John Kirkby (1) (1961–)

The interesting story of the first ten or so years of the charity Christians Against Poverty written by the founder of the organisation.

A good background to the formation of the organisation and the struggles in bringing it all together and keeping it running. Worth a read for anyone in ministry or considering it.

Perhaps the only downside - the story got a little monotonous towards the latter half of the book as many of the challenges written about were financial. The organisation faced death before funds arrived in the nick of time - perhaps repeated once too often in the book. I am sure other interesting things occurred and were worth writing about.

I read the book in an evening and would recommend it.… (altro)

He started as an entrepreneur who overexpanded for himself and lost it all and I feel he continued the same habits for God. The first several chapters are all about his agonising over supplies of money to keep them going interspersed with determination never to stop their headlong flight into expansion. Someone made him pause once but he managed to break free half way through the set time and began expanding again.
The actual method of what they do seems simple. They add up all the debts then phone the creditors and negotiate down the debts with a promise of regular payments for years to come, usually nowhere near the amounts owed. They then work out a budget for the person who hands over all debts to their office which collects regular payment and forwards the money. All this is funded by charity, Trust funds, and donations from clients, they make no charges. Churches support them - basically as a way of supporting the poor.
He certainly threw himself into charity work - starting with a huge mailout to local churches, and a touching suprise that noone else had thought of the name Christians against Poverty! Then is was constant expansion, or living at the edge of faith. But not secretly, he let everyone know about their needs.… (altro)