In the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Confession of 1967, we affirm, “With an urgency born of this hope, the church applies itself to present tasks and strives for a better world.” Is the church’s social witness, the prophetic practice of confronting social structures in the interest of the common good, in fact marked by the urgency and hope described in this compelling claim? In this project, I seek to identify, describe and strengthen the role of theological reflection in the practice of social witness. To do this, I bring together ethnographic research on practices of social witness and the discourses of practice theory, new social movement theory, and Christian theology. My claim is that explicit theological reflection is a central component in Christian social witness practice, and the presence or strengthening of that component issues in a social witness practice equipped to flourish in the face of challenges such as fatigue and disappointment. Furthermore, I propose that when the standards of excellence by which practitioners measure the benefit of social witness practice are informed by regular theological reflection characterized by a consciousness of sin and hope, participants can enter into the practice more deeply.