A new way to follow Jesus that draws on old ways of following him. Prominent progressive writer, speaker, and minister Robin Meyers proposes that the best way for the faithful to recapture the spirit of the early Christian church is to recognize that Jesus-following was - and must be again - subversive in the best sense of the word because the gospel taken seriously turns the world upside down. No matter how the church may organize itself or worship, the defining characteristic of the church of the future will be its Jesus-inspired countercultural witness.

Robin Meyers

Praise for The Underground Church

Other books by Robin Meyers

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PROLOGUE: Empty Sermons, Empty Pew

1. Sweet Jesus: Talking His Melancholy Madness

2. The Early Church That Never Was

3. Waking Up in Bed with Constantine

4. Onward Christian Soldiers?

5. Faith as Radically Embodied Trust

6. Renewing the Church Through Shared Mission

7. Leavening the Imperial Loaf

8. Jesus Followers on the No-Fly List

9. The Underground Church on War, Sex, Money, Family, and the Environment

EPILOGUE: Beyond Belief: The Manifesto of the Underground Church

Notes

The author

Prominent progressive writer, speaker, and minister Robin Meyers proposes that the best way for the faithful to recapture the spirit of the early Christian church is to recognize that Jesus-following was - and must be again - subversive in the best sense of the word because the gospel taken seriously turns the world upside down.

'When was the last time you thought of going to church as dangerous? Once we challenged the status quo; now we mostly defend it. The Underground Church tells the story of how we forgot where we came from and why we must recover our subversive roots. Read it if you dare. Become part of the movement if you are daring.' Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Robin Meyers is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC), tenured professor in the philosophy department at Oklahoma City University, syndicated columnist, and award-winning commentator for National Public Radio. He has written four other books: With Ears to Hear: Preaching as self-persuasion (Pilgrim Press, 1993); Morning Sun on a White Piano: Simple pleasures and the sacramental life (Doubleday, 1998), The Virtue in the Vice: Finding seven lively virtues in the seven deadly sins, ((Jossey-Bass, 2008), Why the Christian Right Is Wrong: A minister's manifesto for taking back your faith, your flag, and your future (Jossey-Bass, 2006, expands on an anti-war speech delivered at the University of Oklahoma that became an Internet phenomenon).

The Good Book Stall

"We have so long defined ourselves by who and what we are not that we have almost forgotten entirely who and what we are." So begins Robin Meyers at the start of this remarkable book in which he seeks to rediscover the essential components of what should be the defining characteristics of the church.

Meyers' critique of the church is staggeringly accurate ("More passion is generated by a service that runs too long than by the destruction of the planet.") His analysis of what has gone wrong returns - as other commentators have before him - to the effect of, as he puts it "waking up in bed with Constantine". Political recognition has compromised the church and dragged us further and further from the heart of Jesus' call. We are in bed today with the imperial forces of global consumerism determined to wreck God's world and the church has nothing to say - or more importantly perhaps - lives in such a compromised and complicit way that its words, however heroic and well-intentioned, will never be heard.

Meyers' solution is to call upon Christians to rediscover the gospel by placing trust in God, truly loving one another sacrificially and countering the imperial forces of today's culture by deliberate acts of subversion. Translating this from Meyers' American context to the UK naturally - at least for us Anglicans - raises questions about the future of the established church. But more fundamental questions are raised too - just how many Christians are there that would recognise the subversive nature of the Jesus that Meyers describes? And how many of them are prepared to act upon it? As the church seeks to adjust to the reality of its own powerlessness Meyers asks some vital questions we all need to consider.

The Underground Church

Underground Church

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Underground Church

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