Our Congregational Outreach and Social Justice Initiative
by Gene Rubin and Dottie Kinscherf
On Sunday, October 1, 35 people met for our church’s first “Congregational Outreach and Community Engagement Summit.” Through presentations and group discussion – both large and small, participants talked about various aspects related to planning and engaging in social justice initiatives by our church. The two of us were invited to write a report about our impressions from this meeting.
Why develop a social justice initiative? Our mission statement says: “We strive to be a welcoming congregation, inspiring lives of loving kindness and integrity by nurturing spirituality, building community, and advancing justice.” By participating in a social justice initiative as a community, we not only will be doing good work (advancing justice) but will also be enhancing our church family’s feelings of togetherness (building community). There will be many ways to participate. Some people will have the time, interest, and energy to be very active in this endeavor. Others may be very busy with family and work commitments but would consider participating in activities that are less time intensive. All levels of participation will be welcome, appreciated, and encouraged.
In her September 2023 Minister’s Column, Rev. Kim outlined five components of a “social justice spectrum.” As she explained, this model says that “there are multiple ways to engage with an issue.” Education and information sharing is one component. Increasing our own knowledge and sharing this knowledge with others is an important act of social justice. The time commitment for this component is totally adjustable. Other components of the social justice spectrum include service, witnessing, advocacy, and community organizing. Various members of our church family will find participation in one or more of these activities meaningful and important.
The October 1st summit was interesting, productive, and enjoyable. We ate together, chatted, and brainstormed. Before the formal meeting started, attendees were asked to identify which aspects of the social justice spectrum they were currently participating in by putting stickers on large pieces of poster paper. These responses were also fleshed out in small group discussions at the beginning of the meeting.
Lisa Ross, Outreach and Social Action cluster chair, presented the results from last year’s Active Hope Project. This project solicited input from the church community about what general area(s) our social justice initiative(s) should address. From these meetings, interest in the general theme of housing and homelessness had emerged.
The group discussed a social action timeline of the church from 1834 to the present. This was eye opening and allowed us to appreciate the rich history of important projects in which our predecessors participated. Interestingly, it became clear that our church has had a longstanding interest in education and issues affecting children. This led to a discussion about the possibility of developing projects that might address children, education, and homelessness. The timeline is available for viewing in the 1st floor RE hallway; be sure to check it out!
During the summit, we gathered information about our combined experiences and assessed our combined assets. We learned about asset mapping – examining our personal assets (organizational connections, skill sets, etc.), congregational and community connections, physical assets (such as our church property), financial assets, and practical issues.
Rev. Kim introduced us to the concept of creating an engagement map. This process has seven steps: defining a problem; stating a goal; developing strategies; creating tactics; going into action; celebrating, evaluating, and reflecting; and planning next steps.
The summit ended by asking each person to explore an area of interest related to homelessness, education, and children and provide feedback that can be used at our next summit in January 2024.
During the next summit, specific projects will be decided on and fleshed out. Please consider participating in this summit. Also, realize that once we define what we want to do, there will be many ways to become involved that hopefully will allow all of us to feel part of this endeavor.
Between now and then, Lisa Ross and the social justice committee will be sending out various documents to the whole church community.
Thank you for reading the above information. We look forward to everyone’s participation.