Doing Justice in the
Public Square Cohort

Michelle Warren, Denver Seminary professor of its course: Doing Justice in the Public Square, a required course in the seminary’s Theology, Justice & Social Advocacy department, will teach the four sessions and provide materials for both class instruction and monthly cohort check-in times. Supplemental reading opportunities will enhance participant understanding and learning. A shared final project of the cohort will be its collaborative outcome for applied instructional opportunity.

The purpose of the cohort is to form a group of Agape staff & community members who are trained in theologically rooted & community driven public square engagement for the purpose of social and systemic restoration. 

The content of the cohort will be to equip participants with core competencies for doing justice in the public square for the purpose of social and systemic restoration. Participants will be introduced to the follow concepts and be given an introductory understanding so they will be better equipped to:

1. Articulate a theologically rooted understanding of public justice & peacemaking.

2. Understand historical engagement of Christians in the work for social change.

3. Apply learned theology to public square engagement and the pastoral role it plays when working in collaboration with the public sector.

4. Discern social issues within communities, when to confront those issues, how to frame them in biblical and cultural contextualization.

5. Understand and apply community organizing and power building to issues of injustice and how to build community centered and driven power.

6. Understand government, power systems and how to negotiate.

7. Understand and apply direct action and activism for more effective negotiation.  

8. Understand the impact of public relations & media.

9. Apply formalized advocacy methodology, navigate political landscapes, and create strategic fields of play.

10. Understand and apply advocacy models to issues at varying power levels and learn how to power map.

11. Understand agenda setting, public policy formation, stakeholder analysis & coalition building.

12. Understand and differentiate between organizing/advocacy/lobbying.

13. Build bridges of peace by engaging injustice at a holistic, practical and restorative level.

Suggested reading material excerpts will come from the following materials:

• Advocating for Justice, An Evangelical Vision for Transforming Systems and Structures (Optional)

• Faith-Rooted Organizing, Mobilizing the Church in Service of the World

• Join the Resistance, Step Into the Good Work of Kingdom Justice 

• My Pilgrimage to Non-violence

• Letters from a Birmingham Jail