There has been a lot of bad press lately about community organizing work due to a few bad apples being reported. For some folks, in their minds it seems that anyone who is associated with congregational based community organizing is somewhat evil or corrupt. If we were to apply this same reasoning to the few bad apples who took the lending industry and our economy down or for the few clergy who have committed serious offense against their congregations, do we dare conclude that all who are associated with the church or lending industry are somewhat corrupt or evil?
The Presbyterian Church (USA) has been engaged with community organizing/congregational-based organizing work for over 50 years. There are many Presbyterian Church (USA) congregations across the country who are engaged with their local congregation-based community organizations working faithfully to transform their congregations and communities.
One example of this is Grace Memorial Presbyterian Church that is active with Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network (PIIN). Check out this story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about Grace Memorial Church 's partnership with PIIN to transform and build up their community -
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09244/994597-53.stm