Faithful in Small Things: How to Serve the Needy When You're One of Them - Paperback

by Kevin Wiebe (Author), Ronald J. Sider (Foreword by)

How can you help the poor when you can barely pay your own bills?

Pastor Kevin Wiebe grew up below the poverty line, with his mother hunting for change in the couch to buy food for the baby. Wiebe now pastors a "low-resource" church of mostly immigrants--a congregation that transcends definitions of the helper and the helped and that doesn't fit neatly into any stereotype of poverty. In Faithful in Small Things, Wiebe shows readers that writing big checks isn't the only--or even the best--way to alleviate poverty. Along the way, he shines a spotlight on the value of small acts of love as a means of changing the world, and as vitally important to following Jesus.

Investigating scriptural definitions of poverty and God's heart for the poor throughout the Bible, Wiebe calls readers not only to "help the needy" but to acknowledge their own need and to work with God to serve others. By delving into concepts like brokenness, mutuality, dignity, and systemic injustice, Wiebe exposes gaps in the mainstream Christian understandings of economic inequality and explores holistic ways of reducing poverty. In doing so, he provides a better way forward for Christians committed to working for the flourishing of all.
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Jesus ministered to the poor, Jesus was poor. If both are true of our Savior, both can be true of us too.

Back Jacket

How can you help the poor when you can barely pay your own bills?

Pastor Kevin Wiebe grew up below the poverty line, with his mother hunting for change in the couch to buy food for the baby. Wiebe now pastors a "low-resource" church of mostly immigrants--a congregation that transcends definitions of the helper and the helped and that doesn't fit neatly into any stereotype of poverty. In Faithful in Small Things, Wiebe shows readers that writing big checks isn't the only--or even the best--way to alleviate poverty. Along the way, he shines a spotlight on the value of small acts of love as a means of changing the world, and as vitally important to following Jesus.

Investigating scriptural definitions of poverty and God's heart for the poor throughout the Bible, Wiebe calls readers not only to "help the needy" but to acknowledge their own need and to work with God to serve others. By delving into concepts like brokenness, mutuality, dignity, and systemic injustice, Wiebe exposes gaps in the mainstream Christian understandings of economic inequality and explores holistic ways of reducing poverty. In doing so, he provides a better way forward for Christians committed to working for the flourishing of all.

Jesus ministered to the poor, Jesus was poor. If both are true of our Savior, both can be true of us too.

Author Biography

Kevin Wiebe is an Anabaptist writer, pastor, and the creator of Pov.ology, a small-group curriculum on poverty and the churchthathas been used around the world and featured in publications across the U.S. and Canada. Wiebe grew up among the working poor, with parents who had a standing family rule that "there is always room for one more," even as they struggled to get by themselves. He is senior pastor of New Life Christian Fellowship in Stevenson, Ontario, a rural congregation whose members are primarily Mennonite immigrants from Mexico. He has degrees from Providence University College and Conrad Grebel University College and is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Mennonite Conference. He and his wife, Emily, have three children.