Moving the Church to Social Action
The purpose of this course is to help practitioners focus on looking at the practice of social work through a faith-based perspective, particularly in the church setting.. The following articles address the role of social work in the quest for social justice, the integration of faith in practice, and the place of faith in diversity.
As a result of this training, participants will be able to:
List two important issues associated with serious illness and end of life care, and corresponding types of interventions that social workers can provide or initiate that may be helpful within churches. Also, identify three aspects of poverty that are often overlooked, along with a successful intervention for increasing the church's involvement in poverty elimination efforts.
Identify the nature and effects of violence perpetrated against women, the ways in which the Church and its leaders have contributed to this problem, and ways in which social workers can be used to assist religious leaders to best serve survivors of IPV.
Target the realities of age-related memory impairments, with the family caregiver as the predominant model of care, and understand the possibility of another model of caregiving through the church. Also, note at least two tangible approaches for addressing homelessness, practical suggestions relevant to Christian social workers across faith communities.
The following text-based course contains five separate readings pertaining to the use of a faith perspective when looking at social work. The articles are as follows: Empowering, Educating, and Advocating: How Social Workers can help Churches Integrate End of Life Care into Congregational Life by Lindley Sharp Curtis, Seeing the Poor and Moving toward Justice: An Interactive Activity by Joy Turner, Social Worker's Role in Helping the Church Address Intimate Partner Violence: An Invisible Problem by John Michael McAllister and Amelia Roberts Lewis, Aging Memory Loss, Dementia, and Alzheimer's Disease: The Role of Christian Social Workers and the Church by Susan Moore Pinson, Kristen Register, and Amelia Roberts-Lewis, and Radical Hospitality: Welcoming the Homeless Stranger by Amanda Sackreiter and Tonya D. Armstrong. Contact information for each author can be provided upon request.
Lindley Sharp Curtisis Associate Minister and Director of Senior Adult Programs, Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, in Atlanta, GA. Rev. John Michael McAllister is an Associate Pastor, Holland's United Methodist Church, in Raleigh, NC.