“reJesus” the Church

 

 My son Luke sent this poem to me from a friend, Nathan Brown.

My exact sentiments…

Verb PlayWhen I’m forced to spend time around zealous minister types, I keep hearing the necessity of reaching out to the “unchurched.” The obvious implication being: we need to “church” the “unchurched.”

Now, this particular verbish usage of the word “unchurch” does not appear in my fairly large dictionary. What I do see is the transitive verb that means excommunicate. This definition is clearer to me. And it helps me organize my response:

Dear friends, our deepest need is not to “church” the “unchurched,” but to “dechurch” the “enchurched” — that is to say, the excessively “churched.”

God Save Me from Your Followers

has ceased to be a humorous bumper sticker. It is now a genuine fear for many of the “unchurched” to which you refer.

And as we look for solutions, a good place to start would be to “depolitic” “enchurched” leaders. But, in the end, [and while we're in the practice of verbing up nouns] nothing — and I reiterate — nothing supercedes the desperate need for Christians to “reJesus” the church.

Nathan Brown nub@ou.edu