Towards a New Perspective and Practice of Benevolence Ministries, Part I

Note: This is what I hope will be the beginning of several pieces on developing a more Biblical and effective paradigm on benevolence ministry in a welfare state.

Somewhere between indifference (seen in those who blithely quote, “Give a man a fish...” but never teach anyone to fish) and enabling (seen in those who give handout to the panhandlers), there must be true social justice. I will post these in hopes of learning from your perspective, dear reader, especially if you have worked with the poor.

This very brief entry will deal with the different types of people asking for help.


In my experience as a pastor of nine years who has handled numerous benevolence requests, I have found that there are three primary types of people needing benevolence. I believe each of them has a Biblical precedence:

1) Those who have a history of being self-supporting, but have fallen on hard-times – these are like the believers in Jerusalem for whom Paul was raising funds (Romans 15:26, et al).

2) Those who have a history of needing assistance – these are like the sluggards and fools throughout Proverbs and the idle in 2 Thessalonians 3:10.

3) Those who have significant, documentable mental or physical condition that prevents them from being self-supporting – this follows the example of giving to the truly poor in the Bible, as well as the command to help the orphans and widows in James 1:27.


I believe each of these groups must be treated very differently, but you will have to wait until "Part II" to hear more about that!