Cross-Cultural Ministry - Assignment Example

of Affiliation Almsgiving is Mammon’s perversion of giving.” (Jacques Ellul) A form of giving that is self-seeking and gratifies the personal needs of the giver while, on the other hand, humiliates the recipient, is toxic. This enhances dependency level rather than empower the recipient. 2. “Parity is the higher form of charity.” (Bob Lupton)Parity brings into play interdependency between the giver and the recipient. It fosters a symbiosis kind of a relationship where both the recipient of the charity and the giver depend on each other.

Parity becomes higher form of charity because it empowers the recipient while reducing the power of the giver over the recipient. 3. “It is more difficult to detoxify pathological relationships than to build new, healthy, reciprocal relationships between the rich and the poor.” (Bob Lupton)Building a one-way dependency relationship between the poor and rich is harmful. Changing such a relationship to a positive one may be difficult due to the corrupted or dependency mentality created in the minds of the poor.

It is thus necessary to build healthy relationship from the very start. 4. “The giver-recipient relationship is doomed from the start.” (Bob Lupton)A relationship of the giver on one hand and the recipient on the other hand is bound to fail. Such a relationship is unhealthy, unsustainable, and fails to empower the poor. Over-dependency on the giver harms the poor in the long-run. 5. “You have to listen to me. There’s a reason why you’re a Third World country.” (anonymous leader of a short-term mission trip in Honduras, overheard by Bart and Melissa Dodson)The people in the Third World country have been made to believe that they are meant to be poor.

This is a wrong mentality that harms their confidence level as well as development. Such mentality needs to be banished if at all Third World countries have to believe in their own economic empowerment. 6. “Development is not done to people or for people but with people.”(Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert)Developmental progress calls for the mutual collaboration of all the parties. It is not possible to develop by simply depending on the support of others. Instead, both the giver and the recipient must come together and chart away forth for the development activities.