The Best of Missional

June 26, 2008 | Filed Under alan hirsch, missional | 7 Comments

I have not yet read all of the 50 posts from Monday’s Missional Synchronized blog, but of those that I have read here are four that you should not miss.

The first is an excellent post by Alan Hirsch titled “Missional The New Emergent?” While Alan uses the phrase “Emerging Missional Church” in The Forgotten Ways, he argues in this post for the need to make a clear distinction between the words “emerging/Emergent” and “missional.” Alan writes:

Emerging forms of the church must always be subservient to the missional purposes of the church. We can use the term, as I do in my writings, the “Emerging Missional Church”, but the emphasis should always fall on the term ‘missional’. Actual mission must precede any new cultural understandings that the church might develop of itself. The Emerging Church has a certain validity as a renewal movement, but renewal movements come and go, the Missio Dei however, is something that must have abiding implications for the Church’s theology, lest we lose the irreplaceable redemptive core inherent in the Christian view of the world. My advice to ‘emergents’ is therefore, don’t emerge before you have a mission.

Alan then goes on to not only passionately defends the use of the word missional but to argue for the term “missional-incarnational” to best capture far more completely a sense of the Church’s deepest theology and missionary calling. Alan concludes his post with a wonderful statement concerning the use of this combination term when he states: Mission always sets our Agenda and Incarnation must always describe our Way.

You will also find a lively and thoughtful discussion within the comments on Alan’s post.

The second post is “What is Missional? Or A Little More Missional Shampoo” by Bill Kinnon. While Bill has written on the use of the word missional in earlier posts, this post gives some great background on the use of the term as well as mention of some of the key players in the missional discussion.

The third excellent entry is “Missional: to dwell and to die” by Erika Haub over at The Margins. Erika’s post is influenced by the powerful phrase: The consequence of the incarnation is the crucifixion. She writes:

I think if there were one thing I would want us to remember today as we consider all things missional, it would be that as we talk about incarnational living and incarnational ministries and being incarnational wherever we live, we are talking about a way of life that leads to the cross. It did for Jesus, and if I read Philippians correctly, it should for us as well.

Finally, the fourth post that should be a must read is Kathy Escobar’s “upside down, inside out and against everything business school teaches.” Kathy begins with:

I honestly do not use the word for one primary reason–the people I know who are really truly “missional” don’t talk about it too much and the people who are trying to catch the latest church-trend use it a lot.

She then moves to the heart of the issue in a series of wonderful reflections on how each of the Beatitudes should be “woven intricately and deeply into the fabric of our hearts, our communities.”

I should also add how much I enjoyed Grace’s thoughts on how missional must be “With Not For.”

As we walk together with others in their faith journey, we walk in mutual relationships, both giving of ourselves and receiving from them. When we share the love of God with others, we encounter Christ himself in their midst. The idea of mutuality is expressed by doing things With rather than For others. This necessitates that we take the time to know them. We develop relationships of commitment, to be with them in their journey rather than to simply show up for charity work.

Alan Hirsch in New Orleans

June 18, 2008 | Filed Under alan hirsch, church planting | 7 Comments

This past weekend two friends and I drove to New Orleans to attend a one day seminar with Alan Hirsch. In addition to the seminar Alan spent the majority of the previous day meeting with the staff of Journey Christian Church. Rick Grover the pastor of the church invited us to come down early and join in the discussion. It was a very profitable time and well worth the 15 + hour drive.

In addition to discussing key ideas from both “The Shaping of Things to Come” and “The Forgotten Ways” we spent a significant amount of time talking about how to cultivate a missional mindset within existing communities that are heavily influenced by church growth principles and preoccupied with church activities.

This discussion dealt with the importance of the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer and how every follower of Christ must see themselves as missionaries sent into their local context. The dialogue was especially helpful for the work I am currently doing on a dmin project which focuses on assisting churches in the reallocation of resources in a missional direction.

Another very helpful discussion dealt with fostering new missional communities in a post-Christendom context. One example that Alan shared that I believe illustrates good missional practices for church planting uses the acronym INCH, which I believe Alan said was utilized by Christian Associates International. The basics of the acronym were explained like this:

Initiatives — This is the very lowest level of missional-incarnational practices. These are simple steps taken by individual people of God who carry the word, life and deed of Jesus into the lives of others.

Networks — These are formed when groups of 10-15 people get together to share what is taking place and to participate in missional-incarnational practices as a community.

Clusters — These are basically networks of networks. There is a bit more structure/organization at this level. There may be certain types of training/resources provided within clusters that might not be available in smaller groups.

Hubs — This represents some type of larger gathering for corporate worship, training and larger missionary engagement. Hirsch argues that hubs are probably necessary in certain American contexts.

What do you think about INCH? What applications do you see for it in your ministry? In church planting?

Lastly, a topic surrounding most of the conversation over the two days was recognizing that the lowest common denominator in all of the missional-incarnational practices is discipleship and the difficulty of discipling people in the midst of a consumerist culture. The story of the middle class in America is one of safety, security, comfort and convenience. In other words, American Christians have overwhelmingly chosen the story of the American way rather than the way of Jesus. Hirsch refers to this as living the story of the Kingdom as opposed to the story of the Empire.

How do you model and/or speak of living the principles of the Kingdom vs. Empire?

Alan Hirsch Interview

April 28, 2008 | Filed Under alan hirsch, missional | 4 Comments

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.

Missional Distinctives

March 18, 2008 | Filed Under alan hirsch, missional | No Comments

Here are the links to two good articles on missional distinctives. The first is the latest entry from David Dunbar’s Missional Journal. This issue is titled “A New Imagination for the Church.”

The second is an article from Christianity Today’s Building Small Groups website by Alan Hirsch. In this article titled “Small Groups and the Mission of God”Hirsch discusses the missional capacity of individual disciples and small group communities.

The Forgotten Ways

December 16, 2007 | Filed Under alan hirsch, books | 2 Comments

While reading JR Woodward’s review of The Forgotten Ways this week I was reminded of how much I loved this book and how much I enjoyed reading and blogging through the book several months ago. I thought I would pull together each of the summaries for those who may have not yet read it. If you haven’t read it yet then get a copy now!

The Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven

Missional Leadership

August 17, 2007 | Filed Under alan hirsch, books, dmin project, leadership, missional | No Comments

“In addition to holding a clear vision, missional leadership involves facilitating the emergence of novelty by building and nurturing networks of communications; creating a learning culture in which questioning is encouraged and innovation is rewarded; creating a climate of trust and mutual support; and recognizing viable novelty when it emerges, while allowing the freedom to make mistakes.

It is for this reason that Roxburgh and Romanuk can say that the role of leadership within the church is to cultivate environments wherein the Spirit of God might call forth and unleash the missional imagination of the people of God.”

- Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways

The Forgotten Ways - Chapter 7

June 5, 2007 | Filed Under alan hirsch, books, missional | 5 Comments

Our network gatherings are finally (after three months) getting to the last two chapters of Alan Hirsch’s book The Forgotten Ways. As we prepare to summarize a bit of chapter 7 in this post and chapter 8 tomorrow I thought it would be good to be reminded of the elements discussed thus far.

Hirsch coins the phrase “Apostolic Genius” to help describe “that unique energy and force that imbues phenomenal Jesus movements in history.” Diagrammatically Hirsch envision Apostolic Genius looking something like this: More>>

The Forgotten Ways - Chapter 6

April 9, 2007 | Filed Under alan hirsch, books, leadership, missional | 1 Comment

In chapter 6 of “The Forgotten Ways” Alan Hirsch focuses on the issue of leadership in the missional church. He begins by reflecting back on the introduction of the book where he discussed the phenomenal Jesus movements of history, namely the early church up until 300 AD and the Chinese church during the reign of Mao Tse-tung. The question that begs to be answered with each of these movements is “How did they do it?” Or more specifically for the focus of chapter 6, “What kind of leadership?” More>>

The Forgotten Ways - Chapter 5

March 27, 2007 | Filed Under alan hirsch, books, missional | 3 Comments

I found chapter 5 of Alan Hirsch’s “The Forgotten Ways“ to be an excellent presentation of the basics of missional issues. Hirsch provides a thorough description of what he calls the “missional-incarnational impulse” as the biblical alternative to the attractional mode of Christendom.

Early in the chapter Hirsch recognizes the need to present the theological foundation of the missional-incarnational impulse because it runs so contrary to the way the western church has operated for so long.

On page 129 Hirsch states: “Because it goes against the grain of our inherited and ingrained practices, it is important to grasp the theological dynamics of the missional-incarnational impulse and the ways in which these two intertwined foundations of essential Christian theology inform our practices and behaviors.” More>>

The Forgotten Ways - Chapter 4

March 24, 2007 | Filed Under alan hirsch, books, missional | 2 Comments

In the opening of chapter 4 Hirsch reminds the reader that “all six elements of mDNA must be present for authentic Apostolic Genius to activate and permeate the life of the Christian communities and movements.” Having said that he goes on to contend that this element (disciple making) is perhaps the most critical element in the mDNA mix.

While there are several themes running through this chapter the one that struck a cord with me was how the biblical emphasis on disciple making runs in stark contrast to the current attractional consumeristic norm of the western church. On page 104 Hirsch quotes Neil Cole as an example of how our emphasis needs to be refocused towards discipleship when Cole, speaking about the focus of CMA, says: “We want to lower the bar of how church is done and raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple.”

Isn’t this just the opposite of how we do things in the West? Think about our attractional/seeker models and ask, have we not raised the bar of how to do church and at the same time lowered the bar in regards to what it means to be a disciple? More>>

The Forgotten Ways - Chapter 3

March 22, 2007 | Filed Under alan hirsch, books, missional | 2 Comments

Hirsch offers (p. 75) a short introduction to the second section, in which he presents the core piece for the rest of the book - mDNA (missional DNA). He states on p. 76:

“With this concept/metaphor I hope to explain why the presence of a simple, intrinsic, reproducible, central guiding mechanism is necessary for the reproduction and sustainability of genuine missional movements. As an organism holds together, and each cell understands its function in relation to its DNA, so the church finds its reference point in its built-in mDNA. As DNA carries the genetic coding, and therefore the life, of a particualr organism, so too mDNA codes Apostolic Genius (the life force that pulsated through the New Testament church and in other expressions of apostolic Jesus movements throughout history).”

So what are the key elements of Apostolic Genius? The six distinctives identified by Hirsch (and illustrated more extensively in the diagram above which you can click on for a larger view) are:

1. Jesus is Lord
2. Disciple Making
3. Missional-incarnational Impulse
4. Apostolic Environment
5. Organic Systems
6. Communitas, Not Community More>>

The Forgotten Ways - Chapter 2

March 19, 2007 | Filed Under alan hirsch, books, missional | 4 Comments

In chapter two of “The Forgotten Ways” author Alan Hirsch proposes that the decline of the church in Western culture can be attributed to defaulting to a Christendom mode of thinking. Moreover, because of our Christendom default mode we don’t even know that there is a better alternative.

Quoting Bono from U2, “we are stuck in a moment and now we can’t get out of it.” Or from one with few more academic credentials; David Bosch in Transforming Mission states: “Strictly speaking one ought to say that the Church is always in a state of crisis and that its greatest shortcoming is that it is only occasionally aware of it.” More>>

The Forgotten Ways - Chapter 1

March 12, 2007 | Filed Under alan hirsch, books, missional | 5 Comments

We continue our discussion of “The Forgotten Ways” by Alan Hirsch by looking at chapter one. Remember chapter one can be downloaded from Hirsch’s website, however after that you will have to purchase a copy, but I think you will discovery that it is clearly worth the buy.

In chapter one, titled “Setting the Scene” and subtitled “Confessions of a Frustrated Missionary” Hirsch tells a bit of his own story as leader of South Melbourne Restoration Community. Hirsch shares how he and his wife were brought to the church as a kind of last ditch effort to revive a church that had experienced birth, growth and decline in its 140 year history. Through the process the Hirschs came to the conclusion that they wanted to be involved in a church that was highly participatory (much more than the 20:80 rule) and missional.

Hirsch provides a good contrast between the typical church growth principles that are used today to grow a contemporary church and the essential components that best describes the nature of the church. Hirsch states “if you wish to grow a contemporary church following good church growth principles, there are several things you must do and constantly improve upon:

1. Expand the building for growth.
2. Ensure excellent preaching that relates to the life of the hearers.
3. Develop an inspiring worship service with an excellent band.
4. Make certain you have excellent parking facilities.
5. Ensure excellent programs for children and youth.
6. Develop a program of cell groups rooted in a Christian ed model.
7. Make sure that next week is better than last week. More>>

The Forgotten Ways - Introduction

March 6, 2007 | Filed Under alan hirsch, missional, networks | 10 Comments

During the next two network gathering times we will be examining Alan Hirsch’s “The Forgotten Ways.” We plan to discuss the first two chapters in March and finish the book in April. I hope everyone has secured a copy of the book, if not remember you can still download the introduction and chapter one of the book from “The Forgotten Ways” website.

I hope other friends who are unable to join one of the network gatherings and readers of this blog from other areas will join our discussion via this blog as we work our way through the book each week. There has been a good bit of discussion of the book taking place the past month over at Jesus Creed. Additionally, there is a helpful interview with Hirsch at Rodney Olsen’s site.

To begin our discussion I want to share a bit from the introduction. Under a section entitled “A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Question”:

Using studies by Rodney Stark, Hirsch calculates that the early church grew from 25,000 in AD 100 to about 20,000,000 in AD 310. How did this happen? What was going on in early Christianity to experience this type of growth? To illustrate that this phenomena was not just an early church experience Hirsch shares the example of the church in China. When Mao Tse-tung took control of China there were approximately 2 million Christians. However, when the Bamboo Curtain was lifted some estimated the Christian population in China to be near 60 million. Moreover, the number of Christians in China today are around 80 million. Once again, how did this kind of growth happen? More>>