Engaging in social action is the focus of the thirteenth book in the Ruhi Institute’s sequence of courses.

Unit 1: Stirrings at the Grassroots

The first unit of this course examines instances of social action that are relatively simple and emerge naturally as the community-building process in a locality, cluster, or region advances. Within this context, participants gain insights into:

• how the institute process creates conditions, at the level of the individual and at the level of culture, that are conducive to engagement in social action;
• how social action emerges from natural stirrings at the grassroots;
  
• how some of the initiatives that arise remain simple and last for just a short period, while others become more complex as they are sustained over time;
  
• how acting within a shared conceptual framework allows the community to achieve coherence in its efforts;
  
• how the institution of the Local Spiritual Assembly promotes and supports social action and assists the friends to avoid certain pitfalls;
  
• and how the capacity to read social reality must consistently grow..