Our Approach
At E4, we believe the initial step is education. Fundamentally, change begins with knowledge that influences the heart, and this is where change starts to occur. We want to raise awareness about the issues of poverty. We want to encourage people to play a part in God’s plan to take care of those in need. Then, we connect these people to each other and form partnerships where we can all work together to transform communities for Christ around the world.
We strive to build servant minded relationships with people who are already serving and working in their own communities to the glory of Christ and his kingdom to come. This is where our engage piece comes in. It is our goal at E4 to be connectors of people from both the west and the developing world. We create partnerships and relationships with like-minded people who are striving for the same positive change in communities. Each of us has a role to play in the efforts to alleviate poverty, and it is best done together in relationship with local church leaders and organizations.
At E4, we believe that the local church and community leaders must take the lead in all projects. We are there to come alongside them to help equip them with resources, knowledge and additional labor through sending short-term teams. By doing this, we can supplement their long-term programs and projects and be an example to the world of how the members of the body of Christ serve each other. We base this off of Ephesians 4:12, “to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up”.
Our ultimate goal is to empower our local ministry partners. We walk with the local faith leaders in a community through a process that will create a sustainable and physical benefit to the people. Through this process, we also establish relationships that empower the local people to work together for the good of their own community. Our hope is that our local ministry partners will replicate this process in other parts of their country and the world.
Educate
Raise awareness about all issues related to poverty and present people with ways to affect change through holistic ministry approaches.
As followers of Christ, we cannot pick and choose what we want from the Bible. We must accept all of God’s word as truth and that it expresses the heart of God. Since there are over 2,000 verses that deal with poverty and injustice of people in the Old and New Testament, we must acknowledge that Christ’s heart bleeds for the poor and oppressed. Jesus spent much of his ministry on earth teaching on the subject and helping those in need – it is who He is and it is who we must be if we follow Christ.
Our goal at E4 is to chase after the heart of God and the redemptive plan that he has for all people. This includes reaching out to people worldwide who are physically, spiritually and emotionally poor. We strive to understand and respect the circumstances of each individual community in which we work. We partner with national churches and faith organizations that are already working within their own communities. They know the specific needs of their people, as well as the abilities, assets and resources of their local community.
“God cannot lead you on the basis of information you do not have” — Ralph Winter, missiologist
At E4, we believe the initial step is education. Fundamentally, change begins with knowledge that influences the heart, and this is where change starts to occur. We want to raise awareness about the issues of poverty. We want to encourage people to play a part in God’s plan to take care of those in need. Then, we connect these people to each other and form partnerships where we can all work together to transform communities for Christ.
At the same time, we believe that E4 has much to learn. We want to learn from our partners in every way possible. We have learned from experience that communities can only be effectively changed through local leadership. We stand behind our partners, and work to support them as we match up skills, resources and ideas to work together for their communities.
We believe that education is the foundation for the E4 process. With core knowledge and understanding, individuals involved in E4 are ready to engage with one another to take the next steps.
Engage
Connect leaders throughout the world to defend the cause of the poor and needy. We can serve God and others more effectively together than we can on our own.
Our ultimate goal is to be Christ-like in all that we do. We want to make ourselves servants to others, always putting others before ourselves. How do we do this in another culture? Through building servant minded relationships with people who are already serving and working in their own communities to the glory of Christ and his kingdom to come.
“Each Christian has a unique set of gifts, callings and responsibilities that influence the scope and manner in which to fulfill the biblical mandate to help the poor”.1
It is our goal at E4 to be connectors of people from both the West and the developing world. We create partnerships and relationships with like-minded people who are striving for the same positive change in communities. Each of us has a role to play in the efforts to alleviate poverty, and it is best done together in partnership with local church leaders and organizations.
Relationships take time, and this can slow down the process for projects. However, without having first established relationships, commitment and buy-in from the community we are working with, nothing will have lasting impact. A project must have leadership and involvement at all levels from the local people.
1Steve Corbett, and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts. How to Allieviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor…and Yourself (Moody Publishers, 2009) p. 14
Equip
Bridge the gap between available resources (people, financial and technological) with the needs of impoverished communities
Once we have built relationships within a community, together we can assess the needs that the community leaders believe exist. We look to these leaders to determine what assets and resources the community has, and what abilities are within their own environment. Many people will volunteer their time and abilities to projects associated with their church or community. Also, local people can be hired to work on projects, instead of bringing in outsiders.
At E4, we believe that the local church and community leaders must take the lead in all projects. We are there to come alongside them to help equip them with resources, knowledge and additional labor through sending short-term teams. By doing this, we can supplement the long-term programs and projects and be an example to the world of how the members of the body of Christ serve each other.
We also know that lack of funding is often the reason great ideas cannot be put into place. We fund projects started by the national church or other local faith based organizations that meet our aforementioned criteria.
We want to encourage people in both the West and the developing world to offer their talents and resources to further the work of God’s Kingdom. In partnership, we can serve together to better communities.
“Someone once said, “God does not call the equipped, he equips the called” Saying that we are not clever enough, good enough, or talented enough to serve God is just making excuses. All of us have something God can use…The question is whether we will offer whatever we have to His service”.1
1Richard Stearns, The Hole in Our Gospel World Vision Inc, 2009. p.91
Empower
Our ultimate goal is to help our local ministry partners create sustainable solutions, and see them replicate the E4 process in other impoverished nations.
“From participation to empowerment – if the development story belongs to the community, then local participation is demanded as an acknowledgement of this fact. If poverty is in part a reflection of the marred identity of the poor, then participation is essential to any effort to restore their identity. If we agree that there are already resources within the community, then participation is the logical means by which this knowledge can be discovered and can become part of the development process. If we have the humility to know that we do not know enough to do someone else’s development for them, then seeking local participation is the only safeguard against our doing unwitting damage. By any measure, local participation is a critical success factor for transformational development.”1
This is our end goal at E4. We walk with the local leaders in a community through a process that will create sustainable solutions. Through this process, we also establish relationships that empower the local people to work together for the good of their own communities. We work toward transformational development where people and communities have improved lives physically, spiritually and emotionally.
1Bryant L. Meyers, Walking with the Poor, Principles and Practices of Transformational Development Orbis Books, 1999, p. 147
