“The western church is on the verge of a major paradigm shift in the way we do our missions and the way we do our service. We’re part of a culture that is extremely generous culture – that is a rich culture, and responds quickly to needs. The church has been in the forefront of that compassion. Every church does mission trips. We send on average approximately 2 million of our members on mission trips every year at a cost approaching 4 billion dollars. We do service projects in the inner city and serve in communities of need. We are very engaged in service and in mission.
However, for all of that compassion, we should be seeing some substantial positive changes in the lives of poor people and communities. The reality is that the poor are poorer. We have made them more dependent, their work ethic has been eroded, and their dignity has been depleted. This is a direct result of the way we have been doing service.”