Relational organizing . Key to faith-based organizing is the idea that relationships, not issues, come first. Therefore, the groups give the highest priority to leadership training that focuses on how to build individual relationships with each other as the basis for public action on behalf of their communities. Then they encourage leaders to develop campaigns out of issues that arise in conversations about their values and immediate concerns. Multiracial approach .
Strong communities can be closed-minded, narrow in orientation, or simply isolated.
They typically bring communities together across a whole metropolitan area. Leaders have to do the difficult work of collaborating with people different from themselves, but they gain from the broader base of power generated. Independent power . Faith-based organizations explicitly seek to build power on behalf of their communities. They mobilize through their member institutions to back up initiatives with the demonstration of broad support.