Empowering Action

Empowering Action desires to see communities transformed by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The way we understand poverty informs how we act to alleviate it. As followers of Christ, our Biblical Worldview dictates that we find both our diagnosis and treatment of all problems in the world in Scripture, specifically The Fall in Genesis 3.

As John MacArthur stated in his sermon “The Breadth and Depth of Sin,”

“People who don’t understand the Fall cannot diagnose properly the human dilemma…It is impossible to understand man’s behavior if you do not understand that it is all a product of sin. And all sin in the world is a result of what happened in Genesis 3…. In fact, it is arguably the most important chapter in the Bible because it explains why the rest of the Bible tells the story of redemption.”

Poverty isn’t merely a lack of material things – it’s rooted in broken relationships with:

God,
Self,
Others,
And Creation.

We were created to glorify God, reflect His image, love one another, and steward the rest of creation. But the fall and sin marred what God originally created. As a result, none of us are experiencing the fullness of what God intended for us. (Chalmers.org)

Without an emphasis on the Gospel, we are simply treating symptoms versus the underlying cause of poverty. Because The Fall resulted in brokenness in all men, the first step in walking alongside our low-income brothers and sisters is embracing our own need for Christ’s healing work in our lives.

EA exists to serve the local church. We believe that it is simply impossible to alleviate poverty – in its fullest sense – apart from the local church.

As we seek to serve and empower the local church, our efforts focus on facilitating growth through leadership development of pastors and lay leaders in three areas:

– Personal Character
– Theological Competency
– Ministry Capacity

We find motivation for our mission in the following passages:

“Keep watch over yourselves [personal character/theological competency] and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God [ministry capacity], which He purchased with His own blood.” (Acts 20:28)

“And David shepherded them with integrity of heart (character); with skillful hands (competency/capacity) he led them.” (Psalm 78:72)

Our methodology to accomplish our mission focuses on 4 In-house Core Competencies:

– K242 Church Network Development – A systematic leadership discipleship process, to build capacity within local church leadership, in order that they might facilitate growth and service as the body of Christ in their communities.

– Abundant Life Poverty Reduction Program – A church-based 16-week initiative where the local church is trained to assist community members in learning simple solutions in health and economic empowerment, based on the foundation of Christian values.

– Genesis Family Life Program – We seek to break the cycle of physical and spiritual poverty by partnering with churches and parents to raise a generation that both knows the Lord and the things he has done. (Judges 2:10)

– Church-based Savings Groups – A church-facilitated initiative addressing personal financial management, in which participants also study scripture, pray, and fellowship together, experiencing social and spiritual restoration. (Implementation 2018)

Empowering Action was founded in 2012. Short-term mission trips around the globe were the impetus to form an organization to partner with the local church to combat spiritual and physical poverty in the developing world.

In developing our strategic vision, the EA team recognizes the increasing biblical illiteracy within evangelicalism and the priority of faithful biblical teaching and leadership development within the global church.

Additionally, we recognize the difference between aid and development. While we believe that there is a time and place for the church to come to the aid of the suffering world, our objective is to avoid creating a state of dependency amongst the poor. Our work as an organization is focused on developing and empowering communities so that they may live on their own accord and earn their own living, independent of foreign aid.

Our ability to leverage a network of over 1,000 churches makes our efforts cost-effective, and therefore sustainable over the long-run. In addition to our in-house core competencies, we have formed strategic partnerships that help make other facets of our work possible. The leaders in each of these organizations share our passion for international ministry and offer invaluable support to our team. It is our hope that we can continue to build capacity within the local church, by equipping the saints (Ephesians 4:12-13), in order to meet the physical and spiritual needs of communities, through these partnerships.

EA now impacts over 33,000 impoverished individuals each year in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba. Demand for our programs continues to grow throughout the developing world.

Through resourcing and mobilizing our expanding network, Empowering Action is poised to facilitate large-scaled transformation of impoverished communities.

Because our model is both scalable and replicable Empowering Action is positioned to expand to additional Caribbean and Latin American countries, and beyond, in the years to come, as the Lord wills.