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Congregation-Based Community Organizing
Christians Supporting Community Organizing
is in part based on a careful definition of "community, " namely:
"a group of individuals, sharing a common history and tradition, who
support and challenge each other to act powerfully, both individually and
collectively, to affirm, celebrate, defend and advance their values and
interests." Acting on this understanding of "community," many
congregations throughout the country have joined together in local
organizations which strengthen the internal life of the body and bring the
members of the body into action in the world guided by the values of the Reign
of God.
Typically, these local organizations are
federations of from twelve to forty churches and other faith communities.
Sometimes other groups are also members of these federations. But in all
cases, faith is at the heart of the local organization. By beginning with a
careful listening process within each of the local congregation members of
the federation, concerns of families are learned. By visiting with
neighbors, a broader group is involved--including both members of the church
and non-members. The latter, because of their experience with Christians
engaging in serious, faith-guided, action often become more interested in
the local church. By challenging the people with the concerns to act on
them, responsibility for action is placed squarely on those with the
concerns.
Thus there is a major shift away from the
church that does programs for people (who mainly take the role of consumers)
to a church which engages its own members and their neighbors in doing
things for themselves as co-creators, thereby strengthening their bodies and
neighborhoods. By carefully thinking through what can be done about various
concerns, a plan is developed in which people gain initial successes and
build on these successes so that they can tackle more difficult problems. In
each instance, a small full-time staff of professional community organizers
assists local congregation leaders to engage in this process--and assists
the congregations to come together with one another so they can address
those problems and issues which are too large for any one of them to tackle
alone.
The concerns which are heard from
the families who are visited and who become involved include unemployment,
crime, drugs, toxic waste, inadequate schools, lack of affordable housing,
unavailability of loans and/or insurance, health care and a host of others.
Beneath these is the broader sense of powerlessness to do anything
about these problems and, accompanying this sense of powerlessness,
expressions of distrust of our major institutions. Acting together on their
own felt needs, people learn to do research, conduct effective meetings,
meet with institutional decision makers, negotiate with these decision
makers and hold them accountable for things that are God’s intent for the
stewardship of their institutions.
This kind of action is guided by
process of reflection on faith. Prior to becoming involved in a local
congregation-based organizing project, the pastor, staff and lay leaders
engage in biblical reflection to determine what their faith says about being
part of such a project. Prior to meetings and action undertaken by the
organization, reflection connects faith to the specifics of a local
situation. Reflection also takes place after action is undertaken so that
people discern the connection between their deeply (but often abstractly)
held beliefs and daily life. While this process is imperfectly implemented,
it is an intrinsic part of congregation based community organizing. The
process of shifting people from "apathy" to participation involves
continuous leadership development. These organizations, often with a
capacity to bring together 5,000 people in a public meeting with a
superintendent of schools, a bank president or mayor of a city, typically
have a very small staff of professional organizers--one,
two or three people. Professional organizers working in this tradition see
their principal role as one of developing the
gifts and talents of local people so that they can develop their own
organizations--both their particular
congregations and the federation as a whole.
While these organizations support
community development projects undertaken by member congregations
or, in some cases, may engage in major community development efforts
themselves, the thing that differentiates them
from most other efforts to address social problems is that they train local
leaders to engage directly with decision-makers
in the major institutions from which most Americans are now so alienated.
These organizations seek good-faith negotiations with those decision-makers.
When such negotiations take place, new
relationships emerge which can effectively address problems because the
people with the problems and the institutions with the resources and
competencies to address the problems have entered into a relationship of
mutual respect. When such negotiations do not take
place, these organizations understand how to mount major campaigns to bring
decision-makers to the negotiating table.
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CSCO, P.O. Box 60123, Dayton, OH 45406; email: