Is our understanding of evangelism counterproductive?

D.T. Niles in his famous book That They May Have Life stated "Evangelism is witness. It is one beggar telling another beggar where to get food".

For many of us, this definition is helpful because it takes a lot of pressure off of the one doing the sharing. All we are required to do is bring people to the source of the food we have found and let the source take care of the feeding part. This makes evangelism about the spiritual and not so much about the material.

Christians are great at talking about Jesus as the bread of life and that God gives spiritual food and the Spirit is that living water from which we drink and do not thirst. But spiritualizing the problems of the world is not very helpful and in fact is a bit counterproductive to the mission of the Church. 

Perhaps the problem that I have with this understanding of evangelism and church work in general is that showing people the location of food is not bringing people out of poverty.

Yes, we show people where the food is. But we also are the ones who are called to help educate and equip the poor so they no longer are dependent upon our directions to the food source.  

Evangelism is the sharing of Good News. And for some people at this point in their life that Good News is Jesus Christ's message of forgiveness and reconciliation. For others at this point in their life that Good News is I know of a place that can get you a job or I will help you find money to go to school. 

Sometimes, many times, the Good News is much more material than we think.