UnLearning Church - Mike Slaughter

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differences and worship styles. They don't fit the same old classifications and they can't be traced to the same cookie-cutter mold. They all take a different tack, but they all excel in local implementation. They connect people in their communities or cultures to an experience of God, to authentic community, and to life purpose.

      If the emerging church is recognized and valued for anything, it's for a highly effective, indigenous carrying out of the mission of Jesus Christ. This next generation of churches goes far beyond a simple name change from "Methodist" or "Baptist" to "Community Church" or "Christian Center." These churches resist such categories as traditional or contemporary; conservative or liberal; large or small; suburban, urban, or rural; and even Catholic or Protestant. They don't fit neatly into categorized boxes. Each of their hearts is to uniquely demonstrate the presence of God in their own native settings.

      UnLearning churches each articulate and practice a unique call and identity. Like the four friends who brought the paralyzed man to Jesus by cutting a hole in the roof (Mark 2:3-4), these prophetic communities find creative ways to bring people to Jesus. The dominant expression of Christianity at Ginghamsburg is service. People primarily express their faith in Jesus by serving in a multitude of ways. For other churches, that unique call might be a healing ministry or the sending out of daughter churches.

      The specific mission and style of your congregation won't necessarily be the same as mine or anybody else's. Try to put a finger on God's vision for your church as you experience this book. I also encourage you to make specific commitments to spiritual growth that may help you get in touch with that unique vision.

      Patron Saints of Unlearning

      For any organization to have an impact, it needs a radical product. The church's radical product is revolutionary people—real followers of Jesus Christ, whom I describe in a previous book, Real Followers: Beyond Virtual Christianity (Abingdon, 1999). As churches take seriously Jesus' call to discipleship, their memberships change from consumer mind-sets to missional movements of God whose members demonstrate both personal and social holiness.

      When I used to hear the word church, I thought of something innocuous, boring, and bland. Christianity was nothing more than "nice-ianity." But once I started reading the New Testament, I discovered that Christianity is anything but nice. It is extreme. Everywhere these people went, scandal, fear, and violence followed them. Theirs was a radical faith!

      Think about the Christmas story, especially the unprecedented, supernatural way Mary became pregnant. If you were Joseph, shocked to hear that your fiancée, Mary, had a baby in her womb, would you believe the dream in which an angel of the Lord appeared to you? The angel said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 1:20).

      Everything within Joseph told him that the best thing to do would be to divorce Mary quietly. Instead, he acted on an intuitive sense of the Spirit. He took a huge risk in how he followed God.

      Fast-forward thirty years or so. The disciples, riding in a small boat on the Sea of Galilee and battling fierce waves and winds, saw Jesus walking calmly across the water. They were all terrified. Most of them couldn't recognize him, and thought it must be a ghost. Only Peter got out of the boat and walked on water because his faith told him that it was Jesus out there.

      Peter was the only one who risked. He chose to block out the voice of the storm. Instead, he focused on Jesus, who said, "Come." Peter did the impossible because he responded to the voice of Jesus instead of listening to the crashing waves and the fearful cries of others. He only got in trouble when he began to look at the raging storm rather than look into the eyes of the one who had said, "Follow me" (Matthew 4:19). Still, Peter was not a failure because he looked down and began to sink. If anyone failed, it was the eleven who stayed in the boat, waiting to see if it could be done.

      That same risk-taking shows up in dynamic people throughout history. Imagine, for example, growing up in eighteenthcentury Europe, when slavery was a long-established, virtually unchallenged tradition. Everyone around you said that slavery was normal, natural, unavoidable, and perhaps even necessary. Yet a Christian named William Wilberforce saw the unseen and took a faith risk. In 1789 he led a campaign against the British slave trade. He continued to champion the impossible. In 1807 the impossible happened: Great Britain abolished the slave trade in the British colonies. In 1833 an act of Parliament called for the emancipation of slaves throughout the British Empire.

      Here in the United States, a man named Millard Fuller believed he could change the face of housing for the poor in America. He founded an organization called Habitat for Humanity, which has built more than one hundred thousand homes around the world for people in need—all "because of Jesus," he says. "We are putting God's love into action."1

      Even our fantasy world applauds the idea of taking risks to do the impossible. In the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana steps out onto a bridge that isn't yet there, or at least doesn't seem to be there. Instead of falling to his death, however, he rests his foot on something solid but heretofore unseen.

      God has chosen you, called you, gifted you, and promised a fulfillment of your life mission. God would not create you for failure. Your success is based on your willingness to risk stepping out and obediently following God. All of us experience seasons of doubt and frustration; unLearning leaders step out of the boat anyway.

      Frighteningly and Radically Called

      I remember one of my first encounters with God. It seemed God was chasing me. It was the summer of 1967, and I was at a real low point in my life. Two of my friends had just been busted for drugs. My mom and dad were frustrated with me. They decided to send me down south to visit relatives I had never met. They wanted to "keep me in touch with my roots," they said.

      During that time, I would lie, cheat, or do anything to get what I wanted. I even had some help at breaking the rules. A few days before graduation from high school, one teacher changed an F to a D so I could graduate. In another class, I copied off of someone else's exam so I could pass. I had no interest in doing what pleased God.

      Yet God was chasing me, and these God-whispers would pop up everywhere I went. In fact, all these God-whispers troubled me so much that I remember calling my girlfriend long-distance to talk about it. God had never bothered me like this before. God even went ahead of me into the restroom of a two-pump gas station in the backwaters of rural Arkansas. There, scrawled on the wall above the urinal, were these words: "Jesus saves all who want him."

      The outcome of this experience and others in the ensuing months was life changing. I truly encountered the resurrected Jesus Christ, which ultimately changed everything. Jesus saved me, and I wanted him. My encounter with God in my late teens was revolutionary. From that time forward, I knew I wanted to reach a target population that has been turned off or out by the established church. This group represents a huge number of people. On any given weekend, up to three-quarters of Americans2— and an even higher number of Canadians3—are not in church. Those are the people I want to reach. I'm thankful for congregations that nurture the already churched, but I'm interested in finding ways to speak to the unchurched.

      Jesus moved into my life, changing my priorities, my values, and my relationships. He transformed everything in my life." Christ in me" is the source of resurrection power. It comes only through my being dead, buried, and out of the way. When we say "yes" to Jesus, we are "buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4).

      I want to invest my life in those who want to pursue radical Christianity. The emerging leader is not enamored with the latest religion of self-actualization. The religion of talk-show television is a rudderless spirituality. Jesus calls us to self-expenditure, not self-infatuation. He says, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it" (Luke 9:23-24).

      I don't want to lead a

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