Renée on Biblical Community Development

#3: Empowerment through Imparting Vision

2009-12-10T12:01:00.002+01:00

When asked to define community development most Africans I have met will start talking about things like clean water, health care, schools, electricity or roads. If they've already been to some kind of development training, however, they may use words like "process, capacity building, working together" to describe development. But if they are really honest, they may admit they hold Europe and America as their standard and that they want to see people prospering in their businesses. In effect, everyone gaining more money and possessions is their ideal of development. Clean water, health care, enough money to pay for clothing and housing, etc., are needed, even absolutely essential, in poor communities. But to look at those things as the defining points of community development is a materialistic view of development.

True development, Biblically, is seeing God's intentions for us as human beings lived out in our society—physically, YES, but also spiritually, socially, and intellectually. This Biblical concept of seeing God's purposes expressed in our communities can be explained through gaining a broader understanding of the Hebrew word "shalom."

Today shalom is the word that is used in Israel to say "hello" or "goodbye". It literally means "peace" but the original understanding of the word is much more than a greeting or the lack of strife. It implies a sense of wholeness and health in our relationships with one another, with God and with creation around us. It means living righteously and experiencing justice in our communities, having harmonious and enjoyable relationships with God, ourselves, others and creation. Indeed, it means experiencing the shalom that Jesus brings: peace that passes all understanding.

I am writing this now in December when we routinely sing songs about the "Prince of Peace". Picture this, if you will, a Prince of Peace that opened the way for us today to experience a shalom wholeness in our families, in our communities, in our nation. It is left with us to arise and live it out in the power of the Holy Spirit. Then we can see shalom come in our sphere of influence.

What would this look like in Africa? It could mean people having enough healthy food to eat, clean water to drink, adequate health care, clothing, security, schooling for their children, jobs that allow for personal dignity and provision of necessities, peaceful relationships with neighbors, a vibrant, growing relationship with God, joyful family relationships, the ability to transport goods without breaking the backs of women and children, fair trade, justice in the courts. . . Doesn't God intend this for us? I believe so.

When sin came into the world, the entire world was stained by it. Nothing was left untouched. All relationships, all of creation were affected by sin. The Good News is that when Jesus came, he came to bring the solution to this total problem we found ourselves in. John 3:16-17 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." When I learned these verses years ago as a child, we were taught to understand this Scripture to mean "For God so loved all the people in the world that he gave. . ." But the word "world" in this scripture has been translated from the Greek word cosmos which is a much bigger word than just all the people in the world. It means ALL of creation. . . the stars, the moon, the earth, the people, the animals, down to the ecological system around us. So a more accurate way to read this Scripture would be to read it like this: "For God so loved all of creation that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into all of creation to condemn all of creation, but to save all of creation through him." Again in Romans 8:19-22 the Bible tells us that all of creation is looking forward to the time when we will be released from sin, so it may also be free. Jesus came to bring a total solution to a total problem.

To live that solution out here and now is a challenge, but this is the challenge that Jesus gave us in his example of taking the Good News of the Kingdom to all the villages and towns in Galilee. Remember when John's disciples asked Jesus if he was the one, he answered by saying, "The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor." (Matt. 11:4-5) If we look at the Sermon on the Mount, we can see what this good news is: how to live in harmony and justice with one another—shalom. This is true community development!

If we can impart to people a vision of what God intends for our communities, then we can begin to move toward it. If our focus is only on the negative things around us, it is depressing and not motivating for people. They easily lose interest when the struggle gets too much for them.

Recently, I used an exercise described in Bryant Myers' book, "Walking With The Poor" to help people look at things from a more positive perspective. (Appreciative Inquiry, pages 174-179) Granted, Appreciative Inquiry is a humanistic tool, but we can use it as a tool to help people identify the good things God is already doing in their community, instead of focusing only on the problems around them. Again, I was in Congo and I asked the group to split into twos and partner with someone who did not know their particular community. Then they were told to ask one another the following questions:

1. Thinking back the last 100 years, what has happened that you are proud of, that makes you feel you have been successful?
2. What in your geographical area and in your local political and economic systems has helped you do things of which you are proud?
3. What skills or resources have enabled you to do things your children will remember you for having done?
4. How have your relationships, both within and without the community, worked for you and helped you do things that you believe were good for the community?

(These are just a few of the questions given by Myers, p. 179)

One of the pastors complained, "Can I talk about my church, instead of the community? There's so many problems we need to work on and I don't know the community." I answered, "Nope! Your church is sitting in the middle of a community so don't tell me you don't know it. Talk about the neighborhood you live in."

I really didn't know what was going to happen because I had never before tried this exercise. . . but an hour later we had a tough time dragging everyone away from their discussions, to bring them back into the classroom. I asked them, "What happened in your conversations?" The pastor who had initially complained was one of the most excited in the room. He had gained a vision for what God wanted to do in his community, by identifying what God had already done in the past and was doing today. The buzz of excitement in the room was contagious as person after person reported similar experiences. They had discovered many good things about Congo. . . causing these people who lived in the midst of poverty and war-inflicted destruction to dare to hope for what God really intended for them.

Empowered people are those who have gained an understanding that wholistic development—shalom—is God's intention, His desire, will and purpose for them. If this is then coupled with an awareness of the good things God has placed in their community and what He is already doing, they are able to hope, believe and work for development. They will be much more likely to persevere in faith and work to see it come to reality.

Copyright © 2009 Renee Schudel

#2: Empowerment Through Allowing Choice

2009-11-22T17:07:00.004+01:00

When it comes to seeing true, sustainable development in a community, then the freedom and power to make choices by the people benefiting is key. Often, it is the outsider who "knows best" what the people need and how they should get it, and so they impose decisions on the community. Even if they are right—that those are the best ideas/decisions—it often does not turn out best for the people because when the outsider leaves, everything may fade away.

As outsiders, every time we make a decision for the community, we are, in effect, treating them as children, not adults. There is another word for this: paternalism. With paternalism the outsider is in charge. Unconsciously, perhaps, dependent attitudes in the community are reinforced. Another way to say it is: If we are doing things for others that they can do, or solving their problems our way, then we are being paternalistic.

Too often development agencies arrive in a community with a particular set of skills and materials with which they are going to see the community developed. They have a certain timeframe in which to accomplish their goals, and so they go about interesting the community in what they have to offer. Soon, if all goes well, they can point at the development they have accomplished with the community. It may be a well, water pump or clinic, etc. If they have used participatory methods in their training, they are confident that the people understand its importance, know how to care for it and will continue to do so. They move on to the next community, satisfied they have done a good development project.

But development is not about things. Wells, water pumps or clinics might very well be among the outward manifestations of development, but sustainable development is about the community taking responsibility for its own growth. This kind of development takes time and may occur faster in one community than in another. But it will not happen without the community having the possibility of making choices in their growth and development.

When we were created in God's image, this included being created with the ability to make decisions, to have preferences, and to make choices. In Genesis 2 we learn how God finished creation with the formation of Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden of Eden. He told them they could eat the fruit from any tree, except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If they ate from that tree, they would die. He gave them the ability to make choices and even told them the consequences if they disobeyed. We all know how that story ended. . . they ate from the fruit and were banished from the Garden and today we are still living in this cursed earth, dealing with sin, pain, sickness and all other kinds of evil.

Have you ever thought about what God risked? He had created a perfect world and entrusted it to mankind. Then He endangered everything by allowing them to make a choice! But He is also just and good, so when they chose disobedience, He followed through on the consequences. In the same way, God respects and loves us so much that He gives us the freedom to choose whether we will obey Him, or not.

Consider this:

If giving Adam and Eve the freedom to make a choice was important enough for God to risk the entrance of sin into the whole world, then free choice must be vital.
If it is still important enough for Him to risk us going to hell because we do not choose Him, then we should think about how important He considers our will and our ability to make choices.
If it is that crucial to God, then we need to allow that same freedom for others.
If God allows you and I to make our choices, who are we to take it away from someone else?

Making decisions for others is not a problem confined to "Westerners" working with poor, uneducated people. I have come across development workers who are native Africans or Eastern Europeans, now with control of resources or free from the restrictions of the communistic regimes, with the same paternalistic tendencies. In fact, once they gain some power, they may even be worse than their Western counterparts. Now it is their turn to decide things! Confronting this attitude is a real challenge, but is crucial to seeing a community transformed.

A few years ago I taught in Eastern Congo on development to a group of 40 church workers and then went back a year later to hear how they had implemented what they had learned. After hearing their fantastic success stories, I taught on the principle of giving people choices and not being paternalistic. One man stood and said in disgust, "I wish you'd told us this last year!"

He then proceeded to report that his group had decided to help 6 widows by loaning them money to start a small cassava bread business. Three of the widows readily took the money and started their businesses.

But 3 of the widows refused. They said, "Just give us the money and we'll decide what to do with it."

Initially, they left those widows, but later they went back and loaned them the money, only because they wanted to be able to report to their team leader that they had accomplished their "project."

The second set of 3 widows joined with a few other friends and together the 6 of them bought a plot of ground and tomato seeds. They reaped their tomatoes, bought a motorcycle which is now being used as a taxi between villages and had enough money left to re-plant their field. Today, their children are all in school, they are well-fed and clothed.

Meanwhile, the first 3 widows failed in their bread businesses and are no better off today than before the loans were made to them.
The man reporting this told us he was too ashamed to go back and hear the 2nd group of widows tell him "I told you so" so he had observed this from a distance, much to his consternation. Now he heard that what he had thought a failure was a success!

Once people are allowed to "own" their choices, they will then "own" their development, take responsibility for their growth and continue on even further than the development worker can go with them. That's real development.

#1 What is Empowerment?

2009-11-22T16:46:00.004+01:00

According to the dictionary, empowerment is the increase "of the spiritual, political, social or economic strength of individuals and communities. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities." Those who need empowerment may be whole communities or groups of people who have been excluded from the decision-making process over their lives.

So who are the disempowered? They may be the marginalized of society (discriminated against because of their particular race, tribe, age or gender), or they may be whole communities that have been ravaged by war or that live in chronic poverty. The powerful may have simply ignored or used them, or they may have tried to enslave or destroy them. Whatever the cause, the effect is the same: The disempowered believe they have little or no control over what happens in their lives, and that they can do nothing to effect change for the better.

Isaiah 61 can be a powerful source of faith, hope—and even empowerment—for the disempowered. This is the scripture that Jesus read in the synagogue when he first began his ministry:

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke stops there as he is telling the story of Jesus, but let's continue on. . .) "and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor."

Jesus read this scripture out and then sat down and said, "today this is fulfilled". He then spent the next 3 years living it out in the communities through which he passed. . .healing people, teaching them, giving them hope and joy, releasing them from captivity.

Jesus ministered to the common people of Palestine who had been disempowered by the Romans, and then by their own people—the politicians and religious leaders of the day. Everywhere they turned someone was demanding something from them: Herod, tax collectors, Roman soldiers, Pharisees or Sadducees. Someone else controlled their destiny and they were the poor, the prisoners living in darkness with no hope for their future.

The news Jesus brought was radical, exciting news to the disempowered of Jesus' day. But it didn't stop there. Let's go on in the passage:

"They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations."

Recently, in Eastern Congo (DRC) I read this Scripture to a group of pastors and development workers and then I asked them "who is 'they' in this Scripture?" I was given a lot of wild guesses, but no one came close to the answer. So I read it aloud to them again. Still, no one could tell me who "they" were. So I re-read it like this:

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to THE POOR. He has sent me to bind up THE BROKENHEARTED, to proclaim freedom for THE CAPTIVES and release from darkness for THE PRISONERS, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort ALL WHO MOURN, and provide for THOSE WHO GRIEVE in Zion. THEY will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated."

Yes, it is the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, the prisoners, those who mourn and grieve—the disempowered—who are now expected to rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated. It is us! In Congo, it is those Believers who are now trying to rebuild their communities destroyed by recent fighting, all the while hoping and praying the fighters do not return.

God is not going to do it for us. Jesus has already provided the means, through giving us the good news, healing and comforting broken hearts, and setting us free from sin and the power of evil. Now it is our place as healed, redeemed people to rebuild the ruined and devastated places around us.

If God expects us to do this, then He sure can be depended upon to help us do it as we step out in faith to begin rebuilding. There are many places around Africa that have been destroyed by war or greed, or the poverty is so overwhelming that hope has been completely forgotten, but I believe those are the very places God is talking about in this Scripture. He has not forgotten them and He has given the "disempowered," the power of His Spirit to do something about it. I don't know about you, but I think this is pretty exciting news!

At that same training in Congo, one of the participants came to me at the end of the seminar and said, "Before I came to this training, I thought development was for tomorrow—always somewhere out there in the vague future. But now I know development is for today. And what's more I know I am responsible before God to make it happen." Now that's an empowered person.