Devotionals, Courses, and Studies

We recognize that every individual and each community lives and operates within systems and that these systems can be transformed through our engagement with church, businesses, governments and wider civil society. When we hear about people like Jumana in Chad, we know we want to respond. So how can we get involved ourselves?

Poverty is everywhere we go. But the Bible tells us that God is working to redeem and restore His whole creation. In John 10:10 Jesus says: ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’ This life of ‘wholeness’ encompasses all aspects of life: ‘being’, ‘having’, ‘doing’ and ‘interacting’. It is inherently relational. Whereas discussions of well-being are often linked to maximizing one’s own potential, the biblical notion of shalom (‘peace’) is about the well-being of the whole community, and the individual within it. Shalom cannot exist where there is no justice and righteousness.

Poverty is intricately linked to the social and systemic consequences of broken relationships between God, people and wider creation. We see that poverty comes from a distorted understanding of self, which affects how we interact with other people, with wider creation and with God. God is working to redeem and restore the whole of creation, and we believe that as God’s people, we are called to be part of this, responding to poverty holistically by seeking to restore relationships.