Local Groups - Shining Lights in Communities Across the Country
In communities across the country there are groups made up of members of Reformed churches that work to promote political awareness and action within their community. Although independent of ARPA Canada, all of them may benefit from the resources and coordination of ARPA Canada if they desire. Local groups make a very valuable contribution to their communities by providing things like news, guest speakers, letter writing evenings, meetings with government officials, and motivation for church members to get involved in political issues and events.
- - Surrey/Cloverdale ARPA [contact] Facebook
- Langley ARPA [contact] Facebook
- ARPA Fraser Valley East
-Okanagan ARPA [contact]
- Bulkley Valley ARPA [contact] - - Prince George ARPA [contact]
- Southern Alberta ARPA [contact]
- - Calgary ARPA [Contact]
- Edmonton ARPA [Contact]
- Barrhead/Neerlandia ARPA [Contact]
- Winnipeg ARPA [contact]
- Carman ARPA
- Orangeville ARPA [contact] - - Hamilton area ARPA [contact]
- - Toronto ARPA [contact]
- - Niagara ARPA [contact]
- - Wellington - Guelph ARPA [contact]
- - Chatham ARPA [contact]
- - London/Strathroy ARPA [contact]
Heritage Reformed Church Government Correspondence Committee: (Bradford Ontario, Burgessville Ontario, Jordan Ontario, Fort McLeod Alberta, and Chilliwack BC [contact]
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What Do ARPA's Do? How Can I Start a Local ARPA in My Community
The following is an excerpt from ARPA Canada's Christian Citizenship Guide:
There are many things you can do as an individual that have an impact. But if you are able to work together with others, you can potentially increase your impact. One way to organize a group that can work together is by forming a social issues committee within your own local church. It is common for churches to have a committees for things like missions, so having a committee to deal with social activism would not be a dramatic innovation for churches in many cases.
In the Reformed church community there are local groups called ARPA’s (Association for Reformed Political Action). These groups are made up of a diversity of people from local Reformed churches who work together to respond to social and political issues from a Christian perspective. They also endeavor to get their whole church community active. Although these ARPA’s are autonomous, they benefit from the coordination and resources provided by ARPA Canada. You can find the location of these ARPA’s at www.ARPACanada.ca. The ARPA’s within a province and across the country can share information, ideas, and resources on the online forum that is accessed through the ARPA website. They also meet at provincial and national conferences. If you are interested in starting one of these groups in your area, contact ARPA Canada at 1-866-691-2772.
According to Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family, there are five basic steps someone should follow to organize a social action or community impact committee within a local church. First of all, be sure to pray to the Lord for guidance in this endeavor, as you would when undertaking any other important project in your life.
Secondly, seek the approval of your church leadership. You cannot have a successful committee within your church without the support of church leadership. As well, the leaders will have insight into whether you have the gifts for organizing such a committee. The Scriptures exhort us to receive the counsel of those in spiritual oversight roles, so involving your pastor in the planning stage of the committee is important.
Third, recruit those in your church who have an interest in social issues for your committee. Depending on the size of your church, you may already know who these people are and can therefore approach each one yourself. For larger congregations, or if you are working with a number of congregations in your area, you may want to plan an initial meeting for the committee and announce it in the church bulletin for all interested people to attend.
- At your first meeting, let those in attendance share their burdens and interests
- relating to moral and social issues. In this way you will get to know something of
- the personal and common concerns of the group. Become apprised of the group’s
- concerns for relevant community issues. Pray together about these matters, for
- each other, and for specific discernment, guidance, and direction about what to
- do. Then begin a study on biblical principles for social involvement (Minnery
- 2002, 191).
Fourthly, the committee will need a mission statement that includes at least three elements. First, a reason for its existence. Second, a brief explanation of the function it will perform. And third, a list of the activities the committee will undertake to perform its function.
The size of the committee will determine how much it should try to achieve. You will need to ask what you can reasonably attempt to accomplish based on the number of people in the group and the resources that are available to work with.
Fifthly, it is vital that the committee members become informed about the issues it will deal with. Solid education should undergird the actions of every community impact committee and must be an important function of your mission. Effective education is crucial in building a consensus within the church regarding social and political involvement. Furthermore, the dissemination of timely, accurate, and pertinent information on moral and social issues is a prerequisite to informed and responsible activism. Addressing the “why,” “what,” and “how” questions of social and political involvement must be a priority (Minnery 2002, 194).
Reading books and periodicals on contemporary social issues is an important way to continually receive the information you need.
Keeping the leaders and members of your church informed of important issues is an important service that the committee can render. Many Christians don’t have the time or inclination to keep on top of these issues, so providing this information in the church bulletin or a separate newsletter is certainly helpful.
- If you are providing relevant, accurate, and reliable information in a format of
- professional quality, people’s interests will be piqued. When you touch people
- with information that affects their lives, you will have an opportunity to move
- them to some level of activism or involvement (Minnery 2002, 197).
The committee itself can do much good by focusing on the kinds of activities mentioned earlier, such as phoning politicians, writing to politicians or editors of periodicals, or visiting with politicians. When visiting a politician as a group the standards you should require of yourself are higher than just that of an individual citizen making the visit. Especially if the group is having the meeting to push for a particular policy outcome, it should be as professional as possible.
- Officials and senior politicians deal with groups continuously and are not
- impressed by tantrums. As one community activist puts it, ‘don’t wing it—and
- don’t whine. Don’t make outrageous demands, or back government people into
- corners. Do your homework.’ Nor do they tolerate poor organization and
- amateurish presentations. They expect groups to make the best use of their time.
- They prefer to read briefs that are crisp, well documented, and effectively
- organized, culminating in recommendations that are clearly set out and take
- account of the changes in programs that would be caused by changes in policy.
- They like group representatives to be well organized in their oral presentations
- with their facts at their fingertips (Pross 1992, 152-153).
Although local groups and local ARPA’s may operate informally and are not registered as charities, it is important that they understand that Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has strict guidelines about what kinds of political activities charities (most churches) may be involved with. If a local group is going to work directly with churches, it should be aware of these guidelines so that the church’s charitable status isn’t compromised because of their activities.
The details of which political activities are allowed are available on CRA’s website. An article that spells out the implications on Christian political action groups and churches is available at www.ARPACanada.ca. In sum, the law requires that charities not promote or oppose any political parties or candidates. They can speak about political issues and policies from a faith-based perspective but they must refrain from promoting or opposing a particular party or candidate. Urging members to write letters in response to a piece of legislation, putting a petition table in a church lobby, or distributing a questionnaire that lists the positions of all of the candidates of an upcoming election are all acceptable activities. But using a church or church resources to mobilize support for a political candidate who aligns with your values is not acceptable.
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