Community Organizing

There are many things for young people to be involved in between college and graduate school. There are many ways to learn about the pressing issues of our time and make a difference. My brother, Christopher, spent last year working with young kids in a Washington, DC affordable housing community connected with the ecumenical Church of the Savior. He's now working with another church affiliated non-profit that helps tenants understand their rights in an urban area in the mid-west. My brother's doing this hard work, like the many community organizers I have met, because he cares about people and yearns to express his faith in all that he does.

Community Organizing is a process that helps churches, civic groups, organizations and others work together for the common good. Organizing is not isolated to urban or poor communities. One thing is clear, that community organizing has everything to do with responsibility. Helping people become part of the political process, take responsibility for themselves and their neighborhoods and bring accountability into civic life.

Check out the following links to read more about organizing and the most recent belittling of Barack Obama's experiences as an organizer before going on to law school and becoming a State Senator in the mid-west.

There are two great pieces on organizing posted up at:
Sojourner's God's Politics

If you saw the Democratic Convention you may have heard this great prayer by evangelical Don Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz. I think it expresses well the type of commitments that people involved in community organizing regardless of their faith are all about.