UnLearning Church. Mike Slaughter

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СКАЧАТЬ everyone seemed to aspire to become. Our culture preferred Wal-Mart superstores to the corner drugstore and giant Home Depots to local hardware stores. It made sense for churches to follow that same pattern.

      To move forward, I have had to unLearn the megachurch and CEO models. If we continue to copy the models of the 1980s and 1990s, we're going to miss the next generation. I'm now learning to take my cues from the age-group that's under thirty-five. A one-size-fits-all approach toward growth will definitely not be the most effective model of the twenty-first century.

      Change is so constant today that no one can predict the effective church of the future, yet I don't believe it will be the shopping-mall-size megachurch. As many growing churches have demonstrated, once you exceed an attendance of four hundred, a majority of growth can be transfer growth from already-churched populations. Some megachurches have seen success in reaching unchurched populations, but too often church growth in the United States and Canada does not represent net gains for the kingdom of God.

      A seismic shift is occurring in the practice of church. Emerging churches are defying many of the formulas of the late-twentiethcentury church-growth movement. The newest islands of health and hope are not the "Fortune 500 churches"—the established models of the 1980s and 1990s that everyone was trying to clone. A new breed of churches is emerging, led by a new generation of young innovators who noticeably resist trying to duplicate the successful church-growth models of the last century.

      What's Your "One Thing"?

      Like those two churches I described above, unLearning churches are finding their special niche where they can connect with certain people better than any other church can. I recently visited five growing churches in Oklahoma City, each with one thousand or more in attendance, but they're all distinct in the ways they are appealing to and serving that city. They are not all trying to look like the same megachurch model. One church emphasizes the Creation. Its campus is full of waterfalls and living plants, and it sponsors a wide diversity of life-generating ministries in the community, from an eye clinic in the inner city to programs for ex-offenders. Another communicates the atmosphere of a high-class hotel, featuring a more classical appearance and reaching the upper-middle class with strong ministries to singles and blended families.

      These churches may all share the same geographic area, but they are reaching distinctly different people groups. The distinctiveness of churches like these goes far beyond denominational 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 СКАЧАТЬ