What does it mean to move from relevance to significance? In this conversation, Rabbi Michael Holzman sits down with Rich Harwood to explore one of the deepest tensions facing faith leaders and community organizers today. Harwood, who has worked in hundreds of communities across the country over four decades, argues that when leaders focus primarily on their own organization's relevance, they risk turning inward at the very moment their communities need them most. The conversation moves from that diagnosis to something more hopeful: the idea that aspirations for community life are not gone, just buried, and that the simple act of asking what matters to people is enough to begin unearthing them. Along the way, Holzman and Harwood explore the spiritual dimensions of voting, the role decency plays in renewing public trust, and why sitting together over America's founding texts keeps unlocking something that neither marches nor elections can reach.

Show Notes

• 4:11 - Rich Harwood introduced
• 10:32 - What it means to move forward
• 17:23 - Engendering belief in communities
• 46:05 - Decency and dignity in public life
• 54:02 - The spirituality of voting

Rich Harwood is the founder and president of the Harwood Institute, which has spent 35+ years working with communities, organizations, and individuals to bridge divides and strengthen civic culture. Learn more at theharwoodinstitute.org.

To learn more about faith250 and how your congregation can be a part of it, check out faith250.org.

This podcast was produced by Wesley's Revival, the production ministry of Studio Wesley.