.
37. I’m a musician. I write songs. I just hope that when the day is done, I’ll have torn a little corner off of the darkness. –Bono
38. What is our “better (kingdom) story,” the life we are inviting our neighbors to be a part of?
39. Every movement needs a champion.
40. Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. –Matt 5:16
41. Greatness has more to do with how nonprofits work outside the boundaries of their organizations than how they manage their own internal operations… Great organizations work with and through others to create more impact than they could ever achieve alone. –Leslie Cruchfield and Heather Grant
42. We believe that the church can effectively partner with any organization that is morally positive and spiritually neutral.
43. If our goal is to maximize kingdom resources and make the most of our effort, then the best opportunities are found outside the walls of the church, where someone else is already organizing the effort and paying the light bills.
44. We can never expect too much from God, and we can never ask him for more than he is willing to give—so dream big!
45. The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today.

Which quote(s) did you find most insightful or most inspiring?

Today we’re reviewing, discussing, and giving away To Transform a City: Whole Church, Whole Gospel, Whole City by Eric Swanson and Sam Williams. Keep reading to learn how you can win a free copy.

In To Transform a City, Erick Swanson and Sam Williams call the leaders of local churches to work together to transform their cities, not just spiritually but socially, economically, educationally and more by serving with and within the public, private, and social sectors of their cities.

Swanson and Williams write that for the last 100 years or so, churches in the United States have been internally focused – on personal salvation and growing their number of members. But that is a historical anomaly. Jesus spent much of his time teaching about the Kingdom of God, and that God was already at work making right the wrongs and transforming this broken world we live in. Christianity is not primarily about “saving” people for heaven or building churches, but rather transforming people so that they can transform their communities to look more like the Kingdom of God, where there is peace, freedom, justice, community, health, and less suffering.

The book provides many examples of churches that have joined forces with other churches, government, schools, and social service organizations to transform their communities, and provides guidance for how you can begin to joining together with others to transform your community.

Personal Thoughts

Few books have gotten me as excited as To Transform a City has.

Swanson and Williams cast a vision for both personal and community transformation that is missing from most U.S. churches today. Christians in the U.S. need to hear that we have not just been saved FROM our sins (and are just biding time until heaven) but we have been saved FOR the purpose of joining God in the building of his kingdom here on earth.

A lot of people inside the church in this country are bored because their pastors have cast too small a vision. What is the vision of the typical American church? To grow by 10% To inspire people to become deacons and Sunday school teachers? No offense to the deacons and Sunday school teachers out there, but those roles do not resonate with big-dog leaders, dreamers and risk-takers. Furthermore, a lot of people outside the church have a negative view of Christianity because Christians and their churches have never done anything to serve their communities.

What if instead, our church’s vision was to eliminate homelessness in our community, help every 3rd grader learn to read, make sure our communities are free of crime, transform the rundown areas into places of beauty, create thriving businesses that provide good wages and benefits to employees, and care for our widows, orphans, single-moms, and addicts?

And what if because the ways we loved the people in our communities, people who were hurt and jaded in the past by self-centered churches wanted to know what’s behind all these people who are serving and sacrificing to make these things happen?

Does that get you excited?

If it does, I encourage you to get a copy of To Transform a City. Read it, discuss it with the leaders in your church, and begin transforming your city. And by the way, it’s not just for church leaders, if you’re a leader in business, education, government, or social services, you’ll appreciate the vision, examples, and strategy provided in the book as well.

Discussion

1. Do you share Swanson & Williams’ “kingdom theology?” Do you believe God is building his kingdom here on earth and He is transforming people not just for heaven but to join him now in kingdom building?
2. If you’re a Christian, does your church have a vision for transforming its community?
3. What do you think about churches partnering with other churches as well as secular organizations to have a bigger impact in their communities?

Get a Free Book

If you’d like a free copy of To Transform a City, all you have to do is

1. Retweet this post or share it on Facebook, and
2. Post a comment addressing one of the discussion questions above  (include your Facebook or Twitter usename in your comment so I can connect your comment to your share/tweet).

I’m gonna try something different this time… the winner will be selected Friday at 4 PM Eastern.  That’s 3 days from now. If you want to increase your chances of winning you can tweet/share/comment once a day giving you up to 3 chances to win.

Or you can buy a copy of To Transform a City now.

To coincide with yesterday’s post, Things You Don’t Have Time NOT to Do: 1) Dream, I’m posting a review and giving away one of my favorite books on topic of living your dreams, The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkenson. Keep reading to learn how you can win a free copy.

You may recall that Bruce Wilkenson is also the author of The Prayer of Jabez, which sold more than 20 million copies.

The Dream Giver is made up of two parts. The first part is a parable about Ordinary, a Nobody who leaves his home in the Land of Familiar to pursue his Big Dream. The story illustrates pattern that Wilkenson says is repeated throughout the Bible whenever God’s people reach for the dream God has given them. In the second part of the book, Wilkenson serves as a “dream coach” and explains the 7 steps to pursuing a God-given dream illustrated in the parable.

Personal Thoughts

Pursuing a big dream is big, scary undertaking. That’s why most people never pursue their dreams. There are also a lot of myths and unrealistic expectations about what will happen when pursuing a dream, and as a result many people give up before they get there.

What I love about The Dream Giver is it not only encourages dreamers to pursue their dreams but explains the obstacles dreamers will face on the way to their dream and why those obstacles are critical to achieving the dream.

I believe (and so does Bruce Wilkenson) that God gives each of us a dream, something He wants us to accomplish. But fulfilling the dream isn’t the only thing God wants to accomplish. He also wants to grow our character and our faith in Him on the journey.

If you have a dream – and everyone does, I can’t recommend strongly enough that you read The Dream Giver.

Get a Free Book

I want to give a copy of The Dream Giver to someone who will really benefit from it, someone who is really serious about pursuing their dream. Maybe your dream just in your head and you haven’t even told anyone much less taken the first step. Maybe you’ve been pursuing your dream and you’re so close you can taste it. Or maybe you’re somewhere in between. If you’d like a chance to win:

1. Tweet this post or share it on Facebook.
2. Post a comment telling us about your dream and where you are in the process of pursuing it. (And include the Twitter/Facebook account where you shared this post)

I’ll announce the winner at 5 PM Eastern time Monday, January 10. Or, you can just buy a copy of The Dream Giver now.

Today we’re reviewing, discussing, and giving away The Power of a Whisper by Bill Hybels.  Keep reading to learn how you can win a free copy.

In The Power of a Whisper, Bill Hybels, founding pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, casts a vision for what life can look like when followers of God listen to His voice and follow His promptings.  The book contains insight into how to discern whether a “nudge” is from God, what to do if you’re not hearing from God, and the various ways God speaks to his followers.

Hybels intersperses practical spiritual advice with compelling stories of the way God has directed his own life through whispers. So important have these whispers been in his own life, that Hybels writes, “My entire journey comes down to a series of unplanned promptings from heaven that have charted a course for my life even I never could have foreseen.”

Favorite Quotes

• There is a frequency that your life was designed to be tuned to, and that frequency is the unique voice of God. –Wayne Cordero
• “Whether you turn to the right or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.’” Isaiah 30:21
• Oh! Give me Samuel’s ear, An open ear, O Lord, Alive and quick to hear each whisper of Thy Word; Like him to answer to Thy call And to obey Thee first of all.
• If there is a pattern in Scripture regarding whispers, it is that we serve a communicating God—a God of words.
• People are meant to live in an ongoing relationship with [God], speaking and being spoken to. -Dallas Willard
• God is available.  He is approachable.  And he is ready to talk to you now.  Your move!
• Reduce your speed.  Stop multitasking. Lower the ambient noise in your life—and then listen for God to speak.
• The most predictable way to hear from heaven is to read and apply God’s Word.
• God is near… The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
• God seeks… God is near.  But his presence is not passive.  He seeks us out so that he can encourage us to keep going, to move ahead, to live.
• Almost every time you hear a prompting from God, something safe or predictable most likely has to go.

Personal Thoughts

The Power of a Whisper is likely to be met with skepticism by a lot of people.  After all, how many times have we heard, “God told me to…” from people cooks, liars, cheats and worse.  Others may think, “Maybe God speaks to pastors like Bill Hybels, but he’d never speak to an average, messed-up guy or girl like me.”  But Hybels makes the case that receiving regular promptings from God need not be rare or exceptional but rather a normal part of the everyday life of the average Christ-follower.

That’s mind-blowing if you think about it.

Imagine what it would be like if periodically the president called you from his cell phone to give you little national security assignments… and Dr. Phil occasional sent you a text that had the perfect relational advice… and your mom called to encourage you… and they were always right, always said exactly the right thing and the perfect time.  That’d be pretty exciting and fulfilling if you ask me.

I can think of a few occasions when I sensed God clearly speaking to me.  When I was deciding which college to go to, I clearly sensed God pointing me to Valparaiso.  And later in college when an opportunity for a coop job close to home was offered to me, I sensed God saying, “Let this pass.  I’ve got something better for you.” I did, and He did.

But as for the life Bill Hybels describes, full of little assignments, encouragements, and insight from God on a daily basis.  I haven’t experienced that on a regular basis.  I’ve had a taste though. I believe it’s possible, and it’s the adventurous life with God I long for.

The Power of a Whisper contacts lots of useful instruction about how to hear about God, but what I appreciate most about the book is that it enlarged my dream.  It expanded my vision for what’s possible both in my life and in the life of others.

Discussion

1. Do you think God speaks today to those who are listening? Why or why not?
2. Can you share a story of when God spoke to you?

Get a Free Book

The good folks at Zondervan have given me an extra copy of The Power of a Whisper to give away.  If you’d like a chance to win it:

1. Tweet this post or share it on Facebook.
2. Post a comment answering one of the two discussion questions above.  (And include the Twitter/Facebook account where you shared this post)

I’ll announce the winner at 5 PM Eastern time Wednesday, December 22.  Or just buy  a copy of The Power of a Whisper.

Today we’re reviewing, discussing, and giving away a copy of When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. Keep reading to learn how you can win a free copy.

Billions of dollars are spent every year by governments, non-profits, churches, and individuals in efforts to try to alleviate poverty both in the industrial world and in 3rd world countries. While these efforts may be well-intentioned, many of them not only fail to help poor people but actually do harm to both the “materially poor” and the “materially non-poor.”

After many years of working directly with poor communities and consulting with non-profits Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert wrote When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor and Yourself to help individuals and organizations better understand poverty and how to address it in ways that work.

The Problem

Corbett and Fikkert sum up the problem with many western poverty initiatives with this equation:

Material definition of poverty + God-complexes of Materially Non-poor + Feelings of Inferiority of Materially Poor = Harm to Both Materially Poor and Non-poor.

One part of the problem is that Americans tend to think of the poor purely in terms of lack of resources, when in reality poverty is more complex than that. Often the poor feel inferior, have an inaccurate worldview, have systems working against them, lack education, or don’t have access to capital. Additionally, we Americans also tend to have a God complex and think of ourselves as superior. We think we are smarter, harder workers, have a better worldview, and so we have a tendency to come in throw around a lot of money and impose a solution on people which usually fails.

The Solution

One of the most important learning points in the book is that it’s important to assess a situation and determine if it calls for relief, rehabilitation, or development. Most western poverty efforts provide relief – giving out food, water, clothes, shelter. And there are certainly situations where relief is appropriate. But upon closer examination, the vast majority of poor people are not in emergency situations. Their situation doesn’t call for relief. Inappropriate relief often creates all kinds of problems both for the people receiving the relief and the surrounding community. It can undermine prices, families, churches, communities, and work ethic.

The goal of poverty alleviation should be to not just to raise people out of material poverty, but to empower them to live sustainable lives working, saving, problem-solving, and helping others. Corbett and Fikkert make the case that for that to happen, we need to start with what’s right with a poor person or community (asset-based community development) and work with the people in that community to develop processes that will work with their culture and strengths.

Personal Thoughts

One of the ways I know a book is great if I walk away from it saying, “That was so obvious! Why didn’t I think of that!?” And that’s what I come away from When Helping Hurts saying.

It resonates with every experience I’ve had with poverty. The nagging feeling of “Is this doing any good?” I’ve had when serving free food to the same people month after month. The awkward feeling of humiliation I sensed in the poor Kenyan villagers last summer when they lined up to get bags of dehydrated food from the rich white folks. The joy I’ve seen in the eyes of parents who after years of unemployment and low self-esteem are proud to be working and providing for their families.

I feel like I’ve been looking at poverty with my 20/200 vision not realizing how blurry it was, the eye doctor has just handed me my first pair of glasses, and wow I can see for the first time.

If you care about the materially poor, if you lead a church, if you serve poor people in any capacity, if you’re considering going on a short-term missions trip, I can’t recommend this book strongly enough.

Questions

1. Have you ever observed or been a part of a poverty alleviation effort that failed to assess whether the situation called for relief rehabilitation, or development? What happened?
2. Have you ever sensed a “god-complex” in yourself when serving poor people? Helping people because you want to make a difference or because you are richer, smarter, better skilled, or more disciplined, rather than because you genuinely wanted to help them become self-sufficient?
3. Where are you seeing poverty alleviation efforts that are really working?

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