Justice is always local. – well, that’s where it starts.

Right here in Austin Texas is a remarkable example of the power of God’s people, working together to enable the poor to help themselves. They deployed a powerful method found in the Bible called community organizing.

“Connie Gonzales has learned that there are two kinds of power: Money and organized votes.
She doesn’t have much money. But she has learned how to harness the power of organized votes. And she likes the results.
“It feels good to feel that power,” Gonzales said. She doesn’t feel helpless any more.
Gonzales and her neighbors at Plainview Estates, most of whom are parishioners at Santa Barbara Catholic Parish, learned about people power through training they received from Austin Interfaith.
Through their organized efforts ………

(Read more here…… )

The Bible is littered with stories of how people organized their communities and used their power to build justice, provide community resources and overcome prejudice and suffering. This is how justice was achieved.

Nehemiah, persuaded King Artaxerxes to release him to perform a sacred duty, to rebuild the walls and the city of Jerusalem. Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem and organized the citizenry into groups which rebuilt the city. He had opposition, but he used group power to overcome that opposition. Just like Connie Gonzales did. Or should we say Connie did it just like Nehemiah did.

Jesus was the ultimate community organizer. He took twelve men from their communities, trained them to understand the essence of the Kingdom of God, then sent into the world, several times in fact, to tell the people on the ground that they would be

Last year we were privileged to listen to Dr. Robert Linthicum talk about empowering communities to do justice, to overcome oppression and prejudice. We now have training resources to help you deploy this Biblical method called community organizing.

Justice begins when small groups in communities gather together and use their group power to change society, even in small ways to get access to life’s resources.