I just found this Seminary Paper by a Church of the Saviour member (in the community called “The Seeker’s Church”—read on in this article for an explanation of how Seekers and Church of the Saviour are related, and why I say this author is a COS member and a member of Seekers Church. Lots of quotes from Call to Commitment (and probably other Elizabeth O’Connor books).

Who Do We Say We Are? A Question For The Seekers Church

author: Kate Cudlipp,Washington, D.C.April 2002
Some highlights from the above link

As I thought about my limitations, it came to me that these are the very reasons I am part of a community. My vision is partial. I need others to help me see more clearly and expansively what is, and to open for me new vistas of what might be. It is through others that God’s vision for creation is made available to me, and through me, I believe, that others sometimes see glimpses of that vision. My goal in this paper is to initiate conversations. Thus, it is my hope that the observations and reflections in the last section will contribute to the ongoing conversations that help us grow in our life together and become more authentically one small expression of the Body of Christ.

Yes, we DO need a community; a “company of the conmmitted”. That “Peaceable Community”. One of Elizabeth O’Connor’s later updates to the history of COS is The New Community (Harper and Row 1976, the year I first read Call to Commitment and Journey Inward, Journey Outward) These are absolutely the most inspiring, moving, and challenging stories of what it is to be Church I have ever read. I never expect anything else in that category to touch it.

The still-small church took on another physical project out of a call to plant a place of hospitality in the city. It rented a vacant storefront space in the Adams-Morgan neighborhood, spent hundreds of members’ hours cleaning and turning the space into a warm place for the public, and in 1960, opened the Potter’s House, a coffee house that offered much more than coffee. It was envisioned as a welcoming place for any who cared to wander in, a place for music and art, a place where church members could gather to discuss and pray and plan for new calls. It was to be a place of living evangelism. Several C of S members who would later become members of Seekers Church were part of one of the various mission groups that grew up around the Potter’s House.

The Potter’s House was way before its time, but it’s ministry still goes on. They are now a sister community in the Church of the Saviour tradition, along with the Seeker’s Church from which this author writes. It’s coffeehouse predates the hippy, cool generation of the late 60’s and the 70’s. I visited it in 1984, 1995, and 1996, and met Elizabeth O’Connor, as well as Gordon Cosby (the 1984 visit was a youth “Mission trip” where our group helped out on a couple of their projects, and took a “tour” of the many ministries of Church of the Saviour (their Feed the Hungry program, Health Clinic, Jubilee Jobs, and Jubilee Housing, Christ House , a nd on and on and on. There was a mission group during those years to aid the people of Nicaragua, who were under siege from both sides of a civil war , one side being supplied and armed by our government. Part of this group’s mission was to raise awareness of this in the halls of government, in addition to getting aid and supplies and arranging protection for the peasant farmers under attack. This community has known no bounds. And their “membership” is just over 100. They have many more heavily involved persons, some of which are “intern members”. The membership expecations and “process” is quite unique, and much is expected. It all centers around MISSION GROUPS and CALL; each mission group is also a small group committed to accountable discipleship with one another (the Inward Journey) and carrying out their MISSION (the Outward JOurney) Thus the name of the “sequel” to Call to Commitment, Journey Inward, Journey Outward.

The quest to which the Church of the Saviour is devoted is this: Is it possible, in the twentieth century, working with people recently turned from secularism or from merely nominal Christianity, to create conditions under which the Living Christ shall manifest himself as he did when his church was young? Is there any leaven by which the mere numbers of a great congregation can be transformed into dynamic, redemptive fellowships? Can the Church of the Saviour act as a pilot project, a demonstration of the kind of fellowship which Christ required of his followers, a fellowship so intensely alive that it will shine as a harbor light to men and women puzzled and lost?

(My bold) Demonstation of the Fellowship possible; one that cannot help but shine as a light.

Another formulation of the essence of the church in that booklet notes that, “From the earliest days of the church…a core assumption has been that the greatest impact on the world comes about by small, highly committed and disciplined communities of people focused on outward mission, inward transformation, and loving, accountable community.”

Where is this to happen in my life in the near future? I feel ready (and yet again, intimidated, but knowing that my very life with God depends upon it.)

(I have a “short history of COS” in the small boook of Elizabeth O’Connor’s, reproduced completely online with the author’s permission in 1995, Servant Leaders, Servant Structures or here, on this blog, starting here, and work your way up through the chapter sections.)