What Works to End Poverty

I recently read a great story in the Chronicle of Philanthropy about a charity that really works to help people change their own lives. It is called, The Family Independence Initiative.

The story told of how the founder, Mr. Maurice Miller, had a dramatic change of heart and mind about how to help people get out of chronic poverty. At the time of his conversion Mr. Miller was head of a very large, very expensive, much lauded organization with numerous awards for ending poverty. What happened to change his mind?

Mr. Miller was enrolling gang members in a job-training program and had only one more spot. He gave the position to a young man who’d been in prison for armed robbery rather than the man’s friend, who had never been incarcerated.
When Mr. Miller explained why he had to make that decision—because the charity’s criteria favored people who’d been in trouble and seemed to need the most help—the chosen man nudged his friend and said, “See, you should have come on that job with me.” It was then Mr. Miller realized the message his group was sending.

What message was his group sending? "You must become a thief and refuse to work if you expect us to help you!"

Now Mr. Miller is changing the way he works. He founded the Family Independence Initiative and started telling people how to organize themselves into self directing groups of hard working people who used their own insights, knowledge and understanding to defeat their daily problems. When someone calls the FII and asks for help, they are told to go to their group of supportive citizens first.

I learned long ago not to "Over Function" for people. In alcohol and drug treatment that is called "Co-Dependency or Enabling" and it kills addicts rather that curing them. It kills initiative, it kills hard work, it kills self esteem it keeps people in poverty.

The work of Mr. Miller and his group is inspiring, powerful, educational and it works for much less money. Read the story and weep at the cost of failing to help people. Failures are much higher than successes in financial outlay to say nothing of the human costs.

Your support of Sweeten Life Systems is support for things that work. We facilitate healthy systems, healthy networks and healthy relationships. We find doing for people distressing and enabling. We find helping them find their own answers to be liberating and empowering.

A Judge Tries to Stop Prayer

Many years ago an enterprising farmer packed up various seeds and shoots of plants to bring with him to America. He wanted a beautiful garden, I assume, as well as one that was filled with health as well as beauty. When deciding what to bring on his trip he chose one of the most beautiful and healthy plants known to man, the dandelion.

What makes dandelion removal from lawns so difficult? Well, dandelions (see picture for identification) enjoy the best of both worlds. Above-ground, their seeds ride the wind currents, poised to drop into the slightest opening in your lawn to propagate the species. Meanwhile, below-ground, they strike down a taproot up to 10" long. Pulling the taproot as a means of dandelion removal is problematic. Thick but brittle, the taproot easily fractures -- and any fraction of the taproot that remains in the ground will regenerate.

I always liked the dandelion. It was a fascinating flower and I loved to pick one when it was blooming and blow the fragile, frail little petals off into the wind to see how far they would float in the air. As far as I could see, all kids loved dandelions but a lot of adults hated them.

I never could figure out why people hated dandelions. they were harmless unlike poison ivy and poison oak. They wouldn't make the cattle sick or stink up the neighborhood. They were, as I said, beautiful and so hardy. But many adults decided they were weeds and conspired with the chemical industry to kill them off.

One thing about the dandelion, no matter how hard people tried to kill them they grew and spread all over the country. I suppose so many kids were like me. they too loved to blow their heads off when their folks or other adults were not looking. And, the wind cooperated with the dandelion's deep desire to reproduce. The results are everywhere apparent. Bright, beautiful, yellow dandelions as far as the eye can see, especially in play grounds.

The dandelion is a great metaphor for the good news of Jesus Christ. The love, healing and eternal life gained through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is a beautiful flower that brings health, peace and beauty into the world. It never does any harm. Life with Jesus is always good and loving. Yet many people try to stamp it out.

There are several atheist and agnostic groups today that are aggressively attempting to force religion and specifically Christianity, out of the public eye. They will fail, of course, but it is still a bit irritating to see. They might as well try to eliminate dandelions.

An ancient Prophet once said of such efforts "The seed of the church is the blood of the martyrs." A martyr's blood is sacred but the testimony of a martyr can never be extinguished. The wind of the Holy Spirit blows wherever it wills and the hate of atheists cannot extinguish the love and power of the good news.

When hateful anti Christians attempt to "pull faith up by the roots" parts of our testimony breaks off and reproduces. It is almost impossible to get to the root of a dandelion and remove it.

The harder they blow their hot air the more the good news is spread throughout the world. Millions of people come to Christ every year. More people respond to the wooing of the Holy Spirit with newly opened eyes than give up eternal life for the arrogance of disbelief.

Every time you see a dandelion remind yourself to thank God for the gospel and share it with someone to pass it on.

We at Sweeten Life Systems is energetically involved in equipping Christians to share the good news with love, sensitivity and boldness. Your prayer and financial support for SLS will enable us to expand the Kingdom of God even more. See our web page for more information.

Christian Healing and Growth

I am shifting many of my thoughts to a new blog called Spiritual Healing and Growth. I have found that the name of this blog gets a lot of hits but most of them are for the movie Brave Heart. So, I am experimenting with different venues to get the word out about the things I am passionate about.

As I near my celebration for the 72nd anniversary of my coming into the world I am still eager to share the love, power and truth of Jesus Christ. Since I was a child I have been sought out for advise, wisdom, counsel and insight. I still am sought by many leaders who are stuck themselves or working with those who are stuck.

I studied Teaching and practiced that fine art for five years before running into some painful blocks. Looking back it was a good thing because I have learned to "Count it all joy when you encounter various trials..." James 1. I have learned to look for God at work during my trials and challenges and that early difficulty turned into a great gift because I returned to grad school and studied counseling.

It was there that I discovered the power of the environment to bring desired changes. Peer and Family support just can't be beaten when it comes to helping people change.

That led me to Cincinnati and a position at UC during the riots and Jesus Movement. These two movements taught me to watch out for massive spiritual, emotional and political movements and to see what God would have us do to cooperate with Him by facilitating changes in the church and Christians.

In 1973 God led me to College Hill Presbyterian and what a blessing that was. I learned to integrate my theoretical and practical insights from psychology, counseling, sociology and theology into a wholistic approach to healing, growth and influence. We called our center, TELEIOS for wholeness in Christ.

We also developed a non profit organization CIC in 1978 that took our insights to the world. Last year was the 30th anniversary of the founding of what is now called Equipping Ministries International (EMI). EMI has spread to over 70 nations.

In 1989 God called us to open a Christ centered Psychiatric Counseling Center where we could bring all the insights and learning together into the task of helping distressed, traumatized and wounded believers heal and grow into maturity.

Now I am heading Sweeten Life Systems, formerly Life Way Inc, a non profit coaching, consulting and research organization dedicated to "Building a lifetime of great relationships" because all our experience and research points to the fact that death or life come from relationships.

I am hoping I can get all of you to follow me on the new blog where I will write about what is going on with me and a lot about the things that facilitate healing, growth and change.

Great Blog by Dave Workman

Dave Workman is Pastor at the Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati. He and Steve Sjogren were essentially co-pastors and founders of the VCC and he continues to lead the congregation through all the ups and downs of ministry in a mega church. Yes, there are ups and downs, especially in big churches and as a Pastor.

Whether it is the world, the flesh or the devil that comes against us, it is a war. I have never seen a large church that did not experience very rough seas just when good things seemed to be happening.

Dave writes about that on his blog What I Meant to Say and I think he does a great job. Take a look and see what you think.

Church Growth

I am reading two books that lay out the way we can facilitate the missional and evangelistic missions of the churches of Jesus Christ. Church attendance is decreasing across America. It has already hit bottom in Europe. We need some new models of church if the situation is to be changed and churches are to thrive.

Both books tell how we have reached the end of n era. No longer can we expect people to thrive and expand the impact of the church by keeping the old wine skins of church structures. The era of hierarchical, bureaucratic organizational structures has passed into the dust bin of history. A new approach is desperately needed if Christianity is to thrive.

The first book is The Starfish and the Spider. The second book is Social Entrepreneurship. Go right now to Amazon.com and order them if you want to see revival and renewal begin in America.

Both books talk about using small groups of committed persons to change the world. The authors of Starfish brilliantly describe why the Apache's defeated the Spanish armies while the Incas and others were destroyed by the Spanish. The authors of Social Entrepreneurship tell similar stories about how small groups of dedicate men and women defeated poverty, Muslim Fundamentalism and natural disasters.

They are insightful, inspiring, easy to read and have great stories.

Healing Every Day

Go to my new blog Spirituality, Healing and Growth and see a couple of two great posts on healing, prayer and forgiveness.

How to be an Evangelist

Guy Kawasaki, a very famous blogger, speaker and writer, put out a nice and instructive post recently about being a "secular evangelist". Guy is a Christian so he "borrowed" a lot of ideas from the Bible as to ways we can reach others for a cause, even the cause for Christ.

Here are some of his points.

# Create a cause.The starting point of evangelism is having a great thing to evangelize. A cause seizes the moral high ground. It is a product or service that improves the lives of people, ends bad things, or perpetuates good things. It is not simply an exchange of things/services for money.
# Love the cause. “Evangelist” isn't simply a job title. It's a way of life. It means that the evangelist totally loves the product and sees it as a way to bring the “good news.” No matter how great the person, if he doesn't love the cause, he cannot be a good evangelist for it.
# Look for agnostics, ignore atheists. A good evangelist can usually tell if people understand and like a product in five minutes. If they don't, cut your losses and avoid them. It is very hard to convert someone to a new religion when he believes in another god.
# Localize the pain. No matter how revolutionary your product, don't describe it using lofty, flowery terms like “revolutionary,” “paradigm shifting,” and “curve jumping.” People don't buy “revolutions.” They buy “aspirins” to fix the pain or “vitamins” to supplement their lives.
# Let people test drive the cause. Essentially, say to people, “We think you are smart. Therefore, we aren't going to bludgeon you into becoming our customer. Try our product, take it home, download it, and then decide if it's right for you.” A test drive is much more powerful than an ad.
# Learn to give a demo. An “evangelist who cannot give a great demo” is an oxymoron. A person simply cannot be an evangelist if she cannot demo the product. If a person cannot give a demo that quickens the pulse of everyone in the audience, he should stay in sales or in marketing.
# Provide a safe first step. The path to adopting a cause should have a slippery slope.
# Ignore pedigrees. Good evangelists aren't proud. They don't focus on the people with big titles and big reputations. Frankly, they'll meet with, and help, anyone who “gets it” and is willing to help them.
# Never tell a lie. Very simply, lying is morally and ethically wrong.
# Remember your friends. Be nice to the people on the way up because one is likely to see them again on the way down.

Read more at his blog