Asset-Based Church-Driven Development

For many decades, non-governmental organizations have been involved in community development in significant ways. From water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) initiatives to educational, healthcare, and food programs, evangelical local and international non-governmental organizations (respectively NGOs and INGOs)1 believe that the extension of the gospel is more than a spiritual exercise, but a physical one as well. Following Jesus’ pattern of ministry, “teaching . . . and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction” (Matt 9:35), this emphasis has championed the cause of marginalized children and women. In addition, it has helped lift families out of economic and spiritual poverty as evangelical NGOs have joined with God in His work of transformation of the social situations in communities around the world.

Through their work, NGOs have focused not only on addressing specific social problems, but also on empowering national workers in efforts that address constructive solutions to existential challenges. Such empowerment has resulted in the local identification of needs as national workers and resource partners stood in the gap to provide human and financial resources to ensure the construction of schools, churches and hospitals, drilling of bore holes for clean water, assistance in the education of children, and much more. The change in a community is immeasurable and ongoing, yet not without challenges.

There is little doubt that individual lives have been impacted by these initiatives. However, two matters emerge in regards to the manner in which community development is approached. First, in many cases, the question of long-term local solutions has been overlooked by solutions adopted from the West with the unintended consequence of inevitable infrastructure deterioration forcing locals to either abandon projects or re-engineer, repair or rehabilitate projects with inferior materials (bore hole rehabilitation, school repairs, church maintenance, technology upgrades, and so on). This seems to indicate that, while Western evangelical hearts are rightly motivated by meeting tremendous need, methods of addressing those needs are frequently not sustainable in contexts where local industry and technology cannot support Western solutions. Though local communities often contribute in significant, non-monetary ways, the structures and systems that have been established are often dependent on Western financial and technological capacity.

Second, in many places around the world, particularly in remote access areas, NGO and church outreach initiatives present an opportunity for asset-based church-driven development. While NGOs depend on a “brand” recognition for fund raising which demands not only their presence on the ground but also their hands-on activity, coming alongside of local churches who represent the human resources for sustainably leading to local solutions is often unrecognized. Acknowledging that many churches and new church initiatives have ongoing relationships with people in their communities is in the strategic interest of NGOs as they advance long-term, locally sustainable community development initiatives.

With these two matters in mind, the purpose of this chapter is to outline the benefits of an Asset-Based Church-Driven (ABCD) Development strategy. ABCD Development is derived from the Asset Based Community Development approach popularized by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett in When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor and Yourself (2014). Historically, Asset Based Community Development emerged out of the work of the Asset Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University. This community development strategy has a relatively short, but highly successful history of involving local citizens in the assessment of their own abilities to meet the needs they identify. Such a development strategy focuses on what the community itself can offer through inherent skills and abilities corresponding to what the community identifies as priorities for change. Simply stated, Asset-Based Community Development, “genuinely empowers citizens and strengthens government and agency effectiveness by drawing on local residents’ resources, abilities, and insights to solve their own problems” (Russel and Smeaton, 2016:5).

The most apparent difference between Asset-Based Community Development and Asset-Based Church-Driven Development is the focus on the local church or Christian community becoming the mechanism through which community development takes place. This ecclesio-centric approach ensures a continuing relational and spiritual component to development since the church works in the community and naturally has access to community assets. The ultimate objective is the demonstration of the gospel as much in its verbal proclamation as its practical application. It is the hands-on outworking of the church as God’s instrument to declare His manifold wisdom to a community (Eph. 3:10). In this way, the church becomes the center of community development and intrinsically advances the mission of God. Asset-Based Church-Driven development values individuals in the church and in a community, raises their dignity as being able to identify and address their own needs, increases the status of the church in the community, and frees up resources to continue to fulfill the commission of Christ to make disciples of all people groups (Matt 28:18-20).

In the past, NGOs have traditionally focused on needs-based assessment for implementing strategies to provide aid in the developing world. Critics of needs-based development often point to dependencies on outside financial resources which are created for the continuation of programs addressing social issues (Stanford, 2015). Such outsider resources have resulted in a form of neo-colonialism as well as has created community dependencies on foreign help to take care of the perceived problems of a local community or country. These so-called adaptive vulnerabilities, defined as “the condition of dependence on the resources availed by NGOs, without achieving a livelihood threshold independent of NGO support” (Assal, 2008:3) plague the developing world.

Over the past three decades, NGOs have increasingly moved away from a Western-centric model of outside expertise to a local model. While attempts are made to work locally by employing local experts, often their expertise is due to Western training where needs are identified and assessed according to a needs-based model. Even though locally led, the result of such needs-based community development continues to be the creation of systems and programs that are not sustainable due to outside neo-colonial solutions. Not only are they not sustainable, they have created situations that perpetuate dependency. Such a needs-based approach has long-term unintended consequences on a community.

Not long ago, I traveled to a majority world country for the dedication of a school building. The US donors invested nearly $80,000 in the construction of what is considered a state-of-the-art facility for a remote village. Prior to the intervention of a national NGO in partnership with the US donors, the community had identified the need for a facility for secondary school children, and had taken the initiative to construct thatched roofed, open-air classrooms to accommodate a growing teenage population. Upon hearing stories of snakes dropping through the thatch, and high winds blowing the structures down, the NGO shared the vision for a new concrete block facility—complete with electricity for computers—with a US church and solicited financial contributions to meet the need. Upon the completion of the structure, the donors were invited to attend an auspicious ceremony that included village dignitaries as well as a representative from the ministry of education, which would eventually take ownership of the school. During his speech, the village chief expressed profound thanks for the contribution of the donors and acknowledged God’s answer to their prayers. In conclusion, he quoted from Charles Dickens, “In the words of Oliver Twist, ‘we want more’” in reference to the desire for additional Western funded projects for latrines and other classrooms (see Godrej, 2014 and Barrett, 2006).

Outside solutions, even when rightly motivated by need and initiated by national NGOs, often result in creating expectations and negative dependencies – a “we want more” mentality. Such unintended consequences lead to a self-perceived deficiency in community members. When a community relies upon the help of outsiders, they slowly develop the perspective that they are incapable of meeting their own needs due to a lack of expertise in areas where needs have been identified by outsiders. In his study of unintended consequences, Christopher Barrett notes,

The undesirable aspect, “negative dependency,” arises when meeting current needs comes at the cost of reducing recipients’ capacity to meet their own basic needs in the future without external assistance. Negative dependency typically arises when individuals, households or communities alter their behavior in response to the provision of assistance that unwittingly creates disincentives to undertake desirable behavior (e.g., to grow a crop, or to allocate time to work). (Barrett, 2006:2)

As a result, a community can become frustrated and disappointed in themselves as a perception of powerlessness emerges about their abilities to attend to their own needs. Additionally, a community might become inoculated against the idea that they do have inherent capacities to solve their problems–like building thatch roofed structures for school. As dependency on Western or even national external resources continue, a condition is created whereby a community first looks to the outside for solutions to community problems rather than to assets from within the community to provide for solutions. This approach to addressing needs defines the community by its limitations and lack of capacity to care for itself. Ultimately, needs-based development can be demoralizing to a community and might even perpetuate unwarranted vulnerabilities. In such cases, the poor are often perceived to be incapable of coping with their situation and therefore in need of outside help (Makoka and Kaplan, 2005:29).

In other cases, particularly those where technical knowledge of infrastructure development is essential for the safety of a community, Western training can be a tremendous aid. For example, in earthquake prone Haiti where faulty building practices reduced costs of construction by utilizing less steel reinforcement in concrete structures or compromised concrete by using less cement in batches, proper training is essential. There is no doubt that expert assessment and inspection of construction techniques would have reduced the impact of the devastating 2010 earthquake which killed more than 250,000 people. Nevertheless, inferior techniques continued to be employed even under the auspices of NGOs. In 2014, while developing estimates for an earthquake resistant housing development for a large NGO with a long history in Haiti, I was directly informed by the expat project manager that if we were not able to build houses in a certain price range expected by the NGO’s donors, then there would be another company who would. The implication was that some local companies would willingly compromise international building standards in order to win the contract. While the NGO correctly assessed the need for housing, their lack of technical expertise to ensure that contractors would build according to international building code was of less concern than donor funding.

NGOs ultimately are businesses with business models to safeguard proper function as well as ensure sustainability. As in all forms of business, NGOs require financial capital to remain solvent. This capital is largely acquired by generous donations from individuals as well as grants from foundations and governments. To secure and maintain funding, reports are internally generated naturally describing the success of projects. Whether willingly or not, NGOs rarely report negative impact or misuse of funding (see George, 2006). In the case of Haiti, donors would certainly not be informed about the poor construction practices employed in the building of the housing they funded. Unfortunately, even in the work of humanitarian aid, money is a driving motivator of NGOs as poverty keeps them in business (Witt, 2016, see Moss, Pettersson, and van de Walle, 2006).

A shift away from a needs-based development that propagates dependencies to an asset-based church-driven development approach, then, is in order. Such an approach has inherent strengths and benefits for the community. ABCD Development honors indigenous capacity to solve community problems. It not only creates community dignity, but also demonstrates community value as the first investors in addressing identified challenges. ABCD Development provides the community with ownership of the solutions which naturally leads to long-term sustainability.

ABCD Development is a hybrid model of the needs-based and asset-based approaches with the church at the center of community development. As a community entry strategy, it holds promise for effectively coming alongside of community members to show them the hands of Christ while taking the opportunity to be the voice of Christ as well. ABCD Development has the goal of raising the dignity of a community by recognizing the inherent value each person can play in providing solutions to community needs.

At the forefront of ABCD Development is the church with the goal that the church–not as an institution; rather as a group of Christ-followers from the community–becomes the organization that the community looks to when needs and opportunities arise. This approach positions the church as the hero of the community rather than the outside experts and NGOs. It makes the NGO and its partners, whether mission organizations or the US churches, the servant of the local church rather than the champion of the community.

This approach positions the church as the hero of the community rather than the outside experts and NGOs.

ABCD Development first distinguishes between problems that are immediate and unattainable with local resources from those that can be met with the assets available from within the community. Through an asset-based church-driven assessment, the church can determine existing human and financial resources that can be strategically utilized to address community problems. By identifying these resources, a church is able to develop immediate strategies to enhance income earning capabilities while addressing identified opportunities that will meet a community need.

As an entry strategy for new church planting efforts or reaching unengaged unreached people groups, ABCD Development initiates the engagement with the community from a posture of a servant to the community. In some communities where people are antagonistic to Christianity, ABCD Development can act as a bridge to developing relationships and building trust as community leaders are valued and dignified as the outsider acknowledges their inherent capacity to care for their own challenges. ABCD Development’s objective is not to impose the gospel on people as the hope is that the actions of ABCD Development workers who are Christ-followers will pave the way for the establishment of a body of believers in the community.

In situations where identified challenges present obstacles limited by a lack of assets, an NGO or US church takes a position as a servant to the local church and stays in the background of the engagement by offering training for the church planter and/or community worker as well as other material and financial resources that will assist in community engagement. That partnership can be hands on as long as the church remains the champion of the community. This process begins with a rigorous agenda to understand the community on a deep level called asset mapping (see below).

In a South Asian country, my team met with a group of Christian leaders to discuss how they might effectively engage their communities with the gospel. We shared the inherent value of work and dignity of people created in the image of God as foundational to any community development activity. This included an exercise to ascertain the assets already present in two small churches. Over the course of our day-long conversation, the community leaders identified several areas where individuals in their churches could be empowered and catalyzed to engage their communities by meeting identified needs with the resources they had within their church while taking the opportunity to communicate the gospel. They ultimately owned the solutions to long-term community development which they determined to meet both the physical and spiritual needs of their communities.

One tool utilized by asset-based community development is the asset map.2 An asset map can be comprised of six categories: individuals, physical space, local economy, associations, institutions, and stories. The importance of the map lies in the ability for the assessment team from the local church to understand the community at a profound level. It is then that a team can coach a community in capitalizing on the identified assets and chart a program that will encourage development.

Individuals

A proper assessment of individuals will determine how church resources can be catalyzed to achieve the community’s development goals. People have an amazing propensity for creativity which is to be expected when consideration is given to the fact that we are created in the image of a creative God (Gen 1:26; James 3:9). Their abilities are assets to their communities and when identified and empowered, can be an incredible force for community transformation. The following list identifies some of the skills and talents that might be available in a local church.

• Skilled people
• Business skills
• Farmers
• Leaders
• Businessmen
• Women
• Elders
• Traditional leaders
• Entrepreneurs Activists
• Warriors
• Religious Leaders
• Students
• Child Care and Parenting Skills
• Transportation
• Mechanical and Electrical Skills
• Safety and Security
• Healthcare and Welfare
• Horticultural/Agricultural
• Education and Youth Activities
• Organizational Skills
• Computer Skills
• Food/Catering/Hospitality
• Administration/Office Skills
• Arts and Crafts
• Construction Maintenance Skills
• Cleaning and Other Household Chores
• Music, Theatre and Film
• Literacy and Language
• Pet Care/Animal Husbandry

Physical Space

People, of course, live in spaces. Those spaces are assets to a community just as much as are the individual. Identifying such spaces are key to the implementation of a community development program. Once identified, an assessment can determine if individual assets, the donation or use of private property for example, can sufficiently meet the needs. Most likely they will. However, ABCD Development must also be prepared to step in with nominal outside resources that, when combined with church and community resources, can result in achieving the community development goals; goals that they have determined. For instance, while land might be available for harvesting water, in many places around the world, the ability to dig bore holes for safe water is financially outside of the possibility of the community. At the same time, while drilling for a bore hole is a Western method for obtaining safe water, impact drilling should not be overlooked in places where the water table is high and where water might be cleaned by other means.

• Rangelands
• Pasture grazing fields
• Seasonal streams
• Farm land
• Water source – wells, boreholes, rivers
• Community space

Local Economy

Whether a subsistent economy or a nascent market economy, identifying the means of trade and commerce in a community and their partners, is another key factor in assessing the feasibility of development goals. Assessing what economic engines exist and which ones might be scaled to greater capacity will help the overall well-being of the community.

• Livestock trade
• Charcoal burning
• Sale of animal
• Drugs
• Shops
• For-Profit Businesses
• Business Associations
• Village banks
• Savings Groups
• Micro Enterprises

Associations

Associations are the result of individual networks that focus on affinity areas. These associations often occur naturally. At other times, as a part of community building, associations can be formed for the betterment of the community. A proper assessment will identify existing associations and look for opportunities for new associations that will help the community achieve its development goals.

• Farming co-ops
• Livestock co-ops
• Animal health
• Women groups
• Community savings groups
• Community health
• Youth groups
• Political organizations
• Recreation groups
• Water committees

Institutions

Similar to associations but more structured, institutions are those entities which provide some level of official oversight or expertise for a discipline, business, or area. A few examples of those institutions are:

• Farming
• Market
• Livestock management
• Banking
• Law enforcement
• Schools
• Health facilities – clinics, hospitals
• Religious organizations

Stories

As an assessment is formed, it is important to listen to the stories of people; their backgrounds and history both on an individual level as well as on a community level. Listening to stories of the community expresses interest and care for people as well as respect. It is important to learn how things have been done, what has worked well, and celebrate those achievements with the community keeping in mind that the goal is to raise a community’s sense of dignity. It is also important to learn about economic successes, as well as times of crisis and how the community addressed them. It is here that the assessment will discover who in the community is marginalized or discriminated against and why.

Communities naturally form affinity groups and those groups have specific strengths that work for the betterment of the community. An ABCD Development assessment determines where and what those groups are as a starting point to a strategy to see the church create its own capacity to address their needs. There are often hidden gifts, skills, and talents in a church that when brought together can offer a tremendous resource in a comprehensive community development plan. The underlying belief that communities have the resources to effectively engage in their own development must be engrained in an ABCD Development strategy in order to prevent a colonial mentality which sees communities as deficient and the NGO as the expert problem solver. Below are helpful questions for identifying skills and community building adapted from John McKnight’s “A Basic Guide to ABCD Community Organizing” (2016).

Identifying Skills in the Church

1. What are your skills of the head? What do you especially know about – birds, mathematics, neighborhood history, etc.?
2. What are your skills of the hands? What do you know about doing things– baseball, carpentry, cooking, guitar, etc.?
3. What are your skills of the heart? What do you especially care about–children, environment, veterans, politics, etc.?
4. What clubs, groups and associations do you and your family belong to or participate in?

Community Building Questions

1. What are the skills of the people in the neighborhood and how are they utilized?
2. Where are the places in our community where people gather or could gather if a welcome was offered?
3. What do people in this neighborhood create together?
4. What are the reasons that have gathered neighbors together?
5. What is it in this neighborhood that creates community and how did that happen? Who was involved?
6. How does the neighborhood/community show that we care about each other?
7. What do we do to help keep our streets clean?
8. Where do we spend money that stays in the community, and what more can we do to keep our money local?
9. What does our community do to provide learning opportunities for our children (aside from the school or more professional services)?
10. How do we show our neighborhood children how to be effective citizens?
11. What do we do that involves youth, our older people, and strangers of all kinds?
12. Who are the neighbors who: a) are the creative, gifted storytellers? b) have a great sense of humor? c) have huge amounts of positive energy? d) have the most generous smiles? e) are the natural teachers and guides? f) are the kindest? g) And how can we learn from these people and connect them to our strangers and youth?
13. What local problems are probably un-solvable? How do we recognize these dilemmas and join each other in dealing with limits, tragedy and death?
14. What would this community be like if we were satisfied neighbors rather than frustrated residents?
15. What would have to happen here for our lives to feel gratifying?
16. How would we know what is enough?

The Old Testament book of Nehemiah offers an interesting example of how resources, when properly managed, can play a critical role in community development. In chapter one, Nehemiah learned of the destruction of Jerusalem’s wall from messengers. Being grieved at the shame of his city, he was compelled to go to the king for assistance. The king ultimately granted him leave to attend to rebuilding the wall and also provided resources for the wall to be reconstructed. Having these resources combined with the human resources of Israel gave Nehemiah an unprecedented opportunity for rebuilding the wall in a relatively short period of time. The Israelites did not have all the necessary material resources to complete the task, but they contributed from their own capacity in the efforts to restore the respect of the city.

Asset-Based Church-Driven Development is very similar to the description of Nehemiah’s situation. The need was identified by the citizens (Neh 1:1-3). The essential material resources were secured from outside the community (Neh 2:6-8), and the community was engaged in owning the project because it was their city (Nehemiah 3). They made their investment as much in the sweat of the brow as in securing additional local resources to complete the work. This is a wonderful example of the assets of a community being utilized in conjunction with resource partners in fulfillment of a locally identified project.

Among the key elements of making this project successful was, of course, Nehemiah. He was a leader who listened to those who were in the proximity of the situation (1:2-3). He then shared a compelling story of the need and secured essential resources (2:4-8). Even though the project came to his attention from trusted sources, he personally inspecting the need for the project (2:11-13). Finally, he oversaw the use of the resources for the completion of the project. He did not have to lead the Israelites to complete the project. They were intrinsically motivated to restore the wall because it was their project (4:6). He did occasionally have to inspire them as they faced opposition (2:18-20, 4:1, 14) and his very presence by their side reminded them that he was equally as invested in the project’s completion (4:21-23). It should go without saying that Nehemiah inspires us even more in his unwavering commitment to God. His model of dedication, determination, and devotion are foundational to the success of any evangelical development project.

Non-governmental organization and missions agencies have their own organizational systems and cultures. We must be careful to not impose these structures on the communities we serve. Instead, active engagement in dialogue with a local church and observation of communities while bracketing what we might believe to be the best course of action is critical to the work of community development. We desire to see communities empowered spiritually, economically, nutritiously, educationally, and hygienically. In order for us to be successful, we cannot create unsustainable systems which keep communities reliant upon an outside expert for help. An Asset-Based Church-Driven Development strategy will raise the dignity of communities by seeing their inherent value as they create solutions to the needs they identify.

An Asset-Based Church-Driven Development strategy will raise the dignity of communities by seeing their inherent value as they create solutions to the needs they identify.