What You Sow Is a Bare Seed: A Countercultural Christian Community during Five Decades of Change
Ebook
What You Sow Is a Bare Seed is a group biography that tells the stories of ordinary but extraordinary people who were engaged in movements for renewal in the church and justice in broader society. People such as Dora Koundakjian Johnson, an Armenian-Lebanese linguistics scholar and activist, and Doug Huron, an attorney who won a landmark US Supreme Court civil rights case. They were among those who came together as the ecumenical Community of Christ in Washington, DC. Planted in the inner city in 1965--when many churches were leaving--the Community "distinguished itself from the more organized church without rejecting it," as one former member says. They believed that helping each other identify their gifts was a compelling way to shape their collective ministry beyond themselves. The Community initially intended not to own property but later bought a building and opened it up as a community center. As a final act of ministry, the Community gave its building away to a nonprofit partner when it closed in 2016, leaving a legacy that continues today.
“Why should you read about a small church you’ve probably never heard of? One reason: because a small, informal, experimental faith community, like one tiny seed, can have a great impact, both on its members and on the people and communities the members impact. I know, because I am one of the latter. My life has been enriched with the overflow of the community you will meet in Celeste Kennel-Shank’s new book.”
—Brian D. McLaren, author of Do I Stay Christian?
“In the midst of a rapidly shifting religious landscape, we would do well to remember the insight grounding Celeste Kennel-Shank’s work: the lessons others have learned before about how to be a church faithful to the radical demands of the gospel apply to us today. As a pastor attentive to practical wisdom, a journalist skilled at storytelling, and a former member of this remarkable Community, Kennel-Shank reminds us that what they experienced, we may experience too.”
—Jennifer M. McBride, author of Radical Discipleship
“Celeste Kennel-Shank tells this story with such hope and grace that in the process of reading, I could feel that hope and grace extend to us. As people worry about what the future of the church might be, Kennel-Shank reminds us why we must be.”
—Carol Howard, author of Healing Spiritual Wounds
“Celeste Kennel-Shank has given great insights into the power of an understanding of Christian community that is tied to the followership of Jesus rather than loyalty to specific institutional expressions of Christianity. She reminds us that we must continue to work to ensure that it is the witness of the gospel of Christ in community that will be the hallmark of the Christian movement.”
—Teresa Hord Owens, general minister and president, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the US and Canada
- Title: What You Sow Is a Bare Seed: A Countercultural Christian Community during Five Decades of Change
- Author: Celeste Kennel-Shank
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Print Publication Date: 2023
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666771091, 9781666771084, 1666771082, 9781666771077, 1666771074, 1666771090
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666771091
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-10-03T20:40:07Z
Celeste Kennel-Shank is a bivocational pastor and journalist in Chicago. She is a graduate of DC public schools, Goshen College, the Medill School of Journalism, and the University of Chicago Divinity School. Her writing has appeared in the Christian Century, Sojourners, and the Washington Post, among other publications. This is her first book.