[1] The founders had the desire to further explore the relationship between their orthodox Protestant faith and the social crisis that surrounded them,[1] particularly around the Vietnam War.
In the fall of 1971, they began publishing the Post American, a newspaper that expressed the group's commitment to the faith and ideas about social change.
[2] The remaining members decided to move to the inner-city neighborhood of Columbia Heights, Washington, D.C., where they could better address urban problems and national politics.
[2] Combining their assets and incomes, the group gradually established households and a network of social outreach programs.
Other Evangelicals have critiqued the Sojourners Community due to their combination of strict evangelical Protestant beliefs (though the Sojourners living community and wider organizational network has also long included mainline Protestants and Catholics) and radical "social priorities [which] run in markedly different directions".