Customer Reviews

Unlearning Church: Just When You Thought You Had Leadership All Figured Out

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I usually read a book of 175 pages in 2 - 5 days, however it took me 3 weeks to read this book. The reason is because I had to stop and think, ponder and strive to understand how the principles presented would change my life and ministry. I read many paragraphs 2 or 3 times as I hungered to ingest and internalize these "street level" principles for ministry that really touches people where they live. I highly recommend this book to anyone who feels unchalleged by the ministries and purpose of their local church. "Unlearning Church" is a book that will stir your heart to both experience and live out real faith and purpose.

It's time for church leadership to wake up and see that those they want to reach for Chrisitianity are DIFFERENT than they are! Younger, in-touch with today's communications venues - but yearning for God (just as many of us have been). Slaughter uses vivid examples of how some churches have woken up to this fact. And, in a lively writing and textual font style of presentation brings this point home. As an older (age 50+) church leader my eyes are beginning to open. And,as Slaughter points out, a whole new adventure is beginning. Jesus Christ was, and is relevant - a simple fact not to be forgotten.

Mike Slaughter has been one of the most articulate voices of the emerging church movement and his work at Ginghamsburg UMC has been liberating for many of us in the mainline denominationns.

Slaughter emphasizes the need to develop a church that takes seriously the mission to embody Christ in a way that responds to the culture the church finds itself in. This is more than the use technology and contemporary stuff approach, moving on to an organic embodiment of the kingdom. Slaughter says that the answers of Ginghamsburg are not necessarily your (or my) answers as that may not be authentic for our situation. He says to do this we have to unlearn church as we know it.

He mixes his insights with stories of churches that he considers to be effectively unlearning church and a series of questions at the end of each chapter to encourage the reader to actively unlearn what he/she "knows" to be true

My only problem with the book is that I've heard it in so many venues that it did not seem new, but that is more my issue than Slaughter's