Entrepreneurship as a missionary activity is a revolutionary concept that Robert Lupton proposes in this book. He's not talking about the fair trade charities that don't make a profit, but instead, ethically-run corporations that create real jobs and compete in the same marketplace on the same level playing field as every other corporation, including the unethical and unjust ones.

I belong to the minority group that is the least employed and lowest paid in the US. It's legal to pay us less than the minimum wage; it's even legal to pay us 25 cents an hour. My people would be in such a better place if the laws against discriminating against us were enforced, if the minimum wage were required for us, and if the minimum wage was a living wage that would enable you to own a small home/condo, have good medical care, eat healthy food, afford hobbies, and have access to transportation. I can't even imagine how glorious it would be if I weren't actively discriminated against, even by institutions that are required to prove their minority and protected groups hiring numbers.

I have never heard a sermon encouraging every business owner (and boss who is responsible for determining wages) to pay a just wage and treat their employees with justice. I have never heard a preacher say, "What you do to the least of your employees, you do to Jesus. If they can't afford to pay rent on the tiniest apartment on your wages, you are casting Jesus on the street. If you choose to only hire beautiful people, you choose to leave Jesus unemployed. If you don't offer potential employees on-the-job training, you cast aside the Jesus who never got a bachelor's degree, MBA, or doctoral degree." Imagine how different it would be if preachers had the spines to preach these sermons to their affluent congregations!

As a member of the minority group that is targeted the most by eugenicists, I appreciate that Robert says that pretty much everyone has the ability to contribute something to their community. His suggestions of neighborhood watch, phone-chain participants, and praying for prayer requests are all good, though I believe that he could do better. Assistive technology can enable people with ALS, quadriplegia, cerebral palsy, and similar challenges to do many electronic jobs. They can become authors, build websites, do electronic monitoring of video feeds, scroll through spy images looking for anomalies that indicate military activity, do wildlife counts based upon satellite images or drone images, collate and compile information, and many other things. Just because someone works slower than an able-bodied person doesn't mean that you should hire the able-bodied person. For one, employee turnover is ridiculously high for able-bodied people. Disabled people will stick with a job and employer for a very long time, lessening the HR/talent search costs dramatically. Another reason is that disabled people tend to be more thorough in their work and will do anything to be able to keep a good job.

Another topic covered in this book is gentrification which enables the impoverished locals to stay and improve their lives....and not get shoved out of the way to another, more distant ghetto, torn away from all that is familiar. His proven plan for redeveloping a whole neighborhood gets 2 thumbs up from me.

The author ends by considering the thought that American Christians might not want the poor to prosper. Christians worry that the poor might become wealthy, materialistic, and selfish if they cease to be poor. Only wealthy, materialistic, and selfish people will project their own faults on others like this! Robert says that the alleviation of poverty worldwide is possible. Extreme poverty has been halved worldwide in the last few decades. This is entirely due to China and India creating massive numbers of new jobs for their poorest citizens. All it takes to eliminate poverty for a person is creating for them a good-paying job [one that enables them to pay all of their necessary expenses with room for savings]. So simple and yet so few are willing to do it!

I'd give this book 10 out of 5 stars if I could. ( )

The author of Toxic Charity is at it again. Lupton insists that most of the work we do in the name of charity does more harm than good. Proclaiming that the only effective charity is the kind that asks more from those being served, rather than less, he lifts capitalism onto a pedestal and incriminates socialism and philanthropy as building dependency rather than affirming that the recipient also has something of value to offer.

Lupton’s arguments are convincing. His focus is primarily on poor communities, and his conclusion is that the best thing you can do for a person is give him or her a good job. Why capitalism? Only for-profit businesses produce enough wealth to create enough jobs to lift a community out of poverty.

Perhaps the worst thing you can do is give a person a handout. Lupton is presumably a Christian, but he’s not a fan of mission trips. They don’t contribute to local economies: mission trippers come to serve, not consume. They spend their money on airfare and projects rather than on merchandise and excursions. They flood local consumers with free goods, naively undercutting local businesses, the very system locals depend on for their livelihood. The research of a friend of Lupton showed that between 1992 and 2006, a half million workers in Nigeria lost their jobs due to the inflow of donated clothing. But perhaps even worse is the effects of repeated “charity”:

Feed a person once, it elicits appreciation.
Feed him twice, it creates anticipation.
Feed him three times, it creates expectation.
Feed him four times, it becomes an entitlement.
Feed him five times, it produces dependency.

So what can we do for the poor? For one, don’t denigrate big business or the drive for wealth. The hope for such communities is investors, business people with the means and knowledge to build jobs, putting the poor on a path to self-fulfilment. Our church missions should be replaced with fact-finding business excursions.

I can’t say I agree with everything in Lupton’s ideology, but he does make me think differently about some things … and he certainly has the lifelong get-your-hands-dirty experience to back up his findings.

Publisher, © 2015, 196 pages
ISBN: 978-0-06-230726-2 ( )

“Lupton offers a roadmap for turning short-lived good intentions into lasting transformation [and shares] his vision for a new way of doing missions.” (Christianity Today)
“Lupton is one of the sharpest, freshest, sassiest community developers out there. He is helping us all become wiser so that we don’t settle for charity when we could have justice.” (Shane Claiborne, author of Irresistible Revolution)
“When Bob Lupton speaks of the inner city, the rest of us ought to sit up and take notice... [His work is] deeply disturbing—in the best sense of the word.” (Philip Yancey, author of What Good Is God?)