By Kathryn Kraft

I was recently chatting with a senior leader of an Orthodox church in Lebanon, who told me he wanted charities and NGOs, especially faith-based organisations, to take his advice more seriously. He explained to me that it was important for them to consult with him about what to do in the neighbourhood where he is based because he and other members of clergy know the community well and know the needs of the families living there better than any organization that was established to do a project or two.

What he was saying resonated with me: there is a growing body of research about the role and importance of faith leaders in their communities. They know the people in their parishes, but they also have an influential voice in influencing the thinking of others. Local faith leaders tend to be well-networked with different communities and even with state authorities, and are well-respected. Furthermore, they are familiar with the common social and cultural practices of the people who live in their vicinity.

Faith leaders hold social capital. They are often among the most educated people in their community, and simply by virtue of being a leader, they are seen as influential community members. It is not uncommon for people to ask their priest to accompany them to government offices when requesting assistance, to approach their imams with requests for help for their families, or to ask their pastors for counselling services.

Interestingly, in many communities faith leaders are respected by people even outside their own congregations. In Central African Republic last year, I was told about a gang of Muslim youth who were talked out of delinquent behavior by a Protestant pastor. Even though they were not Christian, they recognized the pastor of a local church and listened when he told them to go home and admonished them to behave with respect for their neighbours.

Within congregations, leaders are important models. In times of religious conflict, when leaders from different religions are willing to meet together, do things together and cooperate, they demonstrate to their community members that accepting the “other” is allowed and even a good thing. But even in the little things, faith leaders can be role models. For example, if they show that they value their children and discipline them in a thoughtful way, this communicates an important message to others about the value of children.

Faith leaders can help to transform behavioral patterns that are the root causes of social issues such as gender discrimination or practices that increase health risks. One of the reasons why they are able to do this, according to a recent study sponsored by the UK Department for International Development, is that they are able to speak from a position of theological authority. They can quote scripture and convince people to change their behavior based on strong theological arguments.

For example, in the Ebola crisis in West Africa, faith leaders played a key role in stopping the spread of the virus by ensuring both Christians and Muslims that burial practices which would avoid contamination were, in fact, in keeping with their religious teaching. This ability to influence behavior through teaching can be a dangerous power when speaking about sensitive social issues and many faith leaders are interested in learning more about what their scriptures say about social issues so that they can guide their congregations effectively.

Faith leaders’ spouses are also people of influence. Some interesting emerging research is suggesting that pastors’ wives do not always feel like they are influential community leaders, but that they are in fact active in providing support to children, women, and vulnerable community members. While providing this support, they create networks and build relationships with service providers, thus putting themselves in a position where they can influence both their congregations and their local governments. In many communities, however, they are not always seen as leaders or, perhaps more poignantly, they do not see themselves as leaders.

When I visited the Philippines last year, I met pastors and imams living in a town where conflict broke out a few years ago. Within hours, they were already collecting food and blankets and other types of assistance from their congregations and taking it to displaced families who had just fled their homes. But one pastor told me that he had collected food to take to a family of his congregation that had been displaced, yet upon arrival at the evacuation centre he was mobbed by other families who were hungry. He was very surprised by the level of need and desperation he saw, and told me that he wished he had had some kind of training to prepare him for such an eventuality as a part of his training to be a pastor.

I am fascinated by the growing body of research on the role of faith leaders in social change, and intrigued by the increasing number of organisations who are investing in training and equipping for faith leaders to offer support to their communities, to serve as reference points, and to challenge social norms. Organisations such as World Vision, Tearfund and Islamic Relief have developed projects to train faith leaders theologically on social issues and to prepare them to respond to crisis in their communities. Meanwhile, non-religious NGOs are beginning to see the importance of faith leaders and looking for guidance in knowing how better to work with them. Last year, for example, Oxfam published a paper on partnering with faith communities in humanitarian response, in which it concluded that humanitarian organisations are desperately in need of better “religious literacy”.

This is a real opportunity for faith-based organisations. People of faith who partner with faith communities, and especially their leaders, can make a real difference in addressing serious issues which affect society. However, faith leaders need training and support in order to be able to do so effectively.