| | | | | | | | | | | | PRACTICAL WISDOM FOR LEADING CONGREGATIONS |
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Community organizing is in many ways about empowering people and achieving democracy, but faith-rooted organizing takes a very different approach from that of its secular counterparts, says the Rev. Peter G. Heltzel, the co-author of "Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World."
Saul Alinsky, considered by many the founder of modern community organizing, for example, emphasized building relational power based on self-interest, Heltzel said.
"In faith-rooted organizing, we're calling on people to build relational power from the deepest wells of our faith," he said. "Instead of appealing to people's self-interest, we call people to live out their dream connected to their community's dream and God's dream."
Heltzel, an associate professor of systematic theology and the director of the Micah Institute at New York Theological Seminary, and his co-author, the Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, were at Duke Divinity School to teach a seminar at the Duke Summer Institute for Reconciliation.
Heltzel spoke with our colleagues at Faith & Leadership about the book and faith-rooted organizing.
Q: What is faith-rooted organizing?
As ministers, we are great at gathering people to get our praise on and hear the word of God proclaimed from the pulpit. But what would it look like if we gathered people to join a boot camp for liberation, equipping them with the tools they need to truly change the world?
Faith-rooted organizing is bringing people together to create systemic change in our communities and world in a way that is completely shaped and guided by our faith. The term "faith-rooted organizing" was coined at Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, when the Rev. Alexia Salvatierra was executive director and the Rev. James M. Lawson Jr. was chair of the board. Alexia and I wrote the book as a primer on organizing for faith leaders around the country.
Christians have always been moved by our faith to do justice and have been at the forefront of many of the historical movements that sought to build a better world, including the abolition movement and the civil rights movement. From Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth to Martin Luther King Jr. and Fannie Lou Hamer, African-American faith leaders have organized for racial and economic justice. So our call is to get outside the church, go out into the community and share the love of God with the people of God in concrete ways.
Continue reading the interview with Peter G. Heltzel »
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| IDEAS THAT IMPACT: FOSTERING COMMUNITY
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One of the spaces that is increasingly worth your time -- to listen and to share -- is online. Social media enables ministers to build and sustain networks of relationships.
Read more from Dave Odom »
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Ethicist Christine Pohl names four practices for Christian institutions and congregations that want their corporate lives to reflect the very nature of God.
Read more from Gretchen Ziegenhals » |
It is pretty easy to stay within the four walls of the church and make assumptions about the lives of the people in the broader community. It is more difficult to actually build relationships with community residents and grow in your understanding of their needs and desires. Read more from Joy Skjegstad »
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| | THE DUKE DOCTOR OF MINISTRY: CULTIVATE YOUR ABILITY TO LEAD CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY |
The Doctor of Ministry program at Duke Divinity School engages pastors and Christian leaders in rigorous and imaginative theological reflection as they continue to serve in their current ministerial roles. It serves to empower and refresh leaders as they guide the renewal of the church through cultural shifts.
Applications for the 2017 cohort are due by March 15.
Learn more and apply »
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Discovering the Other: Asset-Based Approaches for Building Community Together by Cameron Harder What is God's mission?
Simply put, says theologian and field educator Cameron Harder, God's mission is to form communities that reflect and embody the life of the Trinity.
Discovering the Other is an introduction to two tools that community builders have found helpful: appreciative inquiry and asset mapping. These tools help congregations see that all of life is saturated by the sacred and give them energy to begin living as if it were so. Instead of asking, 'What's wrong?' appreciative inquiry asks, 'What's right?' Asset mapping asks, 'What resources do you have personally that we could bring to our future together?' Out of these questions can arise a sense that every congregation is rich in history, people, and resources. Ideas emerge as people, inspired by the Spirit, listen and talk to each other. The leader's task is to facilitate, coalesce, and connect ideas, to catalyze and stimulate the development of vision. The creative connections lead to programs and projects that will enrich your congregation's mission. But most importantly, in the process they will engage you with others, with their stories, their hopes, their gifts - to build community.
This book looks for God, not only through the lens of such tools, but in the tools themselves. It is an effort to understand how processes like appreciative inquiry and asset mapping reflect the character and community-building style of the God whom Christians worship as Divine community.
Learn more and order the book » |
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