In October 2011, a transformative book hit the scene. Bob Lupton had penned Toxic Charity: How the Churches and Charities Hurts Those They Help and How to Reverse It. The book shined a light on the ways traditional charity models typically failed to alleviate poverty,...
We talk about how innovation undergirds all of our initiatives here at FCS. We stay innovative by doggedly pursuing a mission greater than the needs of our organization: the flourishing of South Atlanta. From experience, we know that by choosing a mission greater than...
“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.” ~ Desmond Tutu When I first ran into this quote, I laughed out loud. I didn’t laugh because the quote is funny, but rather...
“Program is our native tongue,” the missions pastor told me. Her words caused the gears in my brain to realign and click together. After meeting with countless groups who deeply desire to love and serve their neighbors, but struggle in many ways to do so, the metaphor...
Charity is often the result of, well, charitable feelings prompting someone to act on behalf of someone else. It seems obvious: Someone needs something. I have that something. I give them that something, and they now have what they need. Problem solved. What we are...
Have you ever wondered how to recognize a flourishing community? In this journey of being a Change-Maker, sometimes it helps to see an example of what holistic success really looks like. Over the last forty years as a part of FCS, we’ve refined our vision of what it...
Every community of faith we have ever worked with knows, without a doubt, THAT the Bible calls us to respond to poverty, but very few of them have much clarity on what it says about HOW. Let me explain. The Good Samaritanization of Poverty Alleviation I never would...
If you’ve been following our series on flourishing or explored Seeking Shalom, you know that flourishing is the meaning and measure to our approach to community development. Today, we want to dig a little deeper and talk about why flourishing matters so much in...
How Human Flourishing Works Human flourishing is the end-goal of all holistic neighborhood development work. When we say flourishing, we mean when individuals and neighborhoods are living with joy, purpose, connection, and autonomy. Systemic inequity disrupts...
Flourishing in place is the end goal of all of our community development work. We want everyone to Flourish in Place. It’s why we exist at the Lupton Center – to equip change-makers to build neighborhoods that thrive. Any work we do in development or ministry or...