Vital Signs

Organizing Hope

The title of this blog comes from an article in the April 2008 issue of Sojourner magazine that talks about Barack Obama's three years of working as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago.  The article describes how community organizers like Barack work to tap the resources of the church and the community, not just their financial and human resources but also the power of hope to rebuild communities.   At the same time of this publication, the Rev. Henry G. Brinton, pastor of Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Fairfax, VA wrote an article titled "Faith and Power" in the March 31, 2008 issue of Presbyterian Outlook. Rev Brinton talks about faith-based community organizing and how his congregation along with other Presbyterian congregations across the country are working together through the 170 + faith-based community organizations to "work on behalf of the poor and the working poor, and all are helping people of faith to become comfortable with exercising power."  Recently, the Jewish Fund for Justice and the Unitarian Universalist Association developed resources to help their synagogues and congregations learn more about faith-based community organizing and how it can help strengthen and renew the life of their congregations and communities. 

Barack's presidential campaign has elevated the subject of faith-based community organizing to a higher level of media coverage.  Many folks think that faith-based community organizing is new work but it has been around for more than 50 years.  I am proud to be part of the Presbyterian Church (USA) because it has played an integral part in the development and growth of faith-based community organizing in the US and overseas. 

The articles from Sojourner and Presbyterian Outlook demonstrate that faith-based community organizing transcends left and right theology, that it embraces doing both evangelism and social justice, that it works in suburban, rural and urban communities, and that it organizes God's hope wherever it deeply roots itself.

Building relationships

This is my first step into the world of blogging.  It's a whole new world for me because I tend to prefer meeting and talking with folks personally, one on one.  I accept this new reality because this is the way some folks prefer to do their communication and it does reach a larger mass of folks quickly.  But there is still significant value in relationship building.  In the arena of community organizing, doing one on ones is the foundation for building relationships and building a broad based organization of people to address deeply felt community issues.

I just read in the latest issue of Presbyterian Today about the new church called Hot Metal Bridge.  In this article, it says that when the two founders of Hot Metal Bridge met with the Presbytery of Pittsburgh to discuss their vision for this new church, the Presbytery said that one of its expectations was that they had to go out into the highways and byways and meet and talk to 100 new folks each week.  This is what it means to do one on ones!  This organizing methodology of building relationships one by one was the same strategy employed in the  development and growth of Saddleback Church and Willow Creek Church. 

So when I meet with many urban, rural or smaller membership churches and propose to them that they go out into their neighborhoods to meet their "new" neighbors as part of their congregational transformation process, I usually face great resistance.  Some of these churches prefer to send out fliers, develop a more sexy web page, or have some kind of community event but one that will be held within the church's four walls or grounds.  Anything else but going out to meet their neighbors one on one. 

Relationship building is a key component of community organizing, new church development and congregational transformation.  It's not easy work but it's also not rocket science!