PRACTICAL THEOLOGY, SPIRITUALITY, and FORMATION
BURIED SEEDS Learning from the Vibrant Resilience of Marginalized Christian Communities Alexia Salvatierra and Brandon Wrencher
Foreword by Robert Chao Romero Afterword by Willie James Jennings
“They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.” In this book, Alexia Salvatierra and Brandon Wrencher explore two grassroots faith movements whose witness has been buried within the histories of the institutional church and secular justice move- ments: the base ecclesial communities of the Global South in the late twentieth century and the hush harbors of the US antebellum South. Buried Seeds demonstrates how these two overlooked ministry models offer proven wisdom and strategies for the twenty- first-century church. The authors show how these ministry models are treasure troves of insight into the creation and sustenance of vital Christian community, particularly for those seeking indigenous, culturally rooted models. They show that mission models must integrate social justice in order to speak to today’s generations with power. This book will help readers learn how to integrate vibrant Christ-centered faith and mission with world-changing social justice and political action. It includes compelling on-the-ground stories from multiethnic communities expressing alternative ministry models. FROM THE FOREWORD “As a professor of ethnic studies at UCLA and a pastor among jus- tice-minded Christians over many years, I have witnessed, with great sadness, the exodus of thousands of students and young adults from the US church because of the apathy toward and opposition to contemporary issues of racial justice expressed by large swaths of evangelicalism. As Salvatierra and Wrencher note, increasingly the church is not seen as a place to find holistic spir- itual community. Based on rigorous academic research and more than six decades of the authors’ grassroots ministry experience, this book offers a treasure of indigenous strategies of transforma- tion for those who are willing to engage the heritage and legacy of the BEC and hush harbor movements. Buried Seeds is a critical read both for scholars of missiology and church planting and for young Christian leaders of color around the world who wish to recover the radical roots of global Christianity.” —Robert Chao Romero
OCTOBER 2022 • 240 pp. • paper • $24.99 • 9781540964649
Alexia Salvatierra (DMiss, Fuller Theological Seminary), a national leader in faith engagement in immigrant justice for over twenty years, is assistant profes- sor of integral mission and global transformation at Fuller Theological Seminary. She serves as the madrina (godmother) of Matthew 25/Mateo 25, a network of immigrant and non-immigrant churches in Southern California. Brandon Wrencher (MDiv, North Park Theological Seminary) works across the US as a minister, organizer, writer, and trainer. He is a founding minister of Good Neighbor Movement, an alternative faith community based in Greensboro, North Carolina, which is a network of city villages patterned after the hush harbors and base communities.
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