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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.

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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.

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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!

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Henry Ossawa Tanner—Study for "The Thankful Poor" 1894

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.

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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.

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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…

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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.

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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?

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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…

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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…

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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…

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How to Best Help COVID Orphans

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?

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How Mothers’ Hearts Alleviate Poverty and Prevent Family Separation

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?

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When Helping Hurts in Christian Orphan Care

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?

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Grace Chapel

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.

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Ministry at Scale Podcast

Innovating the Kingdom

How can we shift our approach to helping people in poverty from giving people stuff to addressing broken relationships? 

Tabitha Kapic, Director of Innovation at the Chalmers Center, recently appeared on the Ministry at Scale podcast to talk about how ministries and nonprofits can use innovation best practices to address the root causes of poverty.

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Bending Your Hiring toward the Poor

Bending Your Hiring toward the Poor

Connecting people with good work is a crucial component of any long-term, sustainable poverty alleviation strategy. Imagine: what would be possible if you were in a position to offer good jobs to people? If you own a business or influence hiring decisions at your job, you may be able to do just that.

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Overcoming Poverty: Keys to Flourishing

Overcoming Poverty: Keys to Flourishing

A few years ago, at a restaurant near Dallas, Texas, a young cashier with Down Syndrome told a customer, “I love my job! It’s who I am!” He enjoyed greeting and seating people, balancing the register at the end of his shift, and seeing people smile as they noshed on their signature sandwiches. This simple…

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