Portraying religion as a catalyst for community action in his own life and in American society in general, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama yesterday called for more effective efforts to make government aid available to grass-roots, faith-based organizations.

Speaking in Ohio, a state that is a prime target of both presidential campaigns, the presumptive Democratic nominee pledged to rename and reinvigorate the often-controversial faith-based initiative of the Bush administration with an emphasis on training to allow smaller groups to take advantage of federal resources.

Religious issues have sometimes been an albatross for the Obama campaign -- through false rumors that the senator is a Muslim and in the nagging controversy over volatile statements made by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, a Protestant congregation. Yesterday's proposals allowed Mr. Obama to reach out to religious voters while depicting himself as a figure whose political action is rooted in Christianity.

"Now, I didn't grow up in a particularly religious household," Mr. Obama said. "But my experience in Chicago showed me how faith and values could be an anchor in my life. And in time, I came to see my faith as being both a personal commitment to Christ and a commitment to my community; that while I could sit in church and pray all I want, I wouldn't be fulfilling God's will unless I went out and did the Lord's work."

Mr. Obama's mother was not religious. His father, a Muslim and native of Kenya, effectively abandoned the family while Mr. Obama was an infant. In his autobiography, Mr. Obama says he had no particular religious leanings until he was drawn to the Trinity church while a Chicago community organizer.

President Bush established the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives as a gesture toward his pledge to govern as a "compassionate conservative." But the office has been a chronic source of controversy -- both from critics who charge that it blurs the line between church and state, and others, including former employees, who have contended that its operations were skewed by politics.

Mr. Obama said the mission and effectiveness of the office should be bolstered, a goal he said could be achieved within the bounds of the Constitution.

"The fact is, the challenges we face today -- from saving our planet to ending poverty -- are simply too big for government to solve alone. We need all hands on deck," Mr. Obama said. "I'm not saying that faith-based groups are an alternative to government or secular non-profits. And I'm not saying that they're somehow better at lifting people up. What I'm saying is that we all have to work together -- Christian and Jew, Hindu and Muslim; believer and non-believer alike -- to meet the challenges of the 21st century."

Anticipating liberal criticism of an initiative so associated with Mr. Bush, the Illinois Democrat noted that former President Bill Clinton and his vice president, Al Gore, had offered similar proposals. He argued that the program's failings were the result not of its concept, but of its execution.

"Rather than promoting the cause of all faith-based organizations, former officials in the Office have described how it was used to promote partisan interests. As a result, the smaller congregations and community groups that were supposed to be empowered ended up getting short-changed," he said. "Well, I still believe it's a good idea to have a partnership between the White House and grass-roots groups, both faith-based and secular. But it has to be a real partnership -- not a photo-op."

Mr. Obama said a new Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships would be "a critical part of my administration." He said one of the goals of that office would be to serve as a training resource for smaller community groups, who may not have the expertise to navigate government bureaucracy to take advantage of existing grants and funding opportunities.

While saying that existing support for social services had been "consistently underfunded," Mr. Obama did not specify a spending target for programs that might be steered though the new office. He did call for $500 million in new funding for summer learning programs that he held out as examples of the kinds of projects in which community-based religious groups could be particularly effective.

Mr. Obama's call for greater cooperation between religious groups and government comes as both campaigns are maneuvering to capture the support of religious conservatives. His Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain, made a weekend pilgrimage to visit the Rev. Billy Graham and his son, Franklin, in an effort to shore up his sometimes-strained ties to evangelical leaders.

The Obama campaign is mounting an unprecedented Democratic effort to attract votes from religious conservatives, a group whose overwhelming support was a foundation for Mr. Bush's two White House victories.

The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and a long-standing critic of Mr. Bush's faith-based office, told the Associated Press that Mr. Obama was moving in precisely the wrong direction. "This [Bush] initiative has been a failure on all counts, and it ought to be shut down -- not expanded," he said.

From the opposite political perspective, Tony Perkins, president of FRC Action, the Family Research Council's political wing, issued a statement dismissing the proposal as a "faith-based feint."