Organize2Mobilize
Sojourners is committed to equipping faith leaders and organizers, building their capacity to organize local and regional faith networks, and helping them to use their unique gifts in the broader struggle for a just world.
At many times in history, people of faith have marshaled their unique gifts of faith and brought them to bear on issues of public justice and the common good. In the U.S., various movements—for abolition, labor unions, women’s suffrage, civil rights, and environmental justice—have all been shaped at their core by faith-filled convictions that each of us are created in the image of God and, therefore, equally worthy of the protection of the law.
People of faith rose up to join or lead these movements—each time calling America to live into its own dreams. Each case now stands as evidence of the power of faith communities to organize toward the biblical vision of shalom (holistic peace).
During its early days of radical community, Sojourners was active in the art of community-based public witness in the depressed Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Forty years later— for such as time as this—we are equipping and building local and regional faith networks to offer their unique gifts to the broader struggle for a just world.
Take action Sojourners Organize2Mobilize initiative!
- Apply to Join the Sojourners National Mobilizing Circle
- Host an Organize2Mobilize training
- Organize a "Come and See" visit for your legislators
Apply to Join the Sojourners National Mobilizing Circle
Application for the Sojourners National Mobilizing Circle
The Sojourners National Mobilizing Circle is a nationwide network of faith leaders committed to organizing their communities, and of organizers committed to their faith. These faith leaders and organizers, deeply rooted in their communities and focused on local challenges, also recognize the need for national coordinated action on key federal issues: poverty and equity in our economic system, creation care, immigration reform, war and peace, and other timely topics.
Sojourners National Mobilizing Circle members commit to support, learn from, sharpen, and collaborate with each other in order to help carry their shared vision for national change into their local contexts. Once a year, Circle members come together to receive Sojourners organizing training. Sojourners is also committed to helping build capacity and equip Circle members’ local networks to carry the vision forward for the long haul.
For more information on the National Mobilizing Circle, please contact Martin Witchger.
Host an Organize2Mobilize training
What would it look like if a strong network of faith communities in your city or region came together to embody faith in the public square in 2013? What would it look like if your region’s faith leaders united toward the end of poverty in our nation, the end of immigrant harassment in our cities, or the end of the destruction of God’s creation?
Sojourners Director of Mobilizing Lisa Sharon Harper offers three powerful trainings: "Faith in Action Organizing and Advocacy," "Organizing for Immigration Reform," and "How to Build a Faith and Justice Network in Your City."
Faith in Action Organizing and Advocacy Training: Participants will gain the basic tools and insights needed to analyze their community, strategize, build collaborative networks, and take action—all in a way that is rooted in their faith.
Organizing for Immigration Reform Training: Participants will gain current contextualized understanding of immigration reform and will learn how to make an impact in their region through faith-rooted action and advocacy. Through the prism of immigration reform, Sojourners will offer participants basic tools and insights needed to analyze their community, strategize, build collaborative networks, and take action for change.
How to Build a Regional Mobilizing Circle Training: Sojourners offers training and ongoing consultation to develop and sustain a Mobilizing Circle in your city. The training will unpack four themes that ground the work of faith-rooted mobilizing circles, including: spiritual formation, community organizing, education and training, and advocacy. Participants will also receive tools to lead their network through a process of discerning its vision and mission; setting goals, outcomes, and strategies; forming an effective core team; learning to mobilize resources and funding; and engaging their communities in prayer that sustains movement.
Apply to host a Sojourners Organize2Mobilize Training in your region here!
Organize a "Come and See" visit for your legislator
"The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. There he met Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Jesus said to Philip, "Come with me."
Philip then found Nathanael and said, "We have found the one that Moses and the Prophets wrote about. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth."
Nathaniel asked, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?"
Philip answered "Come and see."
~ John 1:43-46
Inspired by the story of Philip and Nathanael, Sojourners is equipping faith-based agencies to invite their congressional representatives from both chambers to "come and see" for themselves the good work and people placed at risk by the severe cuts being considered in the midst of the current budget wars. "Come and See" visits are not major media events. They are genuine opportunities for legislators to get to know the people in their own districts and to hear their stories.
