There are things about me that you'd really have to get inside my head to know. Or have me blurt out here. But even when I write about it, you cannot perceive the full depth of feeling that drives my thinking.

It sometimes annoys a few, but anyone who has watched me over time would understand I am a very driven man -- when I truly commit to something, I doggedly stick to it, even in the face of people who may think my course of action less than wise. I can't say whether this is good or bad -- experience would seem to indicate that it is a little of both -- but it is, nonetheless, who I am.

For literlly decades now, the problem of poverty has plagued me immeasurably. As a Christian, I know that it is my duty to reach out to the poor and needy, and yet, as one who grew up among them, I have had a very hard time trying to figure out where to begin. I have studied various approaches and found all of them almost completely lacking in one area or another. And the current government trend of throwing money at the problem has not only been inadequate, it has, in my opinion, cost not a few lives, as we are essentially giving money to a portion of the population that is not equipped to handle it. It's not prejudice to say that; it is fact. This is why so many in the inner city lack food, utilities, and clean housing, but are more than amply stocked in guns, prostitutes, liquor, drugs, and all manner of other things that destroy, rather than build, their communities; experience has taught them that when their government check runs out there will always be someone with an open arm ready to help them out of sympathy because the government check was "not enough".

As I study the issue of spiritual leadership, I am realizing that a good leader does not solve problems; a good leader equips those under him or her to find the solutions for themselves. If a leader spends time solving all of their followers' problems, their leadership will not live past them; and more to the point, they will find themselves burned out because they have been carrying the burden rather than sharing the burden. The approach to poverty is no different; a lasting approach to poverty would center on building up leaders in impoverished community who can create a vision for their communities and build them up from within. If they do that, they stand a better chance of survival because the leaders will have been taught by example how to build leaders, and the vision can continue with the new leaders.

The answer, then, on how to help the inner cities is NOT to "help" them in the ways to which we have traditionally become accustomed. Welfare benefits are destroying these communities, not building them, and even the best and brightest leaders are burning out in relatively short amounts of time because they have no idea HOW to lead. Ironically, as a Christian, the answer has been right there in front of me the whole time, when I have been told to "make disciples".