Smart Compassion: How to Stop "Doing Outreach" and Start Making Change

by The Golden Eagles Mardi Gras Indians

Overview

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. 176 Pages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781513800394
Publisher:	Herald Press
Publication date:	02/07/2017
Edition description:	First
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Wesley Furlong is the founder and director of City of Refuge, a network for community transformation, and the director of church development for EVANA, an evangelical Anabaptist network of churches across North America. Furlong holds a master’s degree in theology from Emory University and is working toward a PhD in social work. He and his wife, Bonnie, have three kids and an ever-changing number of foster children. Connect with him at WesleyFurlong.com.

Table of Contents

• Author’s note: Dragging the Piano into the Street
• 1. When Doing Good is No Longer Enough
• 2. Compassion + Wisdom
• Part I: Healing Presence: Become a Conduit of God’s Love
• 3. The Background Moves to the Foreground
• 4. A Love Differentiated
• 5. The Doorway to Healing
• 6. Three Ways to Usher in New Life
• Part II: Radical Hospitality: Extend Your Family
• 7. Babbitt’s Table
• 8. Boundaries and Your Capacity for Chaos
• 9. Hospitality from an Eternal Perspective
• Part III: Collective Empowerment: Open the Right Doors
• 10. A City of Refuge
• 11. Draw the Circle
• 12. To What End?
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• The Author

Editorial Reviews

“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.”

president & CEO of HOPE International and coauthor of Mission Draft - Peter Greer

“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.”

founder and pastor, Overflow Church - Brian D. Bennett

“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!”

cofounder of Back2Back Ministries and author of Start with Amen - Beth Guckenberger

“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!”

author of Missional Renaissance and Kingdom Come - Reggie McNeal

“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.”

president of Fresno Pacific University - Richard Kriegbaum

“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.”

president emeritus, Eastern Mennonite University - Myron Augsburger