We believe human poverty may not only be defined as the lack of goods and services, or lack of access to education and culture. Instead, human wellbeing is not complete if the spiritual dimension is not an integral part of it. It is obvious that men and women addicted to drugs or alcohol will not live better lives if they have more money, and abused women and children will not live in better conditions if just the houses were they live were built with more expensive materials.

We believe that most serious human problems may be explained as a consequence of unhealthy relationships. We have unhealthy communities because they are made up of unhealthy families, and families are unhealthy because they lack moral and spiritual values on which to base child raising methods that would bring forth men and women that are whole (healthy).

As a Christian organization we believe a person’s reconciliation with God is essential for him/her to find the true meaning of life and heal his/her unhealthy relationships. When humans live indifferent to this truth they end up as victims of some kind of tyranny. Regardless of which type, since all tyrannies are bad and based on lies - they are against God’s purposes for people and are inspired by Satan, which the Bible defines as a “liar and the father of lies”. Sex tyranny, money tyranny, violence tyranny, pessimism tyranny, self-gratification tyranny, chaos tyranny, among others, have become paradigms of the Dominican society, and have turned towns, “barrios”, and communities into places where life is ever more difficult, emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

In order to have freedom and wellbeing it is necessary to bring down the lies and reestablish the truth in its place (John 8:32). Satan needs to be dethroned and God needs to be placed on the throne, and this is a task that requires commitment and spiritual preparation, since this is not about taking a stroll around the city, but about fighting a war that needs to be won in all realms where the Devil has a foothold.

It is precisely this conclusion what gave meaning to the reconsideration of AAVI’s (now LSI) mission and strategy to approach poor communities. There is ample biblical foundation to prove the fact that the Church of the Living God, “the pillar and foundation of the truth” can and should fight the war against Satan’s lies that enslave and bring death and destruction to the Dominican society and the rest of the world.

Nevertheless, as clear as the concept of integration may be in the Gospels, the idea that separates the Christian testimony from social action has been widely accepted in the world. In a book published a few years ago “The Local Church: Agent of Transformation” by René Padilla, founder of the Latin American Theological Fraternity, this idea is echoed - a deviation from the teaching of Jesus:

"The separation that modern thinking has made between spiritual and physical realms is part of the explanation of how we have come to an understanding that the Christian testimony, specifically Evangelism, has no connection with community development. Loving God is a spiritual job, while loving the neighbor takes place on the physical world. In this sense, the preaching of the gospel (restoring people’s relationship with God) is a spiritual job, while social action (restoring fair economic, social and political relations among people) is not. On the final analysis, this dichotomy leads Christians to believe God’s redeeming work occurs only on the spiritual realm, while the world, apparently, is left under the works of the devil".

 A spiritual-only vision, which states that hunger, misery, pain, and unfairness are topics that do not belong in the church’s agenda, is driven away from the teaching of Jesus. We wouldn’t be authentic followers of Jesus and his example, if we had a physical-only vision (focusing only on social work). Anyone aiming at approaching the people using one of these two visions would be drastically reducing the message of the Gospel, and this would be drawing this person to a path far away from the path Jesus walked. God is interested in the human being as a whole (body, soul and spirit) and so should be His church.