Alan Hirsch Interview

April 28, 2008 | Filed Under alan hirsch, missional |

This is a short interview with Alan Hirsch during last week’s Exponential Conference in Orlando. When asked about church planting in America as compared to planting efforts in the UK or his own Australian context he states that church planting in the United States is ”too bonded to the church growth movement.” He goes on to say that the church in the West has not yet adequately considered the missionary nature of the church. 

In other words we in the West are too centered on how to get our individual churches to grow, primarily through attractional means, rather than seriously considering how to think as a cross-cultural missionary focused on reaching those who have no interest in attending our church functions. Let me know what you think about Hirsch’s comments.

If you are not familiar with Alan Hirsch be sure to check out “The Shaping of Things to Come” and “The Forgotten Ways.”  Also if you haven’t read TFW I have blogged through the majority of the book here.

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4 comments so far
  1. grace April 28, 2008 2:27 pm

    Brad,
    I just watched this clip at another site. The comment about being monopolized by the church-growth mentality stuck out to me also. Another thing he said was that missionary desire will drive new forms of church. I’d love to hear more brainstorming along those lines.

  2. Brad Brisco April 28, 2008 2:39 pm

    Grace, yes I too would like to hear more on your point. For me his comment brought me back to the point made in “Shaping” when he and Frost spoke of the importance of having our Christology influence/determine our Missiology which in turns should influence/determine our Ecclesiology.

    I believe when we are driven by or “bonded” to the church growth movement we simply go at this in a backward fashion. We look at church models (or ecclesiology) that are “working” and we put them into practice in our settings.

    Instead of being driven by our “missionary desires” we are driven by our pragmatic concerns for “growth” and as a result we don’t really connect with our context. But this shouldn’t be of great surprise when we have pastors and church planters going to the latest conference that tells everyone just what another church did to experience “growth.” I really believe this is a crucial and central issue that needs serious consideration if we are going to be moved to new forms of church.

  3. Jeremy Myers May 7, 2008 5:34 pm

    Great post. Thanks for the video. I think Hirsh is exactly right. It is so hard for us to put aside our attractional model and work from a true missional model.

  4. TILL HE COMES Blog » The Future of the Church (Part 1 of 3) May 7, 2008 6:24 pm

    [...] love everything written by Alan Hirsch, and so when I saw a post containing a YouTube Video by Alan from the Exponential Conference, I had to watch it. I have embedded it below, but here is what Brad [...]