Smart Compassion: How to Stop Doing Outreach and Start Making Change
When is doing good not good enough? When does "doing outreach" actually do harm?
Smart Compassion calls Christians to strategic, prayerful, and biblically based approaches to compassion. With evangelical Anabaptist convictions and insights from psychology, Wesley Furlong uses his background as a church leader and nonprofit founder to guide readers through the three aspects of smart compassion needed for families and neighborhoods to flourish: collective empowerment, radical hospitality, and healing presence. In the vein of When Helping Hurts, discover wise strategies that bring Jesus' love to your neighbors. Shift your paradigm from fixing everybody's problems to spending yourself well. Learn how to hold together justice and evangelism, worldly wisdom and divine revelation, action and prayer.
For anyone who wants to make a difference but doesn't know how, Smart Compassion offers a contagious vision and practical steps for real change.
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"We are called to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength--but too often, we forget to engage our minds. Furlong's new book is sobering and enlightening, a call to cultivate love and justice as we actively love our neighbors. Ultimately, Smart Compassion teaches us to love as Christ has loved us, bringing holistic transformation to our hearts and our minds."
--Peter Greer "Reviews""Wes Furlong's work and writing combines great storytelling with insights and applications that will transform people and places. The concepts of healing presence, radical hospitality, and collective empowerment are a Christ-centered framework for life, church, and community transformation. A book worth reading, but even more worth living."
--Brian D. Bennett "Reviews""Smart Compassion captured my heart from the moment author Wes Furlong asked us to consider this central question of how to spend your life well on behalf of others. Through careful examination of Scripture and practical steps, he invites and challenges us to consider what 'doing better' looks like. A great read!"
--Beth Guckenberger "Reviews""One size doesn't fit all when it comes to engaging needs in the people around us. Furlong's work gives practical advice on how to customize your response appropriately so that people are genuinely helped. This insight will both free and fire you up! Your community will be glad you read this book!"
--Reggie McNeal "Reviews""Furlong shows us the way to act on the prayer that Jesus gave us: We want your kingdom to come here and now, in this particular place and in me, as it is in heaven. If you really do want that prayer answered, read this book."
--Richard Kriegbaum "Reviews""Smart Compassion puts love for one's neighbor into shoe leather. Our life in faith is to be relational, first with our Lord but in turn with all whom we meet. This is a stimulating read."
--Myron Augsburger "Reviews"
