Neighborhood Initiatives

At Sojourn we believe that God has called us to be good neighbors in Boston in the same way that Jesus celebrated the Good Samaritan for being a good neighbor (Luke 10). Because of this we work hard to create places for students to engage in the life and rhythm of the city in a way that changes the city—and that changes them. We believe cultivating transformative relationships between college and university students in Boston and residents of Boston’s neighborhoods is an important step toward making the good news Jesus proclaimed real in our lives and in our communities as well as being a responsible social ethic. We also believe that living into these relationships teaches us all to love more deeply—the way Jesus did—and changes the lens through which we see the world around us.

As neighbors, one of the concerns of the city that we take on as our own is the education of our city’s children. We believe that it is an injustice of the grossest form if children of Boston do not have equitable access to their city’s world-class higher education infrastructure. Sojourn has committed to help increase that access by tutoring and mentoring at-risk children in Boston as a way of supplementing their public education, helping high school students prepare for SAT exams and by participating in partnered community organizing initiatives across Boston.

It is our goal, hope and prayer that students who engage in these and other opportunities will foster relationships which influence their spiritual, academic, social and vocational lives in a way that shapes them into more gracious neighbors—more obedient to the call of Jesus in a broken world.