Wondering about…Community Organizing as Congregational Development

I’m getting ready to teach a DMin seminar at Seabury Western Theological Seminary in a few weeks. The topic is the “churchy” side of Community Organizing and as I review what I will offer the participants, I am struck again by how useful this discipline is when seeking to develop a faith community. In Community Organizing speak, Churches are mediating institutions i.e. groups which pass on values and cultural norms to their members. In the past, the Church was a place to harvest and hone leaders who had a sense of responsibility to a wider world than just their family and friends. Those leaders would join with other leaders from other congregations to form the great organizations which could challenge the inequities of our society.

In this day and age, many churches have not passed on that value of striving for justice in the world, being content to care for a more intimate circle and keep the doors open. But the Gospel message is still being proclaimed, and is still being heard. The potential of members in a congregation to be mobilized to impact the world is still great. The value at the heart of the Gospel and in the midst of the sacraments (that God is with us and acting through us) is still vital. Therefore, the teachings of community organizing, their methods of developing leaders and thinking about how we act most powerfully on the values we hold, can be helpful for a congregation which is trying to grow up in its faith and act on its values. I do wonder, however, if this is the kind of “Congregational Development” church leaders want to learn about, or church members want to be challenged with.

My anxiety comes from personal experience of teaching this kind of class before. The issue seems to be that leaders are fine with learning about Community Organizing as something that happens outside the church, which they or some especially “outreach minded” members might want to be engaged in. What they have difficulty grasping is that for a church to grow in spiritual maturity, the questions Community Organizing asks about power and leadership and the world as it should be, must be engaged by the whole congregation…or at least a critical mass of the membership. There has to be a central movement within the church community, not an isolated and easily ignored sub-group, if it is to have any real impact on the development of the Church as a whole. That, I guess, is my dilemma: I hope the leaders of churches will engage in learning the art form that is Community Organizing because I believe it help the Church evolve into the body of Christ which it is called to be. But I wonder…is that what the participants of my class will be looking for? And if not, will I be able to give them a gift they are not asking for?