Thin Places: Six Postures for Creating and Practicing Missional Community

by Jon Huckins, Rob Yackley

While praying for his community on the Island of Iona, the Celtic monk St. Columba described his experience as a thin place- a location where heaven and earth seemed only thinly separated.In the same way, God's kingdom is being realized here on earth with stories of restoration and redemption. Our God moved into the neighborhood, seeking to invite us into his story of reconciliation, and commission us to missionally engage our neighborhoods with the good news of the kingdom.Joining the concepts of monasticism and mission, author Jon Huckins will walk you through six postures of missional formation: listening, submerging, inviting, contending, imagining, and entrusting. As you begin to employ these postures, become apprentices of Jesus who are committed to living in and experiencing the thin places.Through Thin Places, create a fertile soil to commune with God, live in deep community with others, and extend the good news of the kingdom in your local contexts.

Genres: Christian, Faith, Theology, Nonfiction, Christianity, Church

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2012

About the author

Jon Huckins is a pastor and the cofounding director of The Global Immersion Project, a peacemaking training organization helping individuals and communities move toward conflict equipped to heal rather than to win. After much international travel and study in the Middle East, Jon focuses his writing and speaking on peacemaking, local/global engagement, and activating the Church as an instrument of peace in our world. Jon has written for numerous publications including USAToday, Red Letter Christians, Sojourners, and RELEVANT. His books include Thin Places: Six Postures for Creating and Practicing Missional Community and Teaching Through the Art of Storytelling, and he is a contributing author to multiple books. Jon regularly speaks at churches, universities, and conferences and has a master’s degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in theology and ethics. He lives in San Diego with his wife, Jan, three daughters, and one son, where they colead an intentional Christian community seeking to live as a reconciling presence in their neighborhood of Golden Hill.

Reviews

[Stephen Boutry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four things I appreciated about this book:

1) Jon and the Neiucommunities tribe pay careful attention to their context. They listen and respond, rather than impose.
2) They believe that an integrated lifestyle is possible. This is probably my favorite part of the book. Sojourn sometimes takes some flack (externally and internally) for trying to do three things well (mission, church, justice)…some look at that and say, if you want to be a truly great non-profit only do one. It is important to have “integration heroes” and so this book was inspiring from that standpoint.
3) They are all about leadership development. I love this emphasis and I will steal some of these ideas for my leadership development!
4) The heartbeat of this book is for the neighborhood, and that is something I feel I need to recapture, so thanks for challenging me to more present in this place that I call home!

[Daniel Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

An accessible little book that is well-suited for initiating conservations on missional church practices. I can see it being a great group read. I appreciate how the author did not serve up a formula full of specific checkboxes for achieving a healthy missional church; instead pointing towards the spirit behind his community's story, and challenging us to emulate it in our own way. I will not say my mind was blown at any point with a new thought or idea, but I don't think that was the point. In fact learn from me - don't read it alone! Conversations around the subject matter are likely to challenge and inspire.

[Luke Hillier · Rating 3 out of 5]

To start, I have a BONE TO PICK! (So if you're involved in writing this maybe don't read it because I'm sure you're a really lovely person and I'm sorry I'm just in a critical mood!) I came across the concept of "thin places" a few years back and was struck by how resonant I found the term in connection to experiences I'd been having in my North Philly neighborhood upon arriving. However, almost everything I found written about it either had to do with its original Celtic context or other places known for their beauty and sacredness. When I came across this book, I was so, so thrilled to have found an exploration of the topic within the context of neighborhoods like my own.

Unfortunately, that is not what this book was. And honestly, I find that really, really unfortunate, because it's something I really want to be written, and I felt a bit duped into getting my hopes up that it had been. Considering the title of this book, I feel a bit justified in my grumpiness around how peripheral the concept of thin places itself was. The only time it's defined is in the back-of-the-book bio and then four or five mentions of it strewn about, mostly in the final chapter.

Now, pivoting towards what the book actually was: Fine. It was an enjoyable enough read with some good points and a lot of fine ones. I think as a whole it felt a bit unfocused to me, with some pieces of the chapter feeling disconnected from others while other portions felt really repetitive. A lot of the biblical commentary felt like stuff I've heard before and the narrative anecdotes about members of the community felt, well, anecdotal, like a Great Example rather than an authentic recounting. Not to suggest they aren't authentic, just that they felt really neatly packaged for consumption. But that's not to say these were glaring, hugely problematic flaws, they just contributed to a feeling of "this is fine."

There were, however, some gems here! Although credit goes mostly to Scott Peck's "The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace." I appreciated the simplified application of those concepts here along with his effort to name a handful of common pitfalls to community. Based on my own experiences living in intentional communities and now leading those who do, he was pretty spot on and I really valued the apparent wisdom he's cultivated around that subject. I also appreciated his emphasis on "living sent" in the final chapter and how that's more of a posture than a location or action. Honestly, I resonated with all five of the postures, I just think they could have each been developed more deeply than they were. However, my favorite part was when he wrote about "lingering" and the importance of that in this kind of ministry. It was incredibly resonant for me in my own current experiences and held a lot of truth I hadn't heard articulated in such a way before. So, ultimately, I'm glad to have read it but won't necessarily be suggesting it to folks down the road.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

the six postures and the way he talks about community was really beautiful and powerful to hear. some of the book seemed too focused on evangelism for my liking. I'd love a book about community for its own sake, not for the sake of evangelism.

[Dave Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Narrative look at several missional communities living lives in Christ.

[Josh Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful, practical and compelling vision of a formational, communal, missional life.

Fantastic primer

[Gary Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely feature of this book, and its driving force, is its humility in presenting to the world insights from the shared experience of a particular network of intentional communities. In a way somewhat softer than the title might indicate, they do not prescribe for others. They do not declare the One True Way to Intentional Community. Rather they have studied their own life together in the Gospel, and have discerned six "postures" or inner and outer stances that have proved valuable enough to shape their covenants and their work.

The book does fall at times into what I think of as a bit of a trap, referring to true community, or authentic community, or other similar terms as if there is one objective ideal. Historically the variety of Christian communities is very broad and diverse, both in the ways communities are shaped and the kinds of relationships that they foster.

There are wonderful insider stories told here and they are evocative and moving, inspiring in lots of ways.

The authors do not draw heavily on historical models for their work, but their brief forays into such examples as St. Patrick and Celtic Christianity are helpful and grounding.

[Angela Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

All points

This book hit all points of engagement with me. It used tradition, scripture, reason and most importantly, story, to lead me through their practices and deeper calling to community. At several points while reading this book I was acutely aware that I was indeed in a Thin Place, touching on both heaven and earth at the same time.

[Lee Bertsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

The concept of postures is a helpful way to think about missional communities engaging their local neighborhoods. It takes us beyond trying to mimic the ways of the group who are behind this book and instead allows us all to approach our own locale with more openness.

[Eric Purcell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple and down to earth with a bit of prophetic. If you're wanting inspiration and a look into what could be for the Church this is a good book. Its an introduction to some really cool things Rob Yackley et all have learned. If you're looking for in depth discussion, you'll have to keep waiting.

[Robert Bishop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thin Places lagged a bit in the middle, especially in the chapter about Imagination. However, the introduction contains one of the better articulations of the missional-monastic movement, and for that reason I recommend this book as an introductory text.

[Erin Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great primer for urban monastics, missionaries, and average joes.

[Gloria Sigountos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would recomend reading this in a group setting. I would not have gotten nearly as much out of it if it hadn't been for the people I read it with.