Get Involved

How to Get Started and Stay Connected

American Scripture Project is a collaborative community. We use this Substack to share materials developed by the team at Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation and by partners around the country, all vetted by clergy colleagues like yourself.

Our theory of change is that when enough American clergy introduce the practice of exploring our national narratives spiritually with their congregations, this practice will help drain our political spaces of the anxiety, contempt, resentment, and cynicism that have turned our rhetoric toxic. Therefore, this is less a set curriculum or static document collection of resources than it is an on-ramp to a methodology.

The journey begins with our introductory documents and video training sessions. Facilitators can use the program asynchronously, starting any time, and in 2025 we will be offering a cohort timed to progress through the materials together (with dedicated monthly coaching). The first series is nine sessions each covering one text, and we will focus on that text for the first 30 minutes of monthly office hours, on the second Thursday of every month from 2:30-3:30 p.m. on Zoom.

All training materials and the individual document session materials can be found in the Facilitator Hub, which is behind our paywall (Session 1 is open to everyone as an example). Session materials include a 5-7 minute “how to” facilitation overview video, a “how to” facilitator guide with handouts, and a downloadable handout in editable format for you to modify for use with your congregants. We will also upload a recording of the prior monthly office hour Zoom calls for each session after it occurs. 

To subscribe, we ask all new congregations to use the “Founding Member” feature of Substack and make a $500 donation. For continued access to the Facilitator Hub after the first nine sessions, we ask congregations to switch to a “Yearly Subscription” plan for $180, which will help us produce more sessions and maintain the website.

If you’d like to learn more about American Scripture Project but aren’t ready to subscribe, click the button below to fill out an interest form.

We have observed that after approximately three sessions, colleagues begin to adapt the sessions to their own ways of doing things in response to what is working best with their congregations. Because part of our core theology is that healthy spiritual exploration must be situated in a specific community, each with its particular covenantal values and culture, a one-size-fits-all approach is not optimal. Therefore, please start with our materials, and adapt according to what you know works for your people. Come to monthly office hours and use the comments section below each session post, where colleagues can ask and answer questions, offer ideas about what worked, or suggest changes to the materials. And even if you do not need help with a session, please share your wisdom with American Scripture Project clergy community. We are looking forward to hearing how these American scriptures worked for you.