My Friend's House

Recently, I came on staff with an amazing ministry called Love INC. We mobilize the local church in Clackamas County to bring transformation to community members living in poverty. The majority of the people we serve are what most would call “the working poor”.

Relational Poverty

If you would have asked me to define poverty, I would have used phrases like “living wage” or “affordable housing”. It would have had to do with the lack of money. But I quickly was taken deeper into an understanding that there is also spiritual poverty, emotional poverty and relational poverty.

As I began to understand relational poverty, it was evident that it was the root of loneliness and isolation. Each week, the Lord gives me the opportunity to speak with people over the phone that are struggling to make ends meet. Some of them are working, others are on fixed income or looking for employment. I have yet to talk with anyone that isn’t appreciative of someone wanting to hear their story and take note if they had a supportive community.

While some people in need may have supportive family and friends, it is often the case that their family and friends are struggling in the same ways and are unable to provide what they need. When those who are struggling themselves, you tend not to want to bother them and add an extra burden to their lives. So, you isolate. The longer you isolate, the lonelier you become. You are stuck in relational poverty.

Spiritual Poverty

The other type of poverty that went hand in hand with relational poverty was spiritual poverty. People either had had a negative experience with someone in the church or no experience with the church. In either case, there was no understanding of them being made in the image of God. There really was no reason they could see to “get involved” with the local church. In their minds they needed “things” or “money”. Their spiritual condition was completely separate from their finances or lack of needed material things.

To be clear, the Bible says to be poor in spirit is good. It means you are dependent on God. But in that dependency is found joy, peace and abundant life. The spiritual poverty that I am referring to is a lack of God in one’s life, a lack of God’s people. This spiritual lack is propagating the poverty that people find themselves in. They are completely unaware of the abundant life that is found through Jesus.

Solutions in the Body of Christ

In the New Testament church, believers lived quite differently as a whole. They didn’t have one church here and one church there. They were the Church in different locations and still were one church, one body of Christ who’s lives were transformed and all things were in common.

“All believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and was distributed to anyone who had need.”

Acts 4:32-35

This is how Love In the Name of Christ, Love INC, mobilizes the church. When a person in the community is in need calls us, we connect them to the church to meet their need. Sometimes that is a material necessity, but many times it is for relationship, or guidance in life. Other times, someone in the community that has a need goes to a church and asks for help. When the church refers them to Love INC, we can get to know them at a deeper level and collaborate with the churches in the area to see how we can help meet the person in a holistic way.

To learn more about how Love INC is addressing poverty through the local church watch this video.

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