But all of the “sustainable” programs that are happening – including ones like One Days Wages and TOMS and others – are not as sustainable as they could be. These organizations are incredible and are doing a TON of good things in the world. But sometimes ‘good’ can be the enemy of ‘great’. There is a next step that we need to take on the road to true sustainability if we are going to help achieve our primary goal of helping people and countries have the capacity and opportunity to fully care for themselves.

So what’s wrong with the current form of sustainability?

Let me use a story to illustrate my point. Say someone has two great parents. The parents are always supportive and wanting what is best for their child. They help him or her out all the time. But then they challenge the child to go out on their own once they are of age. They say that they want the kid to be living on his or her own – not relying on handouts from the parents – having a sustainable form of income on her or his own. So the parents help the kid put together a program where he or she makes beads and necklaces or coffee or something like that. That’s so great! A business! Selling things is so much better than taking handouts. But in this business, the same parents who helped the kid set up the business are the ones who are the main customers. The kid sells it exclusively back to the parents, and they always buy it from him or her.

Now is that sustainability?

Or is that just a long-handout? Delayed handout? Psuedo-handout?

True sustainability needs to exist without the parents. And in this example, the parents are America. If something is going to be fully sustainable, then it needs to be able to stand on its feet without the support of America. That’s kind of difficult to say. But I believe it is true.

Aid organizations need to seek true sustainability that enables people to stand up on their own and have the capacity to dictate their own future – without their parents, without America, without any strings attached.

That’s the next step.

We can get there.

There are some great solutions out there to help people.  There are countless ideas for how we can make an impact in this fight against poverty.  And some are definitely better than others.  If we are really going to ever end these problems then we need to do more of the great solutions and less of the poor ones.

So how can you tell if one is better than another?

Well, I want to talk about one of them in this blog post.  The basic theory would be this: It’s not a solution if it’s not for everyone.

The other day I was chatting with a friend about the poverty in our city.  He said that he had a great solution.  He said that everyone who is poor should take $5 and buy a rake and go out rake people’s leaves.  They will be able to earn enough money to stay fed, clothed, and housed.  And then over time, they can turn that manual labor job into a business.  That’s all they need to do.  Anyone can do that.

He was so adamant about this being the solution to poverty in our city.  It’s cheap.  Anyone can do it.  Everyone has leaves.  All it takes is some hard work. That’s it.  It’s that simple.

But, really, when you dig into this solution – it is not that simple.

Here’s the thing.  Just because anybody can do it does not mean that everybody can do it.  The market will limit the number of people who could successfully have a personal raking business (much less a larger raking business that employed other people).  First of all, there are already people out there who are running landscaping businesses and raking leaves.  There are also companies who are very good at selling rakes and leafblowers directly to people so that they can do it themselves.  On top of that, there might be a dozen people who actually could go down to Walmart and buy a $5 rake and then make somewhat of a living raking leaves.  But that only lasts for the Fall.  What do they do in Winter, Spring, and Summer?

Bottomline: This is not a solution for everyone.  If everyone tried to do this, there would not be enough ‘market’ to go around.  Same goes for everyone working in a coffee shop.  Same even goes for microfinance and the limited amount of jobs in developing countries that can be started through microfinance.

It is not a good solution if it is not a solution for everyone.

If we want sustainable answers to end these problems – this has to be our mantra.

Those two things are ability and opportunity.  These two things are great goals for any program or person trying to help those in poverty in the best way possible.  Let’s dig into them a little bit.

Ability.  Everyone should be resourced with the ability to follow their dreams.  Ability comes through education, training, encouragement, and environment.  It comes from school, the home, and time with friends and families.  This ability looks like knowledge, self-esteem, skills, and other things like that.  Ability means being able to do something.

Opportunity.  But just because someone is able to do something does not mean that there is the opportunity to do it.  Opportunity is all about the context where we live providing the means to use our abilities.  Opportunity looks like jobs, robust macro economy, space for entrepreneurship, freedom, choice, discretionary income, and things like that.  Opportunity is all about having actual chances to use abilities and live a life of fulfillment that you desire.

The poor among us need to be resourced with the ability AND the opportunity to have the life that they have always dreamed.  That is what it is all about.  Ability.  Opportunity.   We need to have both.  We cannot just have one.

Ability and Opportunity.

How can we set up our organizations to provide both?

Here we go.

But I think that this is incomplete.  We are missing an important aspect of this impact.  Because there is a right kind of impact and there is a wrong kind of impact.

Wrong Kind of Impact.  The wrong kind of impact is the impact that is shallow, small, one-time, and fairly meaningless.  It almost pains me to talk about having a wrong type of impact when almost any impact can be somewhat valuable.  Yet there it is a reality that certain impact is better than other types of impact.  And impact that does not last and does not go deep enough is the wrong kind of impact.

Right Kind of Impact.  The right kind of impact is the impact that is on-target, sustainable, self-sustaining, long-lasting, and extremely holistic and fulfilling.  The right kind of impact is all about influencing the target market.  It is all about changing the systems and contexts in which the target market lives.  The right kind of impact brings change, development, and increased capacity.

Even though everyone knows that impact is the name of the game.  But I think that we need to think about starting to use a different name – and a whole new way of thinking about impact.

There is a wrong kind of impact.  There is a right kind of impact.

Let’s do less of the wrong and more of the right.

Here we go.

Let’s say that you have come up with an innovative thought about a way something could be improved.  Or let’s say that you have worked in a certain area or field for a long time and you have ideas about ways that things could be a lot better.  No matter what it is, there is a something that can be improved.

So what do you do?  What is the process of making this improvement?

Well, the most common thing to do is to point out why the current process or product is deficient.  Show the problems.  Point out where things are lacking.  And talk all about why things are currently wrong.  This is normally what happens.  And it causes divisions and competing interests.

But what if we did things differently when we wanted to make improvements?  What if we found a way to enable everyone to be on the same team as everybody moves forward with the next step in the process?

When we make improvements on things, we need to not do it divisively by showing how the things we are doing now are wrong.  Instead, we need to have an attitude of teamwork as we show that that our new idea or improvement is simply the next step.  That’s all it is.  It is the next step on the journey.  And then invite others to take the next step with them.

Teamwork.  Togetherness.  Mission.  It’s all about working together to take the next step.

That’s how you try to make improvements on things.

Here in the United States, we have a very good context.  We have education, infrastructure, a solid macro-economy, freedom, and many other great things as a part of our country.  This context allows us to focus our time, energy, and resources on community development.  In the midst of our solid context, we can spend time working in the specific communities that are struggling.  And that makes complete sense in developed countries that have a good overall context.

But I would argue that it does not make sense to do community (or village) development before you do context development.  Unfortunately, this is the current strategy of the vast majority of nonprofit and aid organizations.  They focus on changing individual people, families, or communities.  But they do not focus on making contextual changes.  So in the midst of seeking community health, they are handicapped by the deficiencies of the context.

I think that the more we can research this and begin to unpack and understand this – the better off we will all be.  Our goals will be better.  Our strategies will be better.  Our measurements will be more accurate.  And our impact will be more long-lasting and powerful.

You can’t have community development before you have context development.

I really think that’s true.

Let’s find out.

That’s it.

Primary goals.  These are the goals that are at the very center of your mission.  And this almost always has something to do with people.  For example, a church has a primary goal of bringing Jesus into the lives of their members and those in the community so that they can experience transformation.  That is one of their primary goals.  A secondary goal of the church would be to bring in tithe money.  Tithe is definitely a part of the puzzle that allows churches to have success with their primary goal, but in and of itself it is not the primary goal. So when churches focus so much of their efforts on trying to increase tithing and raise more money – they are not focusing on their primary goal.

And that is a problem.  Because they should be.  Because it matters.

One reason why we get in trouble with focusing on things that are not our primary goals is because we are not measuring our primary goals.  For example, there is a ministry at my church that works with the local community members who are struggling with poverty and especially food insecurity.  They really should have a primary goal of alleviating the injustices of poverty in our community so that nobody has food insecurity in the first place.  Their primary goal should not be to simply give people food.  That’s too small.  That’s not enough.

And that goal is not primary.  It is not something that impacts the deepest needs and desires of the specific target audience.  With money, time, energy, and resources being scarce – people and organizations and groups should focus first and foremost on their primary goal.

Subsequently they should measure these primary goals, too.  With the food bank that my church runs, for example, they are measuring things that do not have anything to do with the primary goal.  They focus on how much food they gave out each month and how many people they served.  These are not primary measurements.  Instead, they should be measuring how many families are getting out of the cycle of poverty, how many children in the local schools are getting off of free and reduced lunch, how many families are getting off of food stamps and other forms of government assistance, and things like that.  Our church needs to focus on primary measurements for the primary goal of alleviating the systems of poverty and helping families get out of poverty.

Primary goals.

Primary measurements.

Here we go.

Bolded Points!!!

What I Learned.  I really couldn’t put everything that I learned into a small blog post.  The speakers were incredible.  Walter Brueggemann knocked it out of the park.  Shane Claiborne and Ben Cohen were amazing together in their presentation.  Richard Twiss hit the nail on the head as he spoke about Native Americans and justice.  Francis Chan finished things off with an impactful hour as he shared his story and his incredible life of Biblical justice.  There were so many other speakers and presentations, bands and artists, and booths of organizations.  But what did I learn from all of this?  I learned so much about justice in the neighborhood, the next steps of compassion locally and globally, and never backing down from what God calls you to do.

The Neighborhood.  Everything revolves around the neighborhood.  All of our actions, habits, goals, dreams, money, jobs, lifestyle, where we live, our faith, etc.  Everything revolves around the neighborhood.  The neighborhood literally.  The neighborhood locally.  The neighborhood globally.  Everything that we do revolves around the shalom of the neighborhood.

The Church.  I came away from this conference completely encouraged about the present and the future of the Church here in America (and around the world).  There were so many young adults and twentysomethings who are passionate about Jesus and Justice.  It was amazing to see 4,000 young people sold out for bringing shalom into the neighborhood and the Kingdom of God here on earth.  The church is in good hands.

Overall.  This was an incredible conference.  I am a little bummed that it is in Philadelphia next year because I will not be able to attend.  But I am excited for people in the East who will have the chance to be a part of this conference.  It was awesome in every respect.

Great job, conference leaders!

Thanks!

Impact.

I have always thought that is the goal and the highest ideal.  …but is it really?

Obviously, impact is not bad.  But is there something better?

What about lasting impact?

Lasting impact would be different than impact in regards to longevity, capacity, scope, and sustainability.  Impact is about making a difference in someone’s life.  Lasting impact is making a change in someone’s life.  Impact is about helping people in their desperate situations.  Lasting impact is about changing the situation.

Impact vs. Lasting Impact.

The question is not about whether we should make an impact or not.  That answer is obvious.  We should definitely seek to make an impact.

The question is whether we should make an impact or a lasting impact.  Nobody is asking that question.  But we need to start.  Because the world needs lasting impact.

Lasting impact.

That’s what we need to work on.

After checking with my friend who owns the house, I went back downstairs to clean everything up.  And it was in this unplanned cleaning where I had an epiphany – a water-soaked, somewhat smelly epiphany.

The leaky washer was a perfect metaphor to describe the issues of extreme poverty and how we can fully end this terrible issue.

Here’s how it went down: The washer with my clothes began to leak.  Apparently, it leaks every time that it runs.  So the homeowner got a big pump that can suck the water off of the floor right behind the washer.  But when I was down there doing my wash and it started leaking – the pump did not turn on.  For some reason, the pump just sat there.  Just sat there.

With water all over the floor, I ran over and turned off the washer.  Then it was time to get things cleaned up.

First, I tried to get the big pump back working.  Once I inevitably failed at that, I then went to Plan B and then Plan C.  I tried to use a small water vacuum to suck up some of the water.  And then I tried to just sweep the water with a broom down to a drain.  I tried all of these options to get the water cleaned up.

As I was doing all of this, I thought to myself, “This is a great example of what is happening with the fight against extreme poverty right now”.  And here is what I mean by this.  We are trying so many things to get people out of the desperate problems that extreme poverty puts them in.  Just like all the things I was trying to do to clean the water up.

But what was the real answer to how to fix the problem of the water on the floor?

The answer is this: Fix the washer.

((Part Two coming soon…))