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Posts in “Becoming Whole”
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.
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.
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…
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…
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…
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.
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?
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?
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?
Redefining “Success” for Poverty Alleviation
What’s the best way to help people who are poor? We can talk about techniques, but the truth is we need more than that. To really help people, we have to take a look at the stories that we tell ourselves about what success really looks like—both for you and the people you are trying to help.
Practicing What We Teach
When we try to help people who are materially poor, we often focus on the habits we think they need to change. But what about our own habits? How do our daily practices affect our ministry with the materially poor?
Start with the Story
When you’re doing ministry, it can feel like telling stories doesn’t count as “real” work. But telling the biblical story—focusing on what God has done, is doing, and will do—is crucial to poverty alleviation.
Helping that Helps: Principles for Ministry
How do we build ministries that address the five root causes of poverty? Here’s an introduction to some key principles that you can apply where you are.
Addressing the Five Causes of Poverty
There are five big things that create material poverty and keep people trapped in it. Learn the five causes of poverty—and how you can begin to address them.
Living into the Story
God is working out His reconciling story in this broken world. The Bible doesn’t provide us with a detailed script for this story—but it does give us the overall direction of God’s unfolding plan. What does this mean for our efforts to help people who are poor?
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?