The Solution

There are different forms of poverty (see this), but the solution to each of them is the same.

If we are going to define all three forms of poverty as a lack of access to something, then the solution to all three forms is not about giving stuff, but rather about giving access.  The method of giving access in each of these three forms of poverty is ...relationship.

Whether it is the poverty of deprivation, oppression, or alienation, the solution is to connect the people in question to systems of economy, polity, or meaning.  The only real means of connecting people to these systems is through relationship with people who already exist within those systems.  In fact these systems are made up of people an so the only way to connect people to these systems is to connect them to the people.

Part of the vision we have for our church is to be a community of people from different places.  In this way, those who lack social and political power will gain it by being connected with those who have it, and simultaneously, those who lack significance and social meaning will gain it by virtue of being connected to those who have a sense of place and meaning.