The Kingdom continues to expand.
Deacons in the two new churches become highly skilled in caring for poor people who live among them. They take responsibility for caring for all poor people living in the area where the four churches have been established, regardless of whether they are a Christian. They have effectively established an alternative social welfare system (S). This will be really important when state welfare systems collapse.
Christian families are required by the scriptures to provide financial support for family members who fall on hard times. However, a family-centric welfare system is not a total solution. Some families have sufficient resources to care for the weaker members of their families, but many other do not. The problem is that dysfunction does not strike evenly, but is concentrated in some families. They will need from the outside. Many like Jack have no family or have fallen out with it.
The traditional family managed inter-generational wealth transfers efficiently, without the intervention of the state. Parents cared for children when they were young, and children provided for their parents when they grew old. This worked well, because parents have their greatest earning power, when their children need expensive tertiary education. The children have their best earning power, when their parents are old and dependent on them.
The modern social welfare state has created problems by shifting wealth between generations without thought for the consequences. New retirement benefits are usually excessively generous to the current generation, while later generations are left to pay the bill. This problem is currently coming home to roost for many western nations, as they work their way through large unfunded pension liabilities.
At the same time a whole range of social changes have broken the bonds that held our wider families together. Often we do no know each other well, so we are not in a position to support each other. Christian community will have to be restored so that families can provide economic support for each other in times of need (Acts 11:27-29).
Some people believe that we need the government to care for us if we fall into poverty. This is a false hope. The state will never resolve poverty, because its solutions create dependence. Governments have put enormous resource into caring for the poor, but their efforts have tended to increase the extent of poverty in the world. Despite 70 years of increasing taxation and hundreds of new social welfare programmes during a period of unprecedented economic growth, the state has failed to solve poverty.
A solution that has failed so consistently should be rejected. We should avoid solutions that take a large share of income to do something so ineffective.
A variety of options are available to people who fear falling into poverty.
The bible provides options that actually work. Families should be the primary means of support. Deacons, poor loans, gleaning and sharing are effective methods for dealing with short-term poverty, if families fail. The gospel is the best solution to long-term poverty, because it changes attitudes and capabilities.
