In Women's Work: The Transformational Power of Faith-Based Community Organizing, Susan L. Engh draws on her own experiences and those of twenty-one other women who work in the field of faith-based community organizing to describe how women have been transformed by their participation in organizing, and how they have been agents of transformation in congregations, denominations, organizations, and the public arena. This book provides a basic description of faith-based community organizing through the first-person perspectives of a diverse array of women.
Susan L. Engh is program director for congregation-based organizing for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and clergy consultant to the Gamaliel national network.
Engh brings a fresh and needed vision to faith-based organizing from the vantage point of a woman whose work for justice seeks to transform organizing culture itself. She shares insight and stories from her own experiences that illustrate tried and true organizing tools, while challenging leaders to reevaluate assumptions tied to gender and race that undermine true relational power. Engh presents the stories of Biblical women in conversation with the diverse voices and witness of women leaders organizing today. This book opens a critical way forward for justice work in these days.--Rev. Heidi Neumark, Trinity Lutheran Church of Manhattan Engh has given us a gift. This book lays out the power and promise of congregation-based community organizing generally, and more specifically amplifies the voices of scores of inspirational women from the Bible to the present who are role models for all of us. Every person who yearns to see faith communities transform our world into being more just should read this book.--Rabbi Jonah Pesner, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism Engh weaves a remarkable tapestry of thoughtful reflections and stories of transformation from twenty-one women, including some of the finest congregation-based organizers in the country, who have exercised what she calls 'lion-like courage' in the public arena. A seasoned organizer herself at the grassroots and national levels, Engh honors the deep contribution of women in an organizing culture which still tends towards male domination. Women's Work offers hope that congregation-based organizing will continue to be transformed by women even as it seeks to transform the world.--Rev. Dennis Jacobsen, Gamaliel National Clergy Caucus (retired) Engh's book is a treasure trove of practical wisdom, centering the transformational experience of women. It is an extraordinary, eye-opening, soul-feeding, deeply insightful, splendidly practical guide to engaging the arts of community organizing as spiritual practice for the sake of more equitable and life-giving congregations, communities, and societies. This book is a must-read for those who hunger to cultivate vibrant faith communities that link spirituality with public engagement to address the causes of suffering in our world today. Engh's voice is charged with grace, and will evoke active hope and results where powerlessness or stagnation have seeped in. The Holy Spirit is at work in this book. May it be read avidly by congregational and denominational leaders, professors and students, community organizers, and all who seek to embody God's justice-making love in this world.--Cynthia D. Moe-Lobeda, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary Susan L. Engh's Women's Work: The Transformational Power of Faith-Based Community Organizing is a much-needed, nuanced, and timely history and accounting of the generative power of female community organizers and the effects of multiplicities of power, effectiveness and justice that happen when empowered women leaders become powerful community organizers. This text will become essential reading in seminary and theological classrooms throughout the United States - and I hope the world - for all who yearn for and need the perspectives and generative insights and power that female community organizers bring to the work of doing justice on this side of glory.--Angela Cowser, Louisville Seminary The power of Engh's excellent book is in the interweaving of women's voices and experiences. From biblical foremothers to present leaders these voices tell a story of struggle, freedom, dignity and power. They also reveal the very concrete relational arts of community organizing, how leaders are formed, how a bottom line commitment to powerful leaders and powerful communities can transform God's world. It has been my privilege to have known and walked with some of the women in this book. Engh has knit together these individual narratives into a powerful picture of a transforming vision for the church and the world. She is not naive about the challenges of this organizing work, or the continuing challenges faced by women who take up this vocation. But her hope and faith shine through and inspire us all.--Rev. Stephen Bouman, Domestic Mission Unit, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
