When you’re not the biggest or most prominent church in town, how do you effect change at a systemic level to tackle local issues?
One way is through congregation-based community organizing, which is being practiced in Nebraska by First Presbyterian Church in Lincoln through a grassroots coalition called Justice in Action.
First Presbyterian Church, whose pastor is the Rev. Dr. Sue Coller, has been working with Justice in Action, a grant recipient of the Presbyterian Hunger Program, for about 3½ years to help improve the community.
“Part of our calling as a church is to pray for the welfare of the city in which we live, and for us, prayer isn't just words. It's action as well,” Coller said.
Justice in Action is an interfaith coalition in Lancaster County that has nearly 30-member faith communities working together “to identify and solve big community problems,” said the Rev. Beth Graverholt, lead organizer and executive director of Justice in Action.
The coalition is making inroads on mental health-care access and criminal justice reform through what it calls “building the power of organized people.”
The effort got off the ground with a grant from the United Methodist Church and some groundwork by the Direct Action and Research Training Center.
In the early days, “we started with about 30 clergy gathering and talking about the possibilities, and a few months later, we brought our laity along and provided what we call a Rethinking Justice Workshop to really help folks of all faiths see justice as part of their calling as people of faith and ask them, ‘Is this a ministry that you want to have in your local faith community?’ and we had about 80 laity that said, ‘Yes,’” Graverholt explained.
Next, participants were trained “to host listening sessions,” she said. “They are trained to gather their friends, family, neighbors, fellow church members and ask the question, ‘What keeps you up at night, worrying?’ … The first year, there were many issues that came up from the about 600 people that participated in the listening sessions.”
Participants vote on which topics the coalition should narrow in on. Graverholt and a colleague help participants research specific problems and issues in the community and meet with local stakeholders and nationwide experts to arrive at commonsense, realistic solutions, she said.
Once a year, the coalition has a large gathering called a Nehemiah Action Assembly to address public officials and other decision-makers and to persuade them to publicly commit to addressing community problems, according to the Justice in Action website.
The first Nehemiah Action Assembly “was really energizing for my own congregation, and I know many others,” Coller said. Having local officials on stage and so many people in the room showed “we can make a difference together. That was powerful for us.”
Prior to the formation of Justice in Action, there was really nothing like it in town, Coller said. First Presbyterian Church wanted to be involved because “we live in the community” and “these are issues that touch us in a variety of ways,” she said.
“My particular congregation has a great diversity in economic ability” among the members, she said. “We have some who are very well off, and we have a lot who live very close to the poverty line and below, who live paycheck to paycheck. They are at the food banks, getting food and dealing with housing and mental health issues. Many are dealing with diversion issues with the criminal justice system because about 10% of our congregation is from South Sudan, and they have a much higher incarceration rate in our city than their population warrants, and they don't have the ability — a lot of them — to pay bail and get out.”
One of the things the coalition has been advocating for is a new mental health navigation system, one that Coller is looking forward to seeing get up and running. “It will give me a place to refer people to … because I don't even know a lot of the resources out there. I know some, and the ones I know have a waitlist, so I'm excited to see some of this stuff come about.”
Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Interim Unified Agency (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Neema Cyrus-Franklin, Project Coordinator, Around the Table, Leadership Formation-Christian Formation, Interim Unified Agency
April Davenport, Legal and Risk Management, Administrative Services Group
Let us pray:
Great God, you have given us abundance in our lives, our work and our world. Help us to multiply your gifts so that your great goodness shines through us into your world, and so that all might live in your abundance now and in the world to come. Amen.
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