Churches Unusual: Worship and Broad-Based Organizing in Two Brooklyn Congregations

The following is an ethnographical study of two ‘churches unusual’ in Brooklyn, New York, USA: ‘unusual’ because all are members of a local citizen’s organization. East Brooklyn Congregations (EBC) is itself an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), a broad-based organizing network grounded in the idea that the most potent power is found in community relationships. The ethnography presented here of two EBC member institutions—Hope Christian Center and St Paul Community Baptist Church—moves back and forth between each congregation’s worship and participation in the citizens’ organization to which it belongs. In juxtaposing their religious practice and organizing, this article explores the relationship between them, asking how religious identities are changed in the organizing process.

Leaders in Faith-Based Organizing Networks

As well as including articles from four research scholars and extracts from two key texts on organizing in the USA, the editors invited leaders from four of the major organizing networks—Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), Pacific Institute for Community Organization (PICO), Gamaliel and Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ)—to contribute to this special issue from their perspective as organizers. Two of the leaders are pastors and two write from their viewpoint as national staff workers with faith-based networks. All four contributors were asked to reflect on their experience of organizing in local communities and across the nation; to consider what for them are the most important theological and theoretical issues.