About Kathleen: Kathi is the co-founder of The Changemaker Initiative, a lay-led organization  leading culture change within congregations across the United States through "compassion-driven changemaking.”  She is also a retired Methodist Pastor, and Resident Theologian for The Changemaker Initiative.

About Andrew: For the past 20 years, Andrew has accompanied social change leaders and organizations in their calling to have a positive impact on the world. He founded a new Jewish tradition called Tzedek Box and is founder and currently Rabbi and director of a vibrant online community at Central Synagogue that has attracted thousands of people from across the world, The Neighborhood.

 

4 insights about faith communities enabling changemaking:
 

1. Organizing around “shared power” can transform faith communities

Ashoka: You've both said that when leadership is about sharing power and doing so opens the door for innovation. But, when everyone in the community is a changemaker, how do you adapt structurally to that?

Kathi:

Traditional organizations, including religious institutions, are pyramid-shaped. There is a leader at the top and power flows down in smaller and smaller increments to people at the bottom, who are only there to do what the person at the top says. Every leader, including those who are faith-inspired or work in religious institutions, can challenge this pyramidal view of power. This work is about recognizing that leaders do not create by themselves. The power of leading and doing this transformative work in the world is more effective when it’s shared. Unfortunately, control is so much of what religious institutions are about. So, the challenge to share power triggers a real identity question among pastors. But I believe the work of a leader of a faith community is not to personally embody the church’s mission, but to inspire, equip, and bless people to go out and be the church themselves—in all the places they live and work and are neighbor to one another.

Andrew:

In the book of Exodus, Moses is wandering with the Israelites and is approached by his father-in-law who basically says “what you're doing is not good, you’re trying to be in charge of everything and you’re wasting people’s time.” This story can be leveraged and reminds us that it's an age-old problem to have this pyramid of leadership, but it's also age-old  to see things in a different way. It's far more efficient and practical for lots of people to be invested in decision-making, leadership, and trust. Decisions can’t be centered on an individual or a small group of people if you want to get to the Promised Land. In our online community, I actually make it a practice to say, "I can't take suggestions, but I can take volunteers." If I were in charge of making everything happen, it would just never get done. So much of the community centers on the willingness and passion of our members having an idea, organizing around it, and trying it out. 

 

2. Power is an inner condition that replenishes when it is shared

Ashoka: So besides having organizational principles that defy the pyramidal model with power tied to "control," you talked about love and compassion as being sources of power. Tell us more.

Kathi:

The ability to love with self-sustaining energy is right at the core of changemaking as well as our religious traditions. [...] That’s the particular contribution that spiritually grounded entrepreneurs can add to the innovation that's already being done by many people in many places - all of which I regard as God’s work in the world.

Andrew:

That is the goal, to be ever enriching and ever gratifying. I see compassion as the empathy provoked by injustice, and as something we can experience within ourselves by acknowledging that we are creatures of God. Loving God, loving the neighbor, loving the stranger – these are all different manifestations of the same impulse. [...] Compassion has to flow through all the different circles for it to actually reach its end goal.

Ashoka: Read more about this kind of leadership that spreads power in the book Kathi McShane wrote with Rabbi Elan Babchuck: “Picking Up The Pieces: Leadership After Empire”.

 

3. We need new examples of spiritual wisdom in practice

Ashoka: Metaphors and language are powerful. We see all the time that stories of modern and historical exemplars give us permission to imagine beautiful possibilities for ourselves and the world around us. How do you bring the wisdom of your traditions to life as you're speaking about sharing love, spreading power, and being changemakers?" 

Andrew:
Sometimes we gloss over the deep and most relevant questions from our traditions that can apply to our lives and instead just go through an ancestral ritual without thinking. Depending on your lens, it may be hard to find the bridge of what we received from the past and how it applies to today’s world. Part of the work for liberal rabbis today is trying to rediscover the ancient sources for modern purposes.

Kathi:

My work as someone who retells the Christian story is to use language and metaphors that make sense to people now. So much of how we talk within the Christian Church is old and tired language. [...] People just click off. The work of Christian leaders is to put this incredibly lifegiving story out there in a way that lands differently for people from the tradition they might understand as ancient, confinind and unquestionable. I have found that framing Christianity as the work of compassion-driven changemaking (or the work of unleashing the power within people) hits people differently. 

Ashoka: A very clear example of interpreting ancient wisdom for our times is how Andrew connects the Jewish practice of Cheshbon HaNefesh (accounting of the soul) with unleashing people’s potential as givers, change agents, and members of a community. How does the Tzedek Box work?

Andrew:

The Tzedek Box has been a ritual in development for about 5 years. It emerged from iterating and inviting people to share their ideas around a big question: “what would it look like to grow the frequency/depth of our commitment to the Jewish call for justice?”

There is not an explicit ritual in our tradition right now that invites people to reflect on accountability and justice. A majority of American Jews surveyed have said justice and righteousness are the core of their identification as Jews. Yet, widespread consistent work toward improving our society isn’t what's happening in the majority of our synagogues. That's one of the reasons why the Tzedek Box exists; these values should be deeply rooted into our critical practices and brought to the foreground. 

The huge opportunity with the Tzedek Box is that we’re busting the walls of the synagogue open and saying that anything that someone does to try to improve our world - whether it's through a secular or Jewish organization - is a chance to reaffirm their spiritual identity and spiritual journey.

 

4. The changes in the spiritual landscape bring new opportunities

Ashoka: In this changing spiritual landscape where people are now comfortable connecting with themselves, each other, and Source in multiple ways (online, in nature, self-distanced, with their community “bubbles”, etc), how do you think faith communities need to redefine their role and purpose?

Kathi:

My personal view is that Christianity went off the rails when it prioritized becoming an institution that focused on size and permanence. I was trained to tell people who wander into the church “Bring your time, energy, money and passion to church. Do less of those other things you enjoy so you can spend more of your time here.” Saying that makes people feel overlooked. It shouldn’t just be about what one can bring to the institution. Instead, we ask: “Where are you spending your commitments and your time? How can the church’s work help you do that in a way that's consistent with your faith and your deepest convictions?”

The work of leading faith communities is going to be experimental and holding things loosely to realize what is essential about our religion and let many other things go.

Ashoka: Andrew, how has this changing landscape enabled The Neighborhood at Central Synagogue to become a thriving online community with hundreds of members?

Andrew:
The normalization of Zoom in religious spaces during the COVID crisis led to a sea-change in what interactions with one's Jewish community can look like. Not only does the technology make it easier to show up, but it allows people to identify the places that most reflect their values and interests. 25% of The Neighborhood's members come every single day! The fact that they're coming every day means we have an opportunity to redefine what daily progressive Judaism can look like. It can be about checking in with others, expressing gratitude, mourning the losses we experience together, etc. We have more opportunities to practice our potential as human beings. It doesn't mean that there is no longer a need for local community; there absolutely continues to be that need, and we in The Neighborhood are always emphasizing the value of both supporting and participating in local programs whenever possible. 
 

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