The term the unchurched is a way of referring to people who have not had the opportunity to be instructed in the principles of a system of belief. It is simply a way of describing people who have no discernible ingrained bias one way or the other – other than having a fallen nature of course.
In my situation, as a teenager who was being introduced into the things of the Lord, when I began reading about the role of the Holy Spirit within the Scriptures, particularly within Acts and First Corinthians, I had no prior bias one way or the other. In fact, as I was being nurtured within a somewhat spiritually naive congregation, who knew little if anything of the Ministry of the Holy Spirit, my ‘knowledge’ or lack of understanding with the things of the Spirit kept me on much the same level as my unsaved friends who had not had any opportunity to hear the Gospel.
From memory, I cannot recall ever hearing even part of a Sunday message or a mid-week teaching session that spoke of cessationism or Continuism, so when I came across passages about tongues, even though I understood nothing about these ‘strange things’, I still knew that they were apparently for today and that they were not spoken human languages, other than with the singular event of the Day of Pentecost.
So when I was invited to attend an FGBMFI meeting on a Saturday morning, maybe 2 years after I ‘became churched’ and 18 months after I was Born Again, I was more than ready to accept the invitation as I was looking forward to having a few questions finally resolved.
So, in my opinion, we could obtain about a dozen unchurched individuals, where we provide them with a list of non-leading questions, then have them read Acts 2 and 1 Cor 12, 13 & 14 where I have little doubt that they would gain an understanding that would allow them to correctly instruct and correct a number of seasoned hard-core or aggressive cessationist leaders. I am of the strong view that hard-core cessationism is a system of unbelief that is forced upon the unsuspecting church-goer or Believer.
A very close friend of mine here in the UK, as a child in the late 1940s was sent to a church school. Part of his religious education was the series of classes leading up to his confirmation.
The school was linked to the Anglican Cathedral next door, so the actual confirmation service would be done by the local bishop. My friend and his best buddy were quite apprehensive of the whole event and had been secretly talking about it as they tried to work out what it all meant.
Their problem was that the whole service hinged around the children going down the central aisle of the Cathedral in twos and kneeling down in front of the bishop. He would lay hands on them and pray, and as per Anglican doctrine, they would receive the Holy Spirit, whatever that meant.
That was their problem, it was all a mystery to these eleven year old kids. What was the Holy Spirit?
Nevertheless, the day came and these two along with dozens of other kids stood in white gowns, waiting their turn for the bishop. Eventually, full of apprehension of something, they marched down the aisle and knelt before the man with the pointy hat.
As with the others before them, the bishop prayed and laid hands on them, and suddenly, unlike the others, these two kids were filled with the Holy Spirit and praising God in tongues.
The reaction of the clergy was furious and overwhelming. The two kids were set upon by shouting and screaming adults, yelling at them to stop their devilish noises, then swiftly dragged out the side door.
Needless to say this first experience of the Holy Spirit was turned by the Anglican clergy into a traumatic experience. Everything was forcibly shut down by the school staff with a pretence that it never happened.
From that moment onwards, church was an issue to be avoided like the plague for my friend, and that continued through adult life.
It wasn't till later in life, after alcoholism had almost destroyed his marriage and family, that my friend was persuaded into a local Christian Fellowship.
Once again, he encountered the same Holy Spirit that had been violently suppressed as a child.
As he witnessed the congregation praising the Lord in tongues, he knew he had come home.
This time he embraced the Holy Spirit, including the gift of tongues that first came on him as an unlearned child. He was totally delivered of alcoholism and his marriage was healed.
Probably the most significant point is that these two children had actually received the gift of the Holy Spirit along with speaking in tongues, despite the utter unbelief and opposition of the Anglican clergy.
ie. Tongues is not knowledge based, as in being taught. It is a spontaneous gift of the Holy Spirit working through willing hearts.