In this Episode:

• Compassion works on a global scale and reaches those who live in extreme or abject poverty.
• Compassion has a focus on addressing the needs of children who are the most vulnerable.
• Barry has served with Compassion for 35 years. Allison Allie will become Compassion Canada’s president in October 2019.
• Over centuries, the Church, the Christian community, and community at large have struggled to understand the theology of poverty.
• Most of what we know about poverty doesn’t come from the Bible, but from marketing messages.
• In order to understand poverty, we need to go back to the book of Genesis.
• Adam and Eve had no concept of need. God provided everything they needed. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit there was an effect. From that point on, poverty became the default setting of the entire world.
• Poverty is not just economic – it is a spiritual condition. The answer to poverty must also be spiritual.
• In Luke 4 Jesus said that he came to give Good News to the poor. The Good News was not economic reform, global handouts, or humanitarian efforts. The Good News was the gospel.
• Jesus married the concepts of the Good News and good works. The gospel must be wrapped in good deeds and acts of love and kindness.
• The challenge for the church, missions committee and Christ-follower is to invest in a holistic approach to ending poverty.
• We must not separate poverty from the gospel. The gospel informs our decision making about how we carry out the Great Commission.
• No other single strategy has the power to change people more than the gospel.
• Close attention to focus, strategy, and accountability will revolutionize how churches approach missions.
• Barry challenges missions committees, churches, families, and individuals to not use a “shotgun approach” for missions, but to focus on a particular country, region, type of ministry.
• He also encourages them to have a long term missions strategy, and to have accountability structures that help them determine if their missional efforts are impacting the Kingdom.
• Barry challenges missions committees, churches, families, and individuals to insist that the gospel is never absent in all their missional plans and efforts.
• To learn more, check out the resources at the Compassion Canada website. Barry in particular recommends Step into my Shoes  and Eyes to See.  Barry’s new book “Strategic Compassion: Reuniting the Good News and Good Works in the Fight Against Poverty” is available September 2018!
• To contact Barry, email him at bslauenwhite@compassion.ca