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Olsen, Steen, 2020.

Jacob’s Ladder: Missional Church in the 1970s.

St. Marys, Australia: SA & RL Olsen.

isbn-13: 978-06-4899-680-4

Reviewed by Patrick R. Keifert
President and Director of Research, Church Innovations Institute, Saint Paul, 
Minnesota USA 
pkeifert@churchinnovations.org

“Once upon a time,” there was a Christian community in Adelaide, Australia 
called Jacob’s Ladder. Unlike most new Christian communities in that time, 
Jacob’s Ladder was midwifed by very young, inexperienced Christians engaging 
in a street ministry centered, initially, in a coffee house. The coffee house was at 
the top of a flight of stairs, hence Jacob’s Ladder.

Somethings about Steen Olsen’s book encouraged me to read Jacob’s Lad-
der as a fairytale. Reading it as a fairytale allows distance for the teller and those 
told. I am a friend of Steen’s and needed some distance from the book and the 
teller. I realize that using the fairytale genre can sound like I think the story 
is not true. I do not mean that at all. Some fairytales limit the kinds of truth 
claims to nostalgia or a 1960s Disneyland retelling of a fairytale. Such a fairytale 
would not meet the interest and purposes needed for using Jacob’s Ladder for 



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purposes of Ecclesial Futures. However, fairytales can allow for multiple lay-
ers of meaning, meaningfulness and truth claims, especially through nostalgic 
realism. Jacob’s Ladder uses nostalgic realism. Much more of the truth to be had 
from it comes from interpreting it as a fairytale.

By way of nostalgic realism, Jacob’s Ladder invites the reader interested 
in Ecclesial Futures a chance to find a useable future in our past. In particular, 
Jacob’s Ladder allows a retiring generation to tell its story to younger genera-
tions without pretending to just present the facts or that contemporary circum-
stances are not in important ways different. Quite to the contrary, the nostalgic 
realism of Jacob’s Ladder allows the present reader an insight into the mythos, 
the social imagination, and the shards of the metanarrative that made Jacob’s 
Ladder possible and that led to its demise. I find by this approach that it then 
provides enduring insights for contemporary work on ecclesial futures.

Some of the obvious insights.
The chief actors in this fairytale are young, very young, naïve, inexperi-

enced adults. I remain amazed what the young can accomplish that as an older, 
experienced person would not even try. These young adults worked the streets, 
took up conversations with persons who would simply never be attracted to a 
local church. Rather than initially see themselves as the hosts, they sought to be 
those hosted by the street folk. They listened with the expectation that God was 
up to something in these people’s lives. They discerned God’s movement in the 
relationships they developed. Over time they formed new kinds of households 
and communities. Some worked and some didn’t.

They were remarkably naïve about sex, power and money. As someone 
who has spent years studying and consulting with congregations, I have learned 
sex, power and money drive much of the life of Christian community. As the 
early monastic movement learned, it was necessary to take three vows: chastity, 
poverty and obedience. No matter how we might shape our ecclesial futures, 
the remarkable spiritual discernment of naivete and wisdom with respect to 
sex, power and money remains.

One of the greatest strengths of the narrative of Jacob’s Ladder is the sup-
porting evidence from diverse persons, organizations and periods in the life of 
this local church community. Not everyone has the same story to tell:

1. The narratives do not provide a seamless sense of community development.
2. Different perspectives make for clear lines of conflict without reducing the 

conflict to simple resolutions.
3. The enduring failures of established, inherited church and this fledg-

ling ministry to find ways forward remain common. I think of the 



Patrick R. Keifert—Jacob’s Ladder

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challenging work of ‘Fresh Expressions’ and the inherited church in the 
United Kingdom.

4. The critical place of spiritual practices of prayer, listening, reading and 
worship.

5. The power of and the remarkable upspringing of the arts: drama, music, 
dance, graphic arts etc. I find this evidence especially confirming the 
insights of the importance of the expression of the aesthetic in our lives as 
central to forming local churches.

6. Perhaps because this is a “Lutheran” local church, the place of Scripture 
and theology stands out. Be that as it may, communities require a shared 
narrative and Christian community grows well out of a biblical narrative. 
Further, some reflective moments are necessary if a community is to learn 
anything. No one learns from experience alone but only from experience 
reflected upon and articulated. This narrative gives ample examples of 
learning from experience.

This last point of action/reflection learning leads me to a most obvious note: 
the author of this fairytale is himself a part of the tale. Imagine Ella telling Cin-
derella. Steen Olsen tells the tale of Jacob’s Ladder. He draws from a myriad of 
relationships, evidence, memories, original texts and plausible narratives. He 
brings the wisdom of someone who becomes a bishop, teacher and church-
wide director of mission. He kindly tells a tale that makes himself and oth-
ers uncomfortable: nostalgic realism. He hints at darker realities but does not 
shame or blame.

As a friend of Steen, I had my doubts that I was an appropriate reviewer 
of this book. Hence the need to get some distance through the conceit of a 
fairytale. Be that as it may, I advise you to read this book, retell its tale, and gain 
insight in this past for ecclesial futures.




