A Story of a Countercultural Christian Community: Celeste Kennel-Shank

Our guest, Celeste Kennel-Shank, tells the intriguing story of the Community of Christ, a church community based in Washington, DC, and its five decades of ministry.

Her recent book, 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.

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.