Assignment | Lesson 3 | Community Strategies on Justice and Inclusion
December 17, 2025 8:43 PM
Please write a sentence or two for the following statements:
1. Here’s a way the articles connected with my own experiences in church.
2. Here’s a tool from Sandhya’s video I might be able to use in my setting, and why.
3. Here’s what I want to bring from this month’s content to my community, and here’s why theologically it makes sense in my context.
Discussion (13)
Lately, many of my sermons have had some ‘political’ content - with the invasion of Venezuela, the murder of Renee Good, and the ongoing terror being perpetrated by ICE - it has been necessary for me to speak about what is happening in our world. I find several reasons why this is helpful: 1) People who are worried and afraid need pastoral care. Hearing that they are not alone in their anxieties helps them to feel less alone. 2) People want to know what they can do in response to these societal challenges - talking about it in worship helps people feel some agency or power to make a difference. 3) Speaking about current issues from a theological or scriptural basis helps remind people how our faith speaks to current issues. We don’t care about immigrants and their treatment because we have picked a political side - we care deeply because that’s what we are taught in the Bible and that was Jesus’ instruction to us. According to Bishop Tom Berlin’s article for the Florida UMC Conference, I serve a congregation that is willing to engage important issues. I agree that there often has to be a deep amount of trust between the leadership and the congregation for this to work. The congregation also has to be practiced in having difficult conversations. In my context it’s helpful to have these conversations in group discussion formats. But it also seems important as an offering of pastoral care to let the conversation enter into our worship time as well.
A tool I’m interested in from Sandhya’s video is the Asset Based Community Development model. I did ‘pause’ the video and take a look at the ways it compares to other traditional development models. What I saw was a helpful view of the ways the ABCD really focuses on the people as active, engaged, valued parts of the entire process. The power comes from within and the vision belongs to the constituents as much as it does any containing organization. It seems like a healthy, organic way to be in relationship with people. In my setting there is some early dreaming about establishing some kind of community center or resource hub. I would absolutely prefer to use this kind of method if we continue moving forward with that conversation.
From this month’s work and readings I’d like to share the four R’s model with members of the congregation I serve. Many of the people here are retired and have a hard time seeing themselves as part of a ‘movement’ of change because they often aren’t up for physically demanding protests or riskier engagements, even though their hearts are committed. But I’d like them to see how they might fit into a broader understanding of social change, perhaps through another ‘R’ or a different way of showing up in support.
The introduction of the four R's helped me realize that there is value in so many different roles. I tend to compare myself to others who I feel are more active and who are "doing more" when in reality I'm doing my own work in my own way.
Sara,
I liked the ABCD tool too. But I thought about using it, not for a congregation, but to develop an organization in the neighborhood I grew up in, in South Los Angeles. This neighborhood, like many other Black and Brown neighborhoods in South L.A. is neglected by local officials as far as repairing and maintaining its infrastructure. I don’t think it’s fair, because the infrastructure is paid by taxpayer dollars, and Black and Brown neighborhoods pay taxes too. This organization would be a unifying voice for the residents of the neighborhood.
I wonder what would happen if all the neighbors on the block came together to strategize about their block, and demand that the sidewalk and streets be in their neighborhoods be made safe. – Annie Richardson
I agree with your opening statement. As a lay person, I desperately want pastoral care in these moments, and some support in giving my feelings direction and meaning. We are living in dystopian times, and my brain spins until I don't know what to do. Sometimes that Sunday service is what I need to be anchored, more focused, and find some direction.
Assignment | Lesson 3 | Community Strategies on Justice and Inclusion
Annie Richardson
Perhaps because I’m not a member of the Clergy, I wasn’t able to connect these articles with my own personal experiences as a lay leader in my church. However, I believe the theme of the articles, i.e. fostering inclusiveness, being a place of community, and forming and maintaining a congregation where everyone feels comfortable sharing with one another and working together for the good of everyone. These are tools that can strengthen me as a lay leader and help me to consider and respect other perspectives.
One of the tools in Sandhya’s video that intrigued me was the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD). But I’m not considering it for the neighborhood that my church is in, which is near USC, but rather the neighborhood I grew up in is more South L.A.
The neighborhood that I grew up in is predominantly Black and Latino, low income, but hard working. Members of our family have lived in our house for more than 65 years and we’ve seen many changes. Over the years, the neighborhood has gone from a mix of White, Black, and Latino to Latino, Black, and a few Whites. In the “old days,” everyone knew everybody, and even though we were diverse, there was a true sense of community. In the last 20-to-30 year, the neighborhood has come to be neglected by city and county systems that are responsible for infrastructure, so streets are bad, sidewalks are bad, and trash abounds. I’ve been thinking recently about some way to repair and restore the neighborhood. I think about an organized, neighborhood group to put pressure on local government to repair the infrastructure. I think about a non-profit that could seek funding through grants and gifts to be able to have residents of the neighborhood, especially teens and young adults be hired and paid to do the regular maintenance. I want to start with one block and engage all the residents of that block with a pitch to be the change we want to see.
I want to bring to my South L.A. Community the idea of a Dudley Street. Unlike Dudley Street though, I don’t know if community officials are even talking about our block/neighborhood, let alone talking to the residents. But the coursework to this point has given me ideas about what it would look like if the community came together to help itself. I want to see if there are enough homeowners on the block who are willing to talk to discover “what’s right with us”; about what the neighborhood is, and what residents would like to see it be.
This sounds like an exciting way to build relationships and make a good difference. I wonder if there are any other community groups nearby to partner with? Who else is doing similar work in another place that could be a source of encouragement or inspiration? Using the Dudley Street example as a vision sounds like a nice way to start the conversation and paint a picture of the change you wish to enact with your community.
It sounds like you have some great ideas to begin some conversations that could really help facilitate addressing community needs! I'm excited to see where this goes for you!
These articles were helpful in forming a way to look at justice and inclusion in our church in Chico. I especially liked the message from “How to Build an Inclusive Church” regarding changing what and who is centered. I think often the inclusion of a variety of diverse voices and viewpoints connects our values better than a political statement or party identity. I have heard Michelle Obama say that it is “hard to hate up close”, and I hope that that is true in most instances. Getting to know people from diverse backgrounds and hearing their stories has softened my heart on many issues and given me a perspective that I would have never had as a white male. We should be focused on making sure that both our leadership and the voices that people hear at church represent our community more broadly.
Sandhya’s video regarding “participatory democracy” is particularly interesting to me. Our church, along with the local American Baptist congregation has been doing some shared ministry for the last year. They sent a consultant from the American Baptists who has led us in brainstorming and planning sessions, and it echoed a lot of what Sandhya talked about. Everyone had a voice, ideas were shared, common values and ideas were elevated, and the whole group had “buy-in” rather than being told “this is what works” by a moderator in a “top-down” approach. The leadership is shared, rather than directed by one source.
I think about this a lot with regards to diversity and disability. My child is autistic, and I think a lot about what accessibility and accommodation can help or hinder her success at home, at school, and at church. I think this is an area where our churches can really benefit from some discussions and engagement of the neurodiversity community. Jesus constantly centered people in the margins of society, and often people with cognitive or developmental disabilities are often pushed into those margins today.
I was interested in the participatory democracy model as well. I'm intrigued by the tech tool that Sandhya mentioned - I wonder how it works!
I also agree about bringing forward voices from the disability community. Their voices are often ignored and rarely centered. You might like to know about a book by Sarah Griffith Lund called Blessed Minds: Breaking the Silence about Neurodiversity. I haven't read this book, but have it on my 'to read' list. The author is a UCC Minister and has done a lot of work around disability and mental illness in the church.
The Participatory democracy model would be good for me to use when trying to start a neighborhood restoration and beautification organization where neighbors work together to see our neighborhoods cleaned up and streets and sidewalks repaired. The key would be to get all the neighbors on the same page and then get them to feel empowered to make decisions where we live, about how we live. I think we can get all to agree that we want our sidewalks to be level and safe rather than be broken and uneven because trees planted by the city long ago are not being pruned and trimmed regularly. Even though there might be some language barriers because not everyone is bilingual, I'm convinced that if we learn the demographics of the neighborhood and collect appropriate data, a tip given in the article,"8 Steps to Prepare Your Community for a Social Justice Crisis like Ferguson," we'll find that there are residents to work as translators and interpreters; there are residents who can do the lawn cleanups and make repairs to fencing and houses. If we learn the demographics, we'd probably find someone who can do finances, communications, social media, etc. While I wouldn't consider infrastructure neglect a social justice crisis akin to that of the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, it is indicative of the chronic injustices and systemic racism that plague communities of color in cities across the United States. And, under the current President's administration, these injustices appear encouraged, and perpetrators face little-to-no consequences.
@sarasteenhouse7825 Thank you for the book recommendation. In fact that book is sitting on my nightstand right now! I have not finished it but there are some good practical steps towards accessibility in the church.
My apologies as I thought that this posted yesterday!
I feel blessed that my home church is very active in ministries. I recently was head of our nominating committee and we were responsible for making sure 130 positions were filled between all of our councils and committees. This is a daunting task when you have 150-200 in worship every week. Because the nominating committee doesn’t oversee the committees for our ministries that serve our community, we had to take a look at those as well to make sure we weren’t asking people who weren’t overextended. Because we do SO much, I had to start asking questions about what we were doing, what was the original intention, is it still effective, and can we engage others to help. Sometimes I think that we do things just because we’ve always done them, particularly in a church that is 100 years old. I think we need to do check ins to see if we are being good stewards of our time and resources and if we are addressing the true needs of our community.
I love the thought of considering using Asset Based Community Development in our ministries at church. It would enable us to hone in on our strengths while we bring all the voices into the room and determine how to best use them. Sometimes I feel we work a little backwards because of things that we want to do without considering the actual need or our capabilities.
I would love to challenge my board at church to take a look at what we are doing in our ministries and ask what is working, what isn’t, what is actually needed, and how we can institute any changes we feel are needed in a more whole way.
You brought up an interesting thought for me too, which is that our church has very active and engaged leaders, but you call tell that "burnout" is a real thing and that sometimes people just don't have any more to give.
I wonder how the ABCD and participatory democracy models could relieve some of that tension by making the leadership shared through the congregation.
I don't know exactly what that looks like, but you make a great point about how we approach nominating leaders.