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Buried Seeds: Learning from the Vibrant Resilience of Marginalized Christian Communities
This book demonstrates how two overlooked ministry models--base ecclesial communities of the Global South in the late 20th century and hush harbors of the US Deep South during antebellum times--offer proven strategies for the 21st-century church. These ministry models provide insight into the creation and sustenance of vital Christian community, particularly for those seeking indigenous culturally-rooted models, and show how to and show how to integrate vibrant Christ-centered faith and mission with world-changing social justice and political action. The book includes on-the-ground stories from multiethnic communities, a foreword by Robert Chao Romero, and an afterword by Willie James Jennings.
- GenresTheology
256 pages, Paperback
Published October 4, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 17, 2022
What might the church at large learn from marginalized Christian communities? At a time when many question the relevance of traditional institutional structures, this is a pertinent question. Many marginalized Christian communities live without the traditional trappings, and yet they often thrive and take a lead in lifting those on the margins. So, perhaps there is much to learn.
Alexia Salvatierra and Brandon Wrencher invite us to consider the witness of two forms of a Christian community, one that emerged in Latin America and the other within the American slavery experience. These would be the Basic Ecclesial Communities and the Hush Harbors. The two authors have explored, experienced, and witnessed how these two types of community exist and can help provide us with guidance as we navigate an uncertain future while recognizing God's commitment to justice for those who experience the margins.
I encountered Salvatierra through her book co-written with Peter Heltzel -- Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World. I read that book at a time when I was helping form a local faith-based organizing effort and found it extremely helpful. Salvatierra currently serves as a faculty member at Fuller Theological Seminary, where she also serves as the academic dean of Centro Latino. This is my first encounter with Brandon Wrencher, who is a minister and community organizer.
The Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC or CEB) emerged within the Roman Catholic church in Latin America and the Philippines. They are aligned to some extent with Liberation Theology. They tend to be group-led, gather to study scripture, and make application to their social conditions. These are small group gatherings that have not always had the support of the institutional church and often put themselves at odds with conservative governments. Perhaps the best-known expression of the BECs are the communities that emerged in Nicaragua, whose reflections were gathered together by Ernesto Cardenal in the Gospel of Solentiname, a text the authors draw upon. The Hush Harbors were gatherings of slaves, which occurred clandestinely so that they might worship outside the eye of the plantation owners. These gatherings were again lay-led/group-led and served in many cases as the starting place for slave escapes.
As they explore the witness of these two movements, they focus on five key themes: kinship, leader-full, consciousness, spirit-uality, and faith-full organizing. They use their reflections on these themes to show how "these principles and practices" are used "o cultivate vibrant, resilient, integral Christian communities led by marginalized people" (p. 4). They utilize the methodology of conscientization, a method that has roots in the work of educator Paulo Freire, and involves three steps - ver (to see), juzar (to judge/interpret), and actuar (to act on what is understood). Since participants come from different points of privilege, they use three personages throughout to reflect these differences -- thus we hear from the perspective of Lydia (a businesswoman who uses her power to support the ministry), Amos (a shepherd/prophet emerging out of the marginalized community), and Ruth (a migrant).
In the course of the book, the authors describe both the BECs (chapter 1), the Hush Harbors (chapter 2), from their the five themes of kinship, leader-full (the community itself is filled with leaders, even if not defined), consciousness, Spirit-uality, faith-full organizing. These thematic explorations are followed by a closing chapter titled Catch the Fire, which describes two contemporary communities, one from the Latinx community and the other from the African American community that reflect the themes explored earlier.
Having read widely over the years the works of Liberation Theologians, including works that explore the BECs, that effort is well known to me. I was not as aware of the Hush Harbor tradition, at least by that name. The critics of these movements charge these groups with being more political than religious, but as we see the religious has political implications, especially if one is living in a marginalized context. But this is not just a book for the marginalized communities, as they offer this as a witness to the whole church. Thus, this is a worthwhile book to explore.
Alexia Salvatierra and Brandon Wrencher invite us to consider the witness of two forms of a Christian community, one that emerged in Latin America and the other within the American slavery experience. These would be the Basic Ecclesial Communities and the Hush Harbors. The two authors have explored, experienced, and witnessed how these two types of community exist and can help provide us with guidance as we navigate an uncertain future while recognizing God's commitment to justice for those who experience the margins.
I encountered Salvatierra through her book co-written with Peter Heltzel -- Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World. I read that book at a time when I was helping form a local faith-based organizing effort and found it extremely helpful. Salvatierra currently serves as a faculty member at Fuller Theological Seminary, where she also serves as the academic dean of Centro Latino. This is my first encounter with Brandon Wrencher, who is a minister and community organizer.
The Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC or CEB) emerged within the Roman Catholic church in Latin America and the Philippines. They are aligned to some extent with Liberation Theology. They tend to be group-led, gather to study scripture, and make application to their social conditions. These are small group gatherings that have not always had the support of the institutional church and often put themselves at odds with conservative governments. Perhaps the best-known expression of the BECs are the communities that emerged in Nicaragua, whose reflections were gathered together by Ernesto Cardenal in the Gospel of Solentiname, a text the authors draw upon. The Hush Harbors were gatherings of slaves, which occurred clandestinely so that they might worship outside the eye of the plantation owners. These gatherings were again lay-led/group-led and served in many cases as the starting place for slave escapes.
As they explore the witness of these two movements, they focus on five key themes: kinship, leader-full, consciousness, spirit-uality, and faith-full organizing. They use their reflections on these themes to show how "these principles and practices" are used "o cultivate vibrant, resilient, integral Christian communities led by marginalized people" (p. 4). They utilize the methodology of conscientization, a method that has roots in the work of educator Paulo Freire, and involves three steps - ver (to see), juzar (to judge/interpret), and actuar (to act on what is understood). Since participants come from different points of privilege, they use three personages throughout to reflect these differences -- thus we hear from the perspective of Lydia (a businesswoman who uses her power to support the ministry), Amos (a shepherd/prophet emerging out of the marginalized community), and Ruth (a migrant).
In the course of the book, the authors describe both the BECs (chapter 1), the Hush Harbors (chapter 2), from their the five themes of kinship, leader-full (the community itself is filled with leaders, even if not defined), consciousness, Spirit-uality, faith-full organizing. These thematic explorations are followed by a closing chapter titled Catch the Fire, which describes two contemporary communities, one from the Latinx community and the other from the African American community that reflect the themes explored earlier.
Having read widely over the years the works of Liberation Theologians, including works that explore the BECs, that effort is well known to me. I was not as aware of the Hush Harbor tradition, at least by that name. The critics of these movements charge these groups with being more political than religious, but as we see the religious has political implications, especially if one is living in a marginalized context. But this is not just a book for the marginalized communities, as they offer this as a witness to the whole church. Thus, this is a worthwhile book to explore.
July 31, 2025
More difficult theological book to read through but has a lot of valuable info
I would say that this is not an accessible book both due to storytelling choices (Anonymity of characters in stories based on actual lived experiences of the authors) and also just the expectation that you have a working knowledge of Philippines, South American Socialist movements as well as Vatican II. It reads like an anthropology book which I think will cause people to just DNF
Still I learned a lot about BECs + Hush Harbors, their histories and even important lessons from pastoral leaders about building faith communities about equity, Justice deconstructing patriarchy
I would say that this is not an accessible book both due to storytelling choices (Anonymity of characters in stories based on actual lived experiences of the authors) and also just the expectation that you have a working knowledge of Philippines, South American Socialist movements as well as Vatican II. It reads like an anthropology book which I think will cause people to just DNF
Still I learned a lot about BECs + Hush Harbors, their histories and even important lessons from pastoral leaders about building faith communities about equity, Justice deconstructing patriarchy
May 31, 2024
An inspirational and thoughtful examination of what the Base Ecclesial Communities and Hush Harbors--historical communities of marginalized Christians--have to offer Christians in the present context, especially to marginalized Christians. The authors challenge us to learn from these historical examples, calling us to the work of shalom by renewing our commitments to solidarity, egalitarian leadership, and service to our communities, grounded holistic spiritual practices. Recommended.
August 24, 2025
God loves acts of selflessness and building community. We need to focus more time on building community with people instead of chasing after our own selfish gains. Good reminders.
October 2, 2025
This entire book should be the blue print for church today
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews