I first learnt about community organising in 2013 through what I can only call divine fortune. Because the Birmingham Methodist Circuit had newly become a member of Citizens UK (Birmingham Chapter), a broad-based community organisation, my Methodist Minister and line manager, Rev. Helen Jobling), asked me to attend a meeting they organised. I was curious as to how this organisation could bring so many diverse people from diverse backgrounds and affiliations into a room, and intrigued by how this group organised meetings that had people from broad-based and various civil society groups with a genuine mission to support these groups to create a desired change in their communities. I practically witnessed their modus operandi, and I could already see changes happening before the desired change.
I was sold on the concept of community organising and started attending most of their, no, our meetings, as I now felt that they were performing relatable actions that were not new but were more focused and targeted.
I already knew and, thus, felt a strong sense of belonging to a powerful movement for change. By the time I attended our 2014 assembly, I was thoroughly organising and having relational one-to-one meetings with many of the leaders in Birmingham. These meetings were engaging, agenda-focused, time driven, and evaluated. Learning new things and developing my existing skills became habitual during sessions. These were valued spaces where you listen to stories, share stories, and positively build relationships.
Naturally, I found myself using organising practices that I had learnt, with great success, as a member of my congregation, resident artist and worker in the Church’s Community Centre. Because of my unique and varied roles in the church and community, it was obvious that God wanted me to be relational and relatable for my positions at Lozells and beyond to be successful.
After a year of organising with others and winning organising campaigns with Citizens UK member organisations, I was approached by Saeed, Lead organiser of Citizens UK and supported by Birmingham Methodist Circuit leadership, who felt that I had the leadership qualities that qualified me to go and join four other colleagues from Birmingham for a six-day national training course in Leeds. The training marked a positive turning point, as it deepened my understanding of the core organising practices and helped me re-imagine my calling to serve God as a member of my church and the community.
I embedded community organising into building relationships in my church and community, which has supported my roles as centre manager of the Lozells Methodist Church & Community Centre, Church council member, and project manager of our various community-focused social and arts-based projects. This method of relational working practice also enabled me to listen to and with my church congregation and community to find out issues that we, as a church, could contribute to and support ways that made a positive change possible for ourselves and our community.
Organising showed through our projects, campaigning with Citizens UK, and providing spaces for other charities, government agencies, and social enterprise groups to meet, have operational bases, and deliver community projects and activities. These core practices helped expose our church and its activities and back our mission statement, “To be a church in the community, for the community”.
As I planned with others to find strategies and ways to train people and identify leaders in the church and community who can use their power of collective self-interest to bring people together and empower them to make change happen, our church became a hub of weekly activities. We found ourselves engaging and enlisting our congregation and community members to come together for good causes that brought winnable solutions to our social issues.
We built notable relationships with local leaders in faith, business, charitable organisations, funders, and government agencies. We delivered and partnered to deliver projects like our weekly job club, benefits advice, soup kitchens, sowing classes, breakfast and coffee mornings, and our annual Lozells arts and crafts exhibitions, to name a few.
We gained recognition and various awards, culminated by a visit in 2018 by the minister for faith, ministry of housing, communities, and local government. After the visit, he said,
“What I saw at the Centre was a desire to ensure that the Church was truly an asset for the whole community and recognition from that community that this was a place where everyone could meet, mix, and grow together, all the while ensuring the spiritual and historical integrity of the place of worship remained.”
But after ten active years of organising at Lozells, I was constantly perplexed and struggled with two things:
- Why were these practices not actively used in other congregations across the Circuit after our evident success at Lozells?
- Why was our church not using organising to develop and grow our congregation?
I was encouraged to know that other leaders in the Methodist Church were also thinking along similar lines. I was fortunate to be invited to some of the meetings organised by Kerry Scarlett, Rev. David Butterworth, and Deacon Mel Beaven with our partners in Citizens UK, where I was happy to share my first-hand experiences. I was also excited to see that these discussions focused on a faith-rooted type of community organising, where our faith and churches would be at the centre of organising.
So when the two-year regional pilot was agreed to and funded, I saw this as an opportunity and a privilege to share the organising practices with our broader church that covers two Methodist districts, Birmingham and Wolverhampton & Shrewsbury.
And I’m equally pleased that we have partnered with Birmingham Citizens to support us with their experience, learning resources, and the ability for our leaders to witness community organising through their many events online and in-person . I’m now edging towards the pilot’s first year in my role as the regional congregational and community organiser of this pilot, working with a fantastic team consisting of myself, Kerry Scarlett, Jo Yair, and Adam Sanders and enlisting churches, leaders, and congregations in the region to support and capture our experiences. We have made gradual progress in building relationships, creating and sharing learning resources, and planning ahead to empower our congregations to take action in a relatable and effective way that will bring about the changes we desire as Methodists.
Related links:
The inside story of Lozells and how vibrant community is fighting ‘forgotten ghetto’ stigma
Justice for refugees & the homeless in Lozells
Award for Lozells Methodist Church and its Centre Manager Eddy Aigbe
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