Congregation enlists 'Forrest Gump' to find one lost soul out of 99 Religion Today Wednesday, September 1, 1999 What kind of church rocks to a Sly & the Family Stone song? Or draws inspiration from a Forrest Gump film clip? One that has a "99 and 1" mentality toward reaching the lost, says Mike Slaughter, senior pastor of Ginghamsburg Church. Jesus Christ said that when 99 sheep are safe but one is missing, all of the shepherd's efforts, resources, strategizing, planning, and attention must go to find the missing sheep, he says. His church, a United Methodist congregation located in a small town in Ohio, is in the business of finding missing sheep. Ginghamsburg, which has 22 houses, is 6 miles from tiny Tip City and 16 miles from Dayton, a city of 180,000. Yet the church draws crowds -- about 3,800 people come on Sundays to its four multisensory services. Slaughter preaches from a stool in front of a huge screen filled throughout the service with images concocted by the church's video and graphics specialists, including a full-time animator. Services often include short dramatic presentations to reinforce the sermon's theme. Rousing start to services Many services jump to a rousing start with a secular song "to achieve a real connection with people," Slaughter told Religion Today. The Sly & the Family Stone tune "Stand" and a scene from the movie Forrest Gump in which the main character walked as his braces come off set up the service's theme of "stand and walk," he said. The church is relatively unusual but not unique. It considers itself to be one of a number of cutting-edge congregations willing to go to extremes to be like the Good Shepherd, seeking after the lost sheep. That means rethinking services that put people - especially secular young people -- to sleep. When non-Christians are present, God should be discussed in terms they can understand, Slaughter says. "We can't overwhelm people with high-minded theological language. We must use basics to teach the infinite." People long for a sense of mystery, he said. The modern church has "reduced mystery to definitions and symbols. We think we can explain and understand. People today want an experience, not a definition. They don't go to church because they don't think they can find Him there." Reclaiming the mystery "Church bores people because the mystery has been removed," Slaughter says. "Cathedrals once were filled with incense. There were wonderful paintings and murals to capture our senses. There were stained-glass sculptures and carvings," he said. That kind of thinking is radical for many Protestant churches; however, in Slaughter's opinion, that is the way the 21st century church is headed – but in new kinds of ways. It will "connect people with God. They will be able to experience God. I want my senses, the whole of me, to be aware of God's presence." Slaughter considers small-group meetings, known as "cell groups," the wave of the future. "Christianity happens in community," he said. "Large groups are not community. Culture is moving from mass to de-mass. Small groups become family and community. People are formed in loving relationships. The cell is the basis of transformation."

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