Unarmed Empire: In Search of Beloved Community

Shunned. Condemned. Controlled. Describing church believers and nonbelievers deploy stinging terms to define an imperial culturally privileged and powerful American force. Church has become synonymous with shame exclusion and hostility. This is not the church of Jesus. American Christians are victims of a deliberate and shortsighted scheme designed to identify and defeat religious cultural and sexual Others. From the language of makers and takers to if youre not for us youre against us to the continual suggestion that we are soldiers in a constant series of wars--the war on women the war on the family the war on Christians the war on Christmas the war on terror and much more--Christians are near the heart of enmity. The New Testament however seeks to create an alternative community--a community devoid of fear wherein Gods love and acceptance are mediated to all people through the grace of Jesus. In Unarmed Empire Sean Palmer reclaims the New Testaments vision of the church as an alternative community of welcome harmony and peace. Unarmed Empire is for everyone whos been misled about church. Its for everyone who feels blacklisted by believers everyone who has been hurt. Its for everyone longing for a purer experience of church. Sean Palmer has made a beautiful discovery. He discovered a pearl of great price buried in the back yard of Christianity. He wants to share that treasure with you through his new book Unarmed Empire. If you share in this discovery youll discover why he is so passionate about it. Youll want to share it too. --Brian D. McLaren author of The Great Spiritual Migration Sean Palmer is a skilled storyteller a deep thinker an insightful writer and a faithful follower of Jesus. In Unarmed Empire Palmer sagely assesses the church--both as it was intended to be and as it is. While acknowledging the churchs faults flaws and failures Palmer nevertheless casts a hopeful vision of the church as it can be reminding us that no matter how lost we are we can always find our way Home. --Sarah Thebarge author of The Invisible Girls and WELL: Healing Our Beautiful Broken World from a Hospital in West Africa Brilliantly weaving together story memoir cultural criticism biblical exegesis and theological commentary Sean Palmer has written the best book about the church I have ever read. By turns pastoral and prophetic Unarmed Empire is a manifesto for the church an urgent plea to become Gods beloved community. --Richard Beck author blogger professor of psychology Abilene Christian University This book is frustrating. Its frustrating because it chafes against our fallen natures quest for power. Its frustrating because it confounds conventional wisdoms preservation of status quo. Mostly its frustrating because its so biblical and Christ-centered that theres no way for a follower of Jesus to dismiss it. Caveat Lector: Let the Reader Beware! This will not be easy to absorb but it is necessary if we ever hope to become the beloved community imagined in Scripture. --John Alan Turner Church Consultant Author of Crazy Stories; Sane God We modern evangelicals have long been proponents of defending the faith but rarely have we stopped to ask Defending it from what or (maybe more appropriately) whom? and when the faith has been adequately defended Who was defeated in the process? Sean invites us into a better story an unapologetically biblical story that has been there all along. Its not about acquiescing to culture its about the way of Christ which is laying down our lives for those around us. --Shane Blackshear Writer and host of the podcasts Seminary Dropout and OnRamp Sean Palmer is a thoughtful provocative writer speaker and podcaster who has been named by Christian Standard magazine as one of its 40 Under 40 leaders. Sean is the Teaching Pastor at Ecclesia Houston a multi-site church in Houston