Controlling the Lake: Toxic Charity & what I plan to study

I recently finished one of the best books I have ever read: ToxicCharity – How churches and charities hurt those they help (and how to reverseit) by Robert D. Lupton. 

Among its many great points, the book offers the best description of Community Development that I have yet come across. I hadn’t really heard of community development until I stumbled across the graduateprogram I’ll be starting this fall. Further, most of my friends/family/anyone really, stare a bit blankly when I tell them I plan to study “community development,” so I thought I would provide Lupton’s description of it here: 

Controlling the Lake

Feed a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime. It’s conventional wisdom. 

But what happens when the fish disappear from the lake due to pollution or overfishing? 

Then it’s time for a change of strategy. Someone has to figure out how to get control of the lake: stop the pollutants, issue fishing licenses, put wildlife-management policies in place. Teaching a man to fish is an individual matter; but gaining control of the lake is a community issue. 

That’s why we call it “community development” and not human services. While those of us in community development value personal, hands-on, high-touch ministry, we also see that there are larger issues that have an impact on a person’s potential for growth. What good is job training if the available jobs won’t  enable a man to support his family? Or what benefit is homeownership if the home is in a deteriorating, crime-infested neighborhood? If we are to teach people to both fish and thrive, we must figure out how to make use of the lake’s potential…. (p108-109). 

Later, on page 114, he adds another example: “A microloan may help a family buy a cart to haul their produce but it will not pave a road made impassible during the rainy season – that takes community development.” 

And that is what I want to do: community development….maximizing the potential of figurative lakes :)  I don’t know exactly how but I want to work to allow entire communities to use their assets and abilities to make the most of themselves for their benefit and the world’s. 

Lofty, yes. 

But I am a dreamer and I’m hoping this degree will help me figure out how to make more of these dreams a reality.