Welcome to Community Builders

A place for thoughtful content to encourage our growth in loving God and our neighbors.

We are thankful to have you joining us and we hope this blog can stir up some new ideas in you and help contribute to the flourishing of communities all around.

Read below to find out more about our regular contributors, see past posts, and subscribe to our blog.
 
New posts will be sent out to all subscribers on Mondays at 8am and will be available for viewing here on Tuesdays at 8am.

Breaking Cycles of Poverty and Crime Through Compassion

~By Stuart Smith~
It is important in this month’s topic to resist the temptation in thinking that poverty equals crime. And all those in poverty have or will commit a crime of some kind in their life. The truth is every class (socio-economic), race, and culture, has to deal with crime. Rich and poor commit crimes in our cities and neighborhoods.
Most of us have people we can turn to when life gets hard. I know I do.

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August 26, 2025 No Comments

Preventing Crime Through Community

~By Robin Keating~
Poverty can exacerbate crime, but it doesn’t have to. A sense of urgency, a rise in anxiety, and even a wrong expectation of what it takes to be content can all play into the feeling that there is no other choice. Even a loss of hope and purpose in life can contribute to crime.
At Love INC, one of the first and best ways we respond to neighbors who call in is through active listening. Many are calling us as their last hope for help. That tells me that they may be feeling desperate—possibly contemplating choices they would never have entertained in the past. Or, they may be starting to rationalize a poor choice. But we are rarely going to know that when someone is in need. We never assume, we simply listen.

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August 19, 2025 No Comments

Crime and Poverty: God’s Words to the Rich and the Poor

~By Robin Fleming~
In God’s kingdom, extra responsibility is given to those with material surplus and influence to act compassionately, generously, and justly toward those without. God’s people hold their possessions loosely, sharing where there is need rather than accumulating for personal satisfaction. All, regardless of income level, live lives of justice, honesty, and obedience to His ways, and all work as they are able and cultivate contentment. Undergirding it all is a determined trust in God as the faithful, able provider…

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August 12, 2025 No Comments

The Trap: How Poverty and Crime Can Exacerbate Each Other

~By Travis Jones~
I want to start off sharing some song lyrics with you. I still remember the first time I listened to this song and picked up on what was being said. In this song, Derek Minor is describing a family, deeply impacted by poverty, trying to figure out how to survive. The individual who he is speaking for does not have enough food to last them & their family until they get paid next, and so their solution is to turn to crime:

Open up the fridge, open up the fridge
Ain’t nothin’ but old milk and rice again
Got like 10 more days until my check hit
I don’t know how I’m about to feed my kids
Guess I grab the Sig* or the Draco
Run up on whoever till I die or hit my payroll

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August 5, 2025 No Comments

Nobody is a Caricature

~By Travis Jones~
I’m just a lazy bum. I want a handout, a free ride. I’m a stupid drunk, a strung-out junkie. I’m violent, I’m schizo, I’m paranoid. I don’t care about anybody but me. I’m on the street because I want to be. I’m a lost soul…
Maybe I’m many of these things, maybe none at all – what do you people know?

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July 29, 2025 No Comments

LoveINC’s Response to Homelessness

~By Robin Keating~
One of the most significant challenges for those transitioning from homelessness into housing is the need for a new, supportive community. In our experience, newly housed neighbors often face unfamiliar obstacles—paying bills…

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July 22, 2025 No Comments

About the Community Builders Blog:

In this blog, we are going to explore topics around the issues of poverty and how we experience these aspects of poverty as well as how we can, as a part of the global Church, bring about change to help our neighborhoods become whole.

Each month we will cover a different aspect of poverty and discuss what the problem is, how we see and experience it, and how we can address these different aspects of poverty as the church in a given community.

We will have guest writers as well who will contribute their thoughts, experiences, and insights on the various topics.

Ultimately, we who write and maintain this blog are not coming in as experts who know everything. No person is the same, no community is the same, and no experience of poverty and its many symptoms are the same. We are simply gathering our collective knowledge based on our experiences and studies, and trying to humbly provide thoughts and insights that will get us all thinking about how we can join together as the church and be who God called us to be as His beloved.

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Stuart has spent over a decade in vocational ministry both in the PNW and overseas where he spent several years studying Scripture and experiencing the global church across different cultures. A native Oregonian, Stuart has been married 28 years to his high school sweetheart. With two children and two dogs they enjoy time in nature and visiting food trucks around the Portland Metro area. Stuart has lived and traveled around the world his favorite memory is tour riding a motorcycle through Italy, Slovenia, and Hungary.
Stuart Smith
Stuart SmithContributor
Robin has lived in California, La Mision, Baja California and moved to Oregon in 2013. Married 3 years, she and her husband enjoy finding ways to engage with neighbors that are fun and build relationships.
Robin Keating
Robin KeatingContributor
Robin grew up in Vancouver, WA. Her experiences include teaching, mentoring, and counseling and she loves connecting and doing life with people. She and her husband have been married 35 years. After raising their four children in the Hillsboro area, they recently moved to a bit of country in Clackamas County. They enjoy reading, hiking, camping, listening to owls, and savoring good coffee roasted by her husband.
Robin Fleming
Robin FlemingContributor
Travis has been in vocational ministry contexts since 2021 and spent 5 years studying Scripture, theology, leadership, and community development at the former Multnomah University. After growing up in California, Travis experienced life on the East Coast, but returned to the West with his wife of 7 years. They have come to enjoy the rainy days of the Portland area and the beauty within and beyond the city. He enjoys challenging and thoughtful conversations, rich and flavorful coffee or tea, good food, learning from different cultures, and the crisp air of the PNW.
Travis Jones
Travis JonesGeneral Editor