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Helping Without Hurting in Financial Partnership
The Chalmers Center’s Founder and President Brian Fikkert was recently interviewed on the Finish Line Podcast on the topic “When Helping Hurts in How We Give.” The Conversation covered many themes from When Helping Hurts and Becoming Whole—including understanding when to apply relief, rehabilitation, and development in poverty alleviation as well as how to flip…
Love Your Church Within Its Limits: Why accepting a congregation’s shortcomings is key to developing its strengths
By Kelly M. Kapic Church can be so disappointing. We want it to be healthy and vibrant, growing and missional, faithful and generous, but we often see more problems than triumphs, more fear than courage, and more weakness than strength in our local congregations. We are not always an attractive lot. When we look outside…
The Art of Conversation in Poverty Alleviation
Listening is different from simply hearing. We can all think of times when we heard someone tell us something, but because we weren’t listening, we didn’t really process what the speaker was saying in such a way that we were able to respond well or act on it.
Discovering Care for Community Partnership
Often, doing the work of finding out what people care about is “success” in and of itself, because it demonstrates commitment to people and places and focuses on mobilizing existing resources rather than bringing in just one more outside program.
Listening and Learning
When you prioritize listening to people you hope to serve, you’ll discover that there is a lot going on in every community already. You’ll see that God really is at work, and people really do have good ideas of what they want for their families and their future.
Prayer and Poverty Alleviation—Part 2
Jesus Christ is the only one who can enable true poverty alleviation. Among the many implications of this truth is that we should be praying—a lot!
Prayer and Poverty Alleviation—Part 1
As we go forth to work in Christ’s kingdom, we must recognize that because Jesus is King, His story of change, not the deceptive stories of false gods, is the only one that actually works in His realm.
Audio: Brian Fikkert Plenary Talk at ETS
On November 18, 2021, the Chalmers Center’s Founder and President Brian Fikkert was invited to deliver a plenary address at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Fort Worth, Texas. His talk was recorded and is now made available here.
Watch Now: Improvising the Kingdom
Chalmers’ Founder and President Brian Fikkert and Director of Innovation Tabitha Kapic hosted a conversation on February 16 around how to apply a biblical framework for poverty alleviation to improvise God’s kingdom and foster real change in your community. — Want to learn more? Unleash your church or nonprofit to create a new or…
The Incarnation and Poverty Alleviation
Poverty is complex and multi-faceted. Individual sin, systemic oppression, and even demonic forces can all contribute to poverty. Indeed, the problems are so large that only God can solve them, not a distant God but an incarnate God. The only solution to poverty once lay in a manger.
Why Bother with the Local Church?
Your local church is a place where God dwells with His people in a special way. Is your church welcoming people who are poor back into the dwelling place of God?
Video: Participation *Is* Development
Getting everyone involved in a ministry initiative isn’t just a means to sustainability, but the heart of healthy, transformational development. Researchers and practitioners have found that meaningful inclusion of materially poor people in the selection, design, implementation, and evaluation of any poverty alleviation effort increases the likelihood of its success. Unfortunately, we often pursue approaches…
Helping Orphans Without Hurting: Video and NEW Online Course
We recently hosted a webinar to talk about how strengthening families through savings and other financial services can address the material poverty at the root of most family separation. Watch a recording below: This conversation is the latest in a series of posts on the topic of learning how to provide better care for orphans…
Free Webinar: Helping International Orphans Without Hurting
Caring for orphans and vulnerable children is a foundational way the church expresses Christ’s love to the world (James 1:27). How we seek to help them makes a world of difference. Empowering families through household economic development can help us do this well over the long haul, strengthening families, churches, and communities to address the…
How to Best Help COVID Orphans
One million children worldwide have lost a primary or secondary caregiver during the COVID-19 pandemic. What can Christians do?
How Mothers’ Hearts Alleviate Poverty and Prevent Family Separation
Many children living in orphanages and institutions worldwide have living family members who could care for them—if only they had the necessary opportunities. How can churches and nonprofits empower mothers and families to care for their children?
When Helping Hurts in Christian Orphan Care
How we help vulnerable children makes a world of difference. How can we support the care of children in ways that strengthen families, churches, and communities?
Refocusing Ministry Through Innovation
When we’re walking with people in poverty, we sometimes want a recipe to follow. But real-life complexities often demand a more innovative approach. Hear how one local church has started shifting from meeting material needs to building relationships with people.