The Forgotten Ways - Chapter 5

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

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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.”

So what is at the theological core of the missional-incarnational impulse? First it is the mission of God. Quoting from Darrell Guder’s excellent book “Missional Church“:

“We have come to see that mission is not merely an activity of the church. Rather mission is the result of God’s initiative, rooted in God’s purposes to restore and heal creation. Mission means ’sending,’ and it is the central biblical theme describing the purpose of God’s action in human history. God’s mission began with the call of Israel to receive God’s blessings in order to be a blessing to the nations. God’s mission unfolded in the history of God’s people across the centuries recorded in Scripture, and it reached its revelatory climax in the incarnation of God’s work of salvation in Jesus ministering, crucified, and resurrected. . . . It continues today in the worldwide witness of churches in every culture to the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Therefore, in light of the above quote we must learn to understand the church as a “sent people.” This sending theme, I believe is at the absolute core of what it means to be missional.  (As a side note, I hope in the coming days to blog on a wonderful book that I just finished reading by Francis DuBose, titled “God Who Sends” whereby DuBose highlights the sending theme throughout Scripture.)

However, in addition to the sending theme in Scripture, the second theological underpinning of the missional-incarnational impulse is the “revelatory climax” of God’s work of salvation in Christ. Hirsch identifies four dimensions that frame our understanding of the Incarnation of God in Jesus the Messiah. They are:

1. Presence
2. Proximity
3. Powerlessness
4. Proclamation

Using these four elements to describe our understanding of the Incarnation, Hirsch then moves to suggest how these should also be a picture of our own Incarnational ministry. He states on page 133:

“The Incarnation not only qualifies God’s acts in the world, but must also quality ours. If God’s central way of reaching his world was to incarnate himself in Jesus, then our way of reaching the world should likewise be incarnational. To act incarnationally therefore will mean in part that in our mission to those outside of the faith we will need to exercise a genuine identification and affinity with those we are attempting to reach. At the very least, it will probably mean moving into common geography/space and so set up a real and abiding presence among the group. But the basic motive of incarnational ministry is also revelatory - that they may come to know God through Jesus.”

Therefore, “The incarnational impulse draws its inspiration from the Incarnation, and the missional impulse is energized by the mission of God.”

So how do you live out the missional-incarnatinal impulse? Have you tried? Why or why not? What can we do to see this happen in our churches? What can we do to start churches with this perspective?

One other theme in the chapter that I want to briefly mention is that of our Christology determining our Missiology which in turn determines our Ecclesiology. This is a discussion that can also be found in Hirsch’s and Michael Frost’s book “The Shaping of Things to Come.” This understanding is so very important especially in church planting discussions because we so often get this backwards whereby we begin with a model of how we want to “do church” rather than what/who Jesus is calling us to be and do.

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3 comments so far
  1. Jay Lewis March 28, 2007 9:16 am

    Brad,
    I can’t wait to get into this chapter. It seems to me this is the chapter that starts putting things to action. I love the quote at the end of your comments: Our Christology determining our Missiology which in turn determines our Ecclesiology.
    Why is this so difficult for the church to grasp?

  2. May Missional Network Gatherings &laquo Missional Church Network May 6, 2007 6:54 pm

    [...] chapters five and six. Also remember there is a short summary of each of these two chapters here and here. Feel free to invite anyone else who might be reading the book to join the [...]

  3. Hirschs undervisning utmanar oss | Kristofer upp-och-ner May 11, 2008 1:16 pm

    [...] på torsdagsmorgonen handlade om “Missional-incarnational impulse”, det vill säga kapitel fem i Forgotten ways. Genom att ha ett budskap, Jesus är herre, som är enkelt och [...]