Stir Up Peace: How Nonviolent Direct Action Creates Change

The Stir Up Peace videos and guide are intended to help facilitate a fruitful conversation between viewers in a group setting. While you can watch these videos by yourself, there are advantages to watching them with others (e.g., in a Sunday School class or a small group). Community can help keep us motivated, supported and accountable.

There are a variety of reasons a person may become motivated to engage in nonviolent direct action — humanitarian values, a passion for righting wrongs or a desire to work for the common good, to name a few. In this series, we reflect on what an Anabaptist understanding of following Jesus' teachings can teach us about why and how we engage in nonviolent direct action.

Regardless of what motivates people to show up, you can work together.

Each video has a corresponding section of the study guide containing:

• Focus statement/synopsis.
• Scripture.
• Opening ritual.
• Group discussion featuring an activity and discussion questions for both small groups/partners and for large groups.
• Prayer.

We suggest ending in prayer, by first offering a time for prayer requests. In addition to your group's prayer requests, add a prayer for those on the frontlines, who are struggling for positive social change, and for more people to join them.

We suggest watching the videos in consecutive order and at least twice, so that study participants can absorb the materials more deeply. If closed captions are available on your video settings, consider turning those on, as well, to increase accessibility.

Use the elements provided for each video that are most helpful and applicable to your context.

(9 Sessions)