From a few words shared at the Centre for Theology and Community (CTC) and Citizens UK training and reflection day on congregational development, 16 September 2026. With thanks to a number of colleagues – especially Charlotte Fischer – for their input.

Three distinctive features of faith institutions

First, faith institutions are among the few places left in society where people regularly gather across age, race, class and political difference. They are places where values such as connection, respect, kindness and contribution to the whole that is bigger than us can be cultivated and passed on, often transcending the traditional left-right divide. This creates a space where people have to really live alongside one another and create a shared life. In doing so, we develop a sense of shared self-interest; I don’t only care about my own self-interest but I care about yours because I care about you. 

Second, they can be places of collective resistance to a culture that measures human worth primarily through productivity, status or consumption. They remind people that they matter because they are human, not because of what they produce. As Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defence Fund in the USA, put it:

“The adults in our churches and community made children feel valued and important… we always knew who we were and that the measure of our worth was inside our heads and hearts and not outside in our possessions or on our backs.”

Third, faith institutions cultivate what theologian David Tracy called the analogical imagination: the ability to look honestly at the world as it is while also holding in mind what it could become. Not through denial or fantasy, but through what he called “disciplined attention to what reality itself suggests is possible.”

Faith gives people the capacity to believe that today’s reality is not the final word. Trevor Noah captured this well when he said:

“One of the things that faith requires of you is the ability to believe that this current state that you are in is not the end. There is a possibility that something can be greater. And even though you cannot see it, you believe that it can happen.”

And as Zohran Mamdani, the new Mayor of NYC, observed:

“I’ve found over the course of the campaign that it’s often in houses of worship where New Yorkers still have that trust, really still have that faith, and it’s by and large lost when it comes to politics.”

What organisers need to remember in working with faith organisations (that I learnt the hard way)

First, faith leaders are leaders of institutions. Their first responsibility is not to our alliance, campaign or strategy. It is to their congregation. Good organisers respect that institutional responsibility. If leaders are more involved with the broad based organisation than their institution, it means that they are separating from their people.

Second, approach faith institutions with curiosity and humility. The faith leader is the expert on their tradition and organisation. Our role is not to explain their faith to them, but to ask good questions: What does their tradition teach about relationships, leadership and the common good?

Third, don’t try to organise an institution you don’t understand. Spend time there. Attend worship. Understand its rhythms, culture and relationships. Do a power analysis. Without that, it is easy to misread what matters.

Finally, our job is to champion institutions, not simply make use of them. This is particularly important given institutional life has been hollowed out and often a primary concern of faith institutions is their own survival in a world where people have less time and money. We should take their concerns seriously, celebrate their successes and support them to become stronger. Leaders can spot people who see their institution as campaign fodder a mile off. Trust is built when people know that we value the institution itself and believe that congregations are vital schools of citizenship and democratic life.