Archives For Alan Hirsch

Has the Missional Church Already Failed?

Chris —  January 10, 2011

Recently, my friend Jonathan Dodson published a post on the failure of the missional church, which gave rise to some thoughts on the current state of this term.  My growing sense of discomfort with the term has been increased by the its use on Twitter.

The term “missional” has been floating around since the 70s, but exploded in popularity over the past five years.  It’s generally credited to Lesslie Newbigin, who realized the need to apply the missionary principles he learned in India to the Western Church.  Over the last few years the term has popularized by writers like Darrell Guder, Alan Hirsch, and Ed Stetzer.

Like any trendy terminology, it’s only a matter of time before a term is co-opted by a certain group to mean whatever they want it to mean.  Some trendy church words from the past few decades include “reformed,” “nations,” “life-giving,” “seeker-sensitive,” “purpose-driven,” “emergent,” and “culturally relevant.”  Each of these terms are birthed out of a sense of burden from an individual or group to make up for something missing in the church.  Over time, the terms are institutionalized and their meaning and scope are limited.  Perhaps this has already happened to missional.

A quick and dirty definition of missional church might be:

1.  A church who recognizes that God is on a mission, and that they are part of it.

2. A church that sees themselves as “sent” into an existing culture, and seeks to live out God’s kingdom within the reality of that culture.

3.  A church that is concerned about God’s whole mission, both redeeming lost souls and restoring broken systems.

Across denominations, churches have pounced on the term missional live a pack of starved animals.  Perhaps this comes out a genuine recognition that the church is being increasingly marginalized by the Western culture.  Perhaps it grows out of a sense of purposeless.  If churches turn their minds to the seeking their place in the mission of God, this can only be a good thing, right?

So how is the term missional being misused?  Here’s some examples:

USE: Churches who place a high value on evangelism renaming their existing style of outreach as missional.
MISUSE: Doing so without questioning the effectiveness of their methods, or any long term disadvantages they may create for the ongoing mission of God.

USE: Individuals focused on social justice issues rebranding their pet causes as missional.
MISUSE: Focusing on broken systems at the expense of broken individuals.

USE: Movements focused on particular structures-ie “traditional family,” right or left economic models, patriarchy, feminism, environmentalism, etc- slap missional on top of their agenda.
MISUSE: Promoting a structure that is rooted in a culture, trend or time period, without questioning its place in the kingdom of God.

If the missional church fails, it is not because there is a problem with the theology of joining God’s mission.  It’s because we’re trying to force God into our mission.

Perhaps some good questions to ask before applying the word missional on something are:

– If Jesus were physically here right now, would he be involved in this?
– How does this action help bring individuals and systems within this particular culture closer to God’s ideal?
– Does this action forward the mission of God, or just solve my immediate need?
– If this effort succeeds, who will receive the glory? Who will suffer?
– Where does this action fit into the overarching story of God and his people?

Related Posts:

– Forgotten Ways Review
– How the Irish Saved Civilization

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The Forgotten Ways: Chapter 7 and 8

Chris —  June 24, 2010

Chapter 7 of Alan Hirsch’s The Forgotten Ways addresses Organic Systems.  His critique of the Church is that it has become so institutionalized that it cannot reproduce.  This is compared to more organic systems like the Chinese House church and Al Queda.  Hirsch makes some great points, however, I was left wondering if there is any way to transition an existing Church or denomination to a functional network.

The book closes with what I found to be the most exciting chapter introducing the concept of communitas.  Communitas as opposed to community is the bonding and sense of shared mission that come when people are brought together around a goal.  The classic literary example of this is the ragtag band of hobbits, humans and elves in Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring.

The importance of building communitas is summed up in a paraphrase from Gordon Crosby of DC’s Church of the Savior: “No groups that came together around a non-missional purpose (prayer, worship, study, etc.) Ever ended up becoming missional.  It was only the groups that set out to be missional (embracing prayer, worship, study, etc.) actually got to doing it.”

Could it be that so much of what we want from Church, deep relationships, spiritual growth, engaging worship, transformed lifestyles, is actually a byproduct of living life together with a purpose that brings glory to God?

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Forgotten Ways, Chapters 5 & 6

Chris —  June 14, 2010

In Chapter 5, Hirsch unpacks how the missional-incarnational impulse literally shapes the local church.  Linking the two words is key.  We cannot live out the mission of the church without fleshing it out in our neighborhoods, workplaces, subcultures, etc.

Four marks frame incarnation, or how we present Jesus in us: presence, proximity, powerlessness and proclamation.  Using these guidelines, the church can be fleshed out in different cultures.

Hirsch states that Christology (your view of Christ) determines Missiology (what the Church should be up to) which determines Ecclesiology (the structuring of the church.)  Overtly, he’s arguing against an attractional paradigm, however, this also stands against traditional denominational org. charts.

Chapter 6 describes the Apostolic Environment.  Taking his lead from the book of Acts, Hirsch suggests that the Church cannot be missional without Apostolic leadership.  The Apostle pioneers new ground, protects the DNA of a movement, and creates an environment from which other ministries can emerge.

Drawing from Ephesians 4:7-11, Hirsch demonstrates that the Apostolic leads to Prophetic, which in turn lead to evangelistic, pastoral and teaching ministries.  This “APEPT” model stands in stark contrast to the Western church’s focus on the Pastoral and Teaching ministries.

When have you seen a Church become truly incarnational?  Have you ever been a part of a church that intentional utilizes the entire APEPT?

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Forgotten Ways, Chapters 3 & 4

Chris —  June 4, 2010

Check out part 1 of my thoughts on Hirsch’s The Forgotten Ways here.

Reading through chapter 3, I found myself almost giddy considering the simple core truth of the Christian faith: Jesus is Lord.  Tradition is nice.  Theology is helpful.  But the core element that catalyzed the first century Jesus movement, is spreading throughout China and has been at the center of all great Jesus movement is the life changing confession that Jesus is Lord.

Hirsch unpacks just how powerful this would be in a polytheistic society, where one is living in constant fear of upsetting one deity or another.  He compares this to the false claim of Communist state as Lord, as well as exposing America’s own polytheism, the worship of money, power, health, etc.

He also points out the tendency of Christians to a dangerous syncretism.  His example of how the false god of comfort and power got mixed up with the Church in South Africa to create apartheid is a chilling reminder of what could happen to us.

Chapter 4 makes the argument that powerful Jesus movements are little more than disciple making systems.  He quotes Neil Cole of Church Multiplication Associates saying “we want to lower the bar of how Church is done and raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple.”

The primary barrier to disciple-making is consumerism, both inside and outside the church.  Our culture is set up to make us disciples of consumerism, we consume food, art, and even identities.  We take this mindset with us, expecting to be “fed” at church.

Secondly, our current system of religious education also inhibits disciple-making.  Unlike Jesus disciples, who met with him day in and day out, we remove a select few and pump them full of book learning, then return them to the church.  This may help them learn how to think, but it often does little to help them live more like Jesus, and lead others to do the same.

Hirsch’s accusations are clear: we have added so much to the gospel and so much to the way we teach about Jesus, that it impossible for our current way of being church to spread.

What do you think?  Have you seen a simpler, more effective Church?

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Forgotten Ways: Chapters 1 & 2

Chris —  May 28, 2010

Since it’s release in 2006, Alan Hirsch’s The Forgotten Ways has catalyzed conversation across Churches striving to become missional.  I’ll be reviewing the book as I read it over the next few weeks.

The Forgotten Ways is an attempt to answer the question How did the early church go from being a ragtag collection of outcasts to the dominant social force in the Roman Empire? The impetus behind the question is to discover what it is that the early church had, along with seeming unstoppable movements like early Methodism, Pentecostalism and the underground church in China.  The common thread between them is what Hirsch calls “The Apostolic Genius.”

Chapter 1 focuses on Hirsch’s own story of being enveloped into a band of Christ-followers, whose lifestyles had focused on drugs, fornication and prison.  This eventually became the South Melbourne Church of Christ, and the South Melbourne Restoration Center.  For personal reasons, I find it tremendously encouraging to know that one of the most influential thinkers of my time came out the Restoration Movement.

The chapter shares about successful and failed attempts to help lead his church to 1) engage with non-Christians in their community, and 2) transform passive churchgoers into active missionaries.  This led them to determine what their most basic values were, and attempt to restructure their organized church down to a loose network with shared values.

Chapter 2 encapsulates much of Hirsch’s reasoning.  Without getting lost in philosophical meanderings, he addresses the big changes in our culture we’re all dealing with, from Christendom to post-Christendom, and from modernity to postmodernity.  Unlike many thinkers who seem to stop at deconstruction, Hirsch uses these concepts to help define what it means to live as a missionary in the 21st century western world.

His most helpful concept is a scale showing the openness of outsiders to the gospel.  The scale goes from m1 (cultural similar, but non-christian) to m5 (ethnically and culturally dissimilar non-Christian.)

The big idea? We’re having a hard enough time reaching the people most like us.  If we even want to consider reaching those different from us, something drastic must change.


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