Summer's almost over, and students are heading back to school. (By the way, the typical school schedule and calendar remind us that church folks aren't the only ones wrestling with obsolete traditions. The five-hour school day and 200-day school year originated in an agrarian society, which has changed a great deal in recent years.)

Pastors and lay leaders who guide older congregations to renewal are lifelong learners. We reckon that back-to-school season is a good time for us to emphasize this important characteristic of renewal leaders.

Assumptions block learning, and most churches over 40 are filled with well-meaning people with gigantic assumptions about Christian life and ministry. This month we review "UnLearning Church" by Michael Slaughter with Warren Bird. We also review the websites of several churches that Slaughter claims are "UnLearning" - and have the spiritual fruit to prove it.

In his Foreword to "UnLearning Church," Len Sweet reports that brilliant philosopher Willard Quine (1908-2000) took all the "?" keys off his typewriters. He quipped that he didn't need them because he dealt in certainties! It shall not be so among you. In this season of renewed learning, we pray that the Lord will give you a teachable spirit, for "If any one imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know" (1 Corinthians 8:2).