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Helping Without Hurting in Benevolence Ministry

Help your church or ministry make a real difference in your community. Get trained to develop a benevolence ministry that helps people in material poverty experience lasting change.

  • Equip your church or ministry with a biblical foundation for responding to requests for financial help.
  • Gain skills and confidence to develop a holistic, relationship-focused benevolence ministry through our online training.
  • Learn tools and processes to address material poverty in your community in effective, transformational ways.

Churches and ministries often struggle to develop and implement an effective benevolence ministry.

  • They feel overwhelmed by the needs in their community.
  • They feel powerless to help people in the “right way.”
  • They feel frustrated because long-term change is hard to see.
  • They’re afraid of “doing it wrong” or enabling destructive habits.

Without help from those who’ve been doing this work, it’s hard to move your ministry forward.

Helping Without Hurting in Benevolence Ministry can help. We’ll walk you through the process of laying the foundation for your ministry, gathering a team to help you, and creating processes to support (or improve) your benevolence ministry.

Woman talking with a homeless man
Get Trained

Meet Your Coaches

Our training is facilitated by the Chalmers team and includes written, audio, video, and live discussion content collected from the best of our experience in over two decades of poverty alleviation work.

Get ongoing support from the Chalmers team and like-minded ministry leaders.

Brian Fikkert

Brian Fikkert

Steve Corbett

Steve Corbett

Suzanne Burns

Suzanne Burns

Justin Lonas

Justin Lonas

Maurice Lattimore

Maurice Lattimore

Jerilyn Sanders

Jerilyn Sanders

Janessa Steele 2022

Janessa Steele

Alex Shipman

Alex Shipman

How it works

  • Get Trained
    • Complete 6 units of online training with 6 live, 60-minute coaching sessions. Group pricing is available for your team.
  • Gain Confidence
    • Get equipped to develop and implement an effective benevolence ministry
  • Stay Connected
    • Learn together with like-minded ministry leaders
Get Trained

Tired of feeling alone and unsupported in benevolence ministry?

Frustrated by roadblocks to transformation in your church or community? Have you wished there was a better way to help those who need financial assistance? Helping someone move from crisis to long-term change feels overwhelming, messy, and complicated.

At the Chalmers Center, we know how difficult benevolence ministry can be. We’ve studied best practices from poverty experts and learned from experience serving in our own churches. Over time, we’ve found out what works—and what doesn’t—so you don’t have to.

Through Helping Without Hurting In Benevolence Ministry, you’ll gain the skills and confidence to apply a biblical framework for poverty alleviation to your benevolence ministry. Together with like minded leaders, you’ll discover tools to respond to people’s needs effectively, help them experience lasting change, and recognize who God created them to be!

Schedule — Summer 2026 Cohort

Join Us on Zoom

July 23 – August 27, 2026

Thursdays 11:00 am – noon EDT

Helping Without Hurting in Benevolence Ministry includes 6 live, online group sessions facilitated by Chalmers Lead Trainers to cement our learning and facilitate relational growth. You’ll need to set aside a total of 12-15 hours to complete this course. Each week, you’ll spend 60 minutes with the group (online via Zoom) and 1-2 hours outside of class working through assignments.

  • Intro and Lesson 1: A Foundation For Effective Benevolence
  • Lesson 2: People and Poverty Are Complex
  • Lesson 3: Building a Mission Statement and Policy Document
  • Lesson 4: Walking with People through a Change Process
  • Lesson 5: Building Your Ministry’s Capacity for Benevolence
  • Lesson 6: Learning from Experience
Innovate Zoom session

Get Trained

Helping Without Hurting in Benevolence Ministry

Summer 2026 Thursday Morning Cohort

EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT Through 07/02/26

$199 $169

per person

Group Pricing—$139 when you bring 3 or more registrants from your team!

Includes weekly Zoom coaching calls on Thursdays at 11:00 a.m. EST

Get Trained

Sign up to Get Notified When Registration for the Next Cohort Opens

Let us know you’re interested in an upcoming cohort of HWH in Benevolence Ministry and we’ll send you an e-mail as soon as a cohort is scheduled. Thanks!

Let us know you’re interested in an upcoming cohort of HWH in Benevolence Ministry and we’ll send you an e-mail as soon as a cohort is scheduled. Thanks!

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Choose all that apply. We try to offer trainings at times that work well for participants, and recording your availability will help us coordinate scheduling with lead trainers.

What you’ll learn from Helping without Hurting in Benevolence Ministry:

  • How to apply principles from When Helping Hurts to your benevolence ministry
  • Gain the tools to respond effectively to needs in your church
  • Develop a plan and process for handling request for assistance
  • Equip and empower your deacons and outreach leaders to respond to needs in your community
  • Learn what works to help people move from crisis to long-term change
  • Know how to address the root causes of poverty and not just the symptoms

Our guarantee

If you’re not completely satisfied with this training within 30 days of your purchase, we will give you a full refund.

Frequently asked questions

Because this course is delivered entirely online, participants are expected to have at least an elementary knowledge of a computer operating system and standard software and tools noted below. The necessary hardware and software are:

  • Access to a stable internet connection
  • Access to a device that connects to the internet well
  • Screen size on your device that will allow for you to adequately view shared material and instructor/participant faces
  • A Zoom account—for weekly online gatherings
  • A Google/Gmail account—for accessing and uploading shared documents on Google drive

Great question! You’ll have the best experience by participating in all of the live classes. However, each session will be recorded and uploaded to the course platform weekly for the benefit of any participants who may have had an unexpected conflict and for reference for all participants.

Each week you’ll spend 60 minutes in class (online via Zoom) and around 1-2 hours outside of class working on course assignments and activities. Over the course of this 6 week training, you’ll need to set aside a total of 12-15 hours to complete this course.

The course materials required for learning are all embedded in the training, hosted on Chalmers’ Pathwright online learning platform in an easy-to-follow lesson format.

$199

Our goal is to make Helping without Hurting in Benevolence Ministry training accessible to all churches and organizations who are committed to effective poverty alleviation and community flourishing who would like to participate. If the cost is too much to consider for you, we invite you to inquire about a scholarship by contacting the Chalmers Center.

We strongly believe that transformative learning happens best in community. Want to bring your whole mercy team, staff, or diaconate through this benevolence training to get a leg up putting what you learn into practice?

When registering, select the group rate tickets if you have 3 or more participants from your church or ministry to receive $60/person off of the regular training cost.

Great news, your access never expires!

Drop us a line on our Contact Us page. We’d be glad to help!

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