Skip to Main

Search

Categories

Tags

Posts in “Becoming Whole”

Building Our Communities

People who’ve read When Helping Hurts have often reached out to us to ask, “What’s next?” or tell us “We’re in. Where do we start?” We’ve answered in different ways—in-depth training, a weekly blog, a video library, online courses.

Read More…

When Broken Relationships Come Home to Roost: Thoughts on Christopher Nolan’s 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘥𝘺𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘺

Broken systems shape more than society—they shape us. Reflecting on The Odyssey and the Old Testament prophets, this post explores justice, hospitality, and our call to love our neighbors.

Read More…

Looking Back, Looking Ahead: Where We Are Going in the Summer of ’26

Moving forward well means understanding what’s behind us. With more than twenty-five years to build on, we feel that the Lord is calling us to embark on a new season, one in which poverty alleviation meets deeper conversations, new ideas, and broader community.

Read More…
Woman looking out over a city

We Need a Better Story

We often build poverty alleviation initiatives that are designed to help poor people pursue the American Dream. But what if all of us—poor and non-poor alike—need a different story?

Read More…

Remembering the Bigger Story

Editor’s Note: This week, we’ve invited one of our newest staff members, Elijah Tanner, Director of Strategic Partners, to reflect on some ways his on-the-job learning with us is helping him see how God is at work in our lives and the ways we serve others

Read More…

Generosity for Mutual Flourishing

In a fallen world, we’ve all been shaped by false stories without realizing it. So we often support and create ministries that match our own goals and ideas. But if we are living in the wrong story, we can end up harming ourselves, the ministries we support, and the people they try to help.

Read More…

Generosity in God’s Story

The Chalmers Center’s Faith & Finances curriculum helps churches and nonprofits around North America walk alongside thousands of individuals living material poverty grow in their financial stewardship each year. In each class, participants remember two key themes: 1) Jesus is making all things new, including our money and relationships; and 2) God has chosen to use our money to accomplish His work in the world.

Read More…

Why We Need Ministry Design Principles

Ministry focused on addressing poverty is fundamentally about promoting change. It’s about helping people and communities move to a better situation than their present one. 

Read More…
The Role of Story in Poverty Alleviation

What Story Is Your Ministry Telling?

Unfortunately, several common but misguided stories of change are shaping our lives, including our approaches to poverty alleviation. Our poverty alleviation efforts often do harm because we have unknowingly and unconsciously—yet deeply and destructively—absorbed misguided stories of change from our culture.

Read More…
The Five Causes of Poverty: Individual Brokenness

The Five Causes of Poverty—Part 3: Individual Brokenness

Adapted from A Field Guide to Becoming Whole, 125-134. We’ve been exploring the five causes of poverty in this series of posts, and it’s important to remember that any one of us can be impacted by all five causes—false stories, destructive practices, individual brokenness, systemic brokenness, and demonic forces. These factors are so intertwined it’s…

Read More…
Skin in the Game

Skin in the Game

Adapted from A Field Guide to Becoming Whole, 113-115. One of the most challenging elements of any poverty alleviation effort is identifying people who are truly ready to change.  If the goal of poverty alleviation is spirit-led transformation—seeing people restored to who God created them to be—it’s important for us to recognize that sustainable, long-term…

Read More…
The Finish Line Podcast When Helping Hurts in How We Give

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…

Read More…

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!

Read More…
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.

Read More…

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.

Read More…
Woman sitting and reading in a church

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?

Read More…
What Does the Lord's Supper Have to Do With Poverty Alleviation?

What Does the Lord’s Supper Have to Do with Poverty Alleviation?

What does this sacrament have to do with caring for the materially poor and helping them to overcome the causes of poverty in their lives? How does a simple worship service impact the reality that suffering people experience here and now?

Read More…
What Are People For?

What Are People For?

If we are serious about our efforts to address the root causes of material poverty and see real change in the lives of people in our communities and around the world, there is a key question that we often fail to ask first. What are people for?

Read More…