Standing with the Vulnerable

A Curriculum for Transforming Lives and Communities

Gil Odendaal

• Publisher: IVP Bible Studies
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780830820993
• eBook ISBN:
  9780830894093
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The world has needs. Children are orphaned, refugees are displaced and families are devastated by natural disasters. But God is greater than those needs, and he works through his people to accomplish healing and transformation. God calls us to integral mission— obeying both the Great Commission and the Great Commandment in ministering to people's spiritual, physical, emotional and social well-being.

This curriculum from World Relief is designed to mobilize the church to engage the great causes of our day, stand with the vulnerable and meet the needs of our neighbors as Jesus did. These ten sessions show how shaping our fundamental beliefs and values lead to better actions and results.T

ogether we can alleviate poverty, welcome the stranger and transform communities at home and around the world. Join with others in learning how to love God, love your neighbors and put that love into action.

one

UNDERSTANDING DEVELOPMENT

Objectives

• Define development.
• Explore development of the whole person and apply it to everyday life.
• Examine God’s call to love him and our neighbor.

Developing the Whole Person

Development describes the process of how people and communities grow and change over time. But how does this growth happen?

Think about our many needs.

• 1. What does a person need to simply stay alive—to survive?
• 2. What is required for a person to have the best possible life—to flourish?

We want people to flourish, and in order for that to happen we need to help them meet all of their needs. We can group these needs into different areas.

• Physical needs are the needs of our bodies. This includes things such as food, proper medicine, shelter, clean water, and safety. Our bodies need all of these things to be physically well.
• Mental needs are the needs of our minds. This includes our ability to think, learn, and solve problems. Mental needs include education in school. They also include learning outside of school—learning from our experiences and people in our lives.
• Emotional needs are the needs of our hearts. Here we talk about the feeling part of us, what the Bible calls the “heart.” We all need to know love, hope, and joy in our lives. When we are sad or angry, we need to be able to deal with these feelings in a helpful way. Emotional needs also include feeling good about who we are as individuals—having a positive view of ourselves.
• Social needs are the needs to have relationships with other people. We need to give and receive love and kindness. We need others to support us and care for us, and we help others by caring for them, too. This includes relationships with our families, friends, neighbors, and the community.
• We also have the need to make good choices. Unlike animals, people have the ability to think carefully before they act, to make choices, to plan ahead, and to determine how they will live their lives in the future. This includes making a choice and taking action to carry out the decision.

Development describes the process of how people and communities grow and change over time.

All people—men and women, infants and the elderly—have within them these areas of need. Take a look at your hand. Your five fingers can help you remember these five areas of development. But notice that your fingers aren’t independent—they are connected to your palm. So as you look at your palm, think of your spiritual life. Just as your palm is connected to your fingers, every area of development is touched and controlled by your spiritual life. In other words, every area of your life is spiritual.

The apostle Paul talked about spiritual growth and development in his letter to the church in Corinth:

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. (1 Corinthians 3:6-8)

Spiritual development includes knowing and loving God and having a relationship with him. This can only happen by believing that he sent his son Jesus to die for your sins and asking him to forgive you and make you his child. But as you think about growth and development, remember that it is only God who makes things grow.

Once you have Jesus in your life, you can talk to him through prayer, worship him, and learn about him from reading the Bible and from others who also follow him. World Relief works to empower churches because the church is God’s primary means to promote the spiritual growth of a person.

Spiritual development includes knowing and loving God and having a relationship with him.

We all need many different things in order to grow into the people God intends us to be. But the spiritual part of us is like a light switch: when the switch is on it lights up the whole room. As you grow spiritually it has a positive influence on the other areas of your growth.

As you think of growth, imagine a small seed.

• 3. What does that seed need to grow?
• 4. What kinds of changes occur?
• 5. What does the seed become over time?

Aside from rain and sun, it takes time for a seed to become a tree and to produce fruits. Growth is a process.

We also want to see our families and our communities grow.

• 6. What hopes do you have for your family?
• 7. What changes do you hope will occur?

We have many dreams for the future. It is good to have dreams—they give us hope. By working together, we can help one another overcome difficulties and reach those dreams. We can help one another flourish.

Our seeds are our hopes for what will happen in the future. We want those seeds to grow and become real in our lives and in our communities.

Growing as a Whole Person

It is possible to be physically healed and yet still be plagued by emotional hurts when we are governed by false beliefs.

MR. MAFU

Mr. Mafu had a very nice bicycle. As he rode to work one day the bicycle hit a rock, causing Mr. Mafu to fall off and break his leg. His neighbor, a good friend, took him home and called the traditional healer. The healer said the neighbor brought this evil on Mr. Mafu. The healer also advised Mr. Mafu to go to the hospital. At the hospital the doctor put Mr. Mafu’s leg into a plaster cast. Mr. Mafu kept saying, “It shows you cann...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 Understanding Development
• 2 Understanding Poverty
• 3 God’s Compassion for the Poor
• 4 The Transformation Tree
• 5 Development and Transformation
• 6 Harmful Beliefs and Poverty
• 7 Replacing Harmful Beliefs with God’s Truth
• 8 Relationships and Transformation
• 9 The Church and Poverty
• 10 Reflection and Review
• Acknowledgments
• Leader’s Notes
• Praise for Standing with the Vulnerable
• About the Author
• About World Relief
• More Titles from InterVarsity Press
• Copyright Page