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Posts in “Biblical Story”
Living As People of the Resurrection
The work of fighting poverty is a long and difficult road. For every joy and story of transformation, we can all think of sorrows and stories of loss and failure. Walking alongside people through the brokenness of the world is often a one-step-forward-three-steps-back process. It is easy for ministry practitioners and volunteers to grow weary and ministry participants to grow discouraged. Real hope for people and systems in a fallen world seems elusive, and anxiety is poor fuel for sustainable ministry.
Flourishing through Holistic Healthcare
Inspired by our book, When Helping Hurts, Watermark Health, a nonprofit affiliated with Watermark Church, has designed its three clinics to instill value and promote dignity among their patients. The majority of their patients are uninsured and from marginalized communities who otherwise lack access to adequate medical resources. Located near a large refugee resettlement area, their original clinic has had patients from 123 countries.
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.
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?
Fostering Change
Adapted from Chalmers online training Helping without Hurting in Benevolence Ministry. The ultimate goal of poverty alleviation and development is the restoration of people to all that God has created them to be—priests and rulers who proclaim His glory to the world and call others to worship Him. A nearer-term goal is change. We long…
Why Your Church is Called to Help the Materially Poor
What is the task of the church? We are to embody Jesus Christ by declaring with both our words and our deeds that Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords who is bringing in a kingdom of righteousness, justice, and peace. And the church needs to do this where Jesus did it: among the blind, the lame, the sick and outcast, and the poor.
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.
Finding Hope in God’s Story
What should churches be doing now to serve the materially poor in their neighborhoods and around the world?
The Stories We Tell
At Chalmers, we want to be story-driven whenever possible. What makes a good story? One that reflects God’s story, and demonstrates how Jesus brings lasting change in the life of a person, family, or community.
Social Mobility or Restored Community: What Is Money for?
Financial education is a key part of helping people in poverty experience greater flourishing. But when we try to educate others about finances, it often reveals what we really believe about money. What stories do we believe about money—and what stories are we telling other people?
The Easter Epidemic
It’s Easter weekend—the pinnacle of the Christian calendar. It’s supposed to be a weekend full of joy and celebration. How are we to experience joy and celebrate in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis?
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.
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?
Getting Our Story Straight
When we try to help people in poverty, we incorporate faulty ideas into our efforts without even realizing it. What are these false stories—and why do they matter?