I heard it said in Denver last week as we were wrapping up logistics with my friends who work with the marginalized in the downtown area. Too often groups will come in to town from the outside with their matching t-shirts and a mission. They have a limited scope of time and a limited scope of what it really means to be among the poor. They want to do things for the poor so they provide handouts. They want to do things to the poor so they give them what they call the gospel. But the good news doesn’t arrive to the margins when it is done for someone and to someone. That is feel-good news for the giver. It undermines the dignity of the recipient. It is charity in its cheapest form.
Those of us who are bringing students to the margins from the outside must not succumb to a petting zoo philosophy of serving. The evangelical church (or perhaps suburbia all together) may indeed be experiencing a renaissance in terms of its return to the city and to concern for the marginalized. But we must be reminded that plenty of people and great organizations never left the city-- or the poor. And they understand the best practices of reaching those in poverty. You and I do not.
Before you come to serve, you must be careful not to put organizational partners even in a position where they should consider welcoming paternalistic attitudes from the suburbs. Some organizations are bold enough to sniff it out and tell you they are not running a petting zoo. But others are not so bold on this front, especially if you are barking orders down their throat of what your group intends to accomplish. It is our responsibility not to operate in ignorance if we are bringing others into such environments. We must understand that those who live among the poor and work with them know best how to serve them.
The program our gap year students engage in is one of doing things with the poor. The approach values both the dignity in us all as well as the poverty in us all. We are all beautifully created in the image of God. We are all broken and hurting human beings. We all have something we need from each other. We all have something to give to each other. Our partners around the world expect us to arrive with a posture of humility, in the spirit of a student who has come to listen, learn, and love.
When the poor become a petting zoo, both parties are robbed of a genuine experience. The poor cannot see their wealth, and the rich can not see their poverty. When people genuinely arrive in the margins, they will see the dignity in the poor and the poverty in themselves. This exchange does not have to be manufactured. It will simply happen when we come to live life with the poor, not at them. When we come to share in each others brokenness we are both surprised by what we find.
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