St. Davids, PA: The Sider Center’s Evangelicals for Social Action announced that they have adopted a new name for a new season. Now called Christians for Social Action (CSA), the organization will continue to build on the legacy of professor emeritus Dr. Ron Sider, energizing every generation to participate in God’s work of justice around the world.
“While neither our mission, our team, nor our commitments have changed,” explains executive director Nikki Toyama-Szeto, “we've noticed that what the people we serve are calling themselves has changed—especially as our presence is growing in communities of color.”
The decision to change the name is motivated not by a shift in theological commitments but rather by hospitality. In addition, it provides CSA with an opportunity to affirm the centrality of Christ to the work.
Dr. David Bronkema, Dean of Palmer Theological Seminary and College and an advisory board member for the organization, explained his enthusiasm for the name change, saying, “As someone who continues to self-identify as ‘evangelical,’ I heartily support and endorse ESA’s name change to Christians for Social Action, and not only because I know it is the result of much prayer and the conviction of the leading of the Spirit. I love how this new name evokes the wide range of Christians in the past and present who, rooted in Scripture, have a passion for combining evangelism, discipleship, and the struggle for justice, and points the way to our responsibility to be faithful to the Whole Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!”
More information about the name change is available in Dr. Ron Sider’s article,“New Name, Same Mission,” or on CSA’s new website—ChristiansforSocialAction.org. The recent name change was also featured in an article by Christianity Today.
About CSA
CSA is a group of scholar-activists who seek to stir the imagination for a fuller expression of Christian faithfulness and a more just society. Ronald J. Sider created the organization back in 1973, as a network to fulfill the commitments he helped draft in the Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern. Since then, CSA has built its reputation as a “think-and-do” tank that helps Christian communities cultivate a faith-fueled commitment to justice.
For five decades, Sider and the organization have been synonymous with faithful engagement in the spheres of education, politics, and the church, addressing both global and domestic issues, building broad coalitions, and engaging in courageous civil dialogue with people across the theological and political spectrums.
Responding to God’s invitation to live out our faith fully, in every aspect of our lives, CSA combines biblical scholarship with astute policy analysis to further economic justice, promote racial and ecological justice, and work towards building the kingdom of God here, on earth as it is in heaven. A holistic gospel, a prophetic voice, a kingdom-centric perspective, a relational posture, and a spiritual dependence—these are the trademarks of Christians for Social Action.
Learn More about CSA: ChristiansforSocialAction.org
