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4 - Congregation-Based Community Organizing

from Part I - Organizing and Activism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2024

By
Paul W. Speer
Edited by
Brian D. Christens
Brian D. Christens
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
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Summary

Community organizing within local faith-based institutions (churches, synagogues, mosques, etc.) is now widespread in the US and has seen adoption in several other countries. As congregation-based organizing has grown and matured as a field over four decades, leaders have drawn strong connections between the social and political goals of community organizing and the religious traditions and values of the participating congregations. This blending of organizing practices and religious traditions has been crucial to the success of this approach. This chapter describes some of the practices that congregation-based community organizing initiatives employ to build power among residents who are actively participating in defining and deciding how to alter the systems that affect their lives. A statewide organizing federation (PICO California) and the reflections of influential organizer Jose Carrasco serve as a case example of the intertwining of interfaith values with a power-based organizing approach.

Keywords

community organizingcongregationsfaithrelationshipssocial powervalues
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Community Empowerment , pp. 110 - 138
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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