on the way to and from ireland i read alan hirsch’s latest book the forgotten ways. it’s his follow up to the shaping of things to come. the question he explores is what the components of a missional dna look like and comes up with 6. it’s a book that will be on the reading list of lots of missions courses i am sure because it’s quite focused on strategy…
the 6 components are:
jesus is lord
disciple making
missional incarnational impulse
apostolic environment
organic systems
communitas not community
alan sets his stall out by suggesting that the dominant model of church has become a stumbling block. it has become outmoded because of drastically changed conditions.
we have the somewhat farcical situation of 95 percent of evangelical churches tussling with each other to reach 12 per cent of the population . and this becomes a significant missional problem because it raises the question ‘what about the vast majority of the population (in aus 85%, in the us 65%) that report alienation from precisely that form of church? how do they access the gospel if they reject this form of church?
his argument reminded me of pete ward’s critique of youth ministry that is based upon attraction – like attracts like. this can be a strength but it can also be a big weakness. if we are going to reach groups of people not like those already in churches or youth groups we need people who will take a more cross cultural missions approach. as ever alan without meaning to i suspect comes across negatively about institutional forms of church. i think this will put off some readers. but it’s simply because alan’s passion and gifts are elsewhere.
i was very interested in his statistics about church leavers. he quotes barrett and johnson who suggest that there are 111 million christians worldwide without a local church. and there are 20000 movements and networks with 394 million members that are outside of denominational structures – what he calls independants. but if we look at church through the older ways of measuring it nearly all this activity is invisible.
hirsch suggests that the vital issue for emerging churches is their capacity to be genuinely missional otherwise they will be a new fad and nothing more.
i always like reading alan’s stuff and meeting him if he’s passing through london. he has given me plenty of challenge about being missional. the sections of the book i think are the most interesting are the sections on missional incarnational impulse and organic systems.
there are a couple of spots in the book where he has a bit of a pop at alt worship and in both instances i felt his comments misguided or responding to a bygone stereotype (setting up a straw man) – i found that a bit of a shame seeing as he has helped nudge alt worship in good directions and is appreciated on the uk scene.
i feel i owe the book or alan or both a more comprehensive review but the way my diary is that isn’t going to happen for a while so i thought it better to go for something short rather than nothing for a while.
Actually one thing I’ve never understood. Where does a statistic like this come from:
“there are 111 million christians worldwide without a local church. and there are 20000 movements and networks with 394 million members that are outside of denominational structures – what he calls independants. but if we look at church through the older ways of measuring it nearly all this activity is invisible.”
Its not just Hirsch who says this – I’ve seen it referred to elsewhere.
I mean – I know this is a bit of a tangent – but, if “all this activity is invisible”, then how do we know it exists? Who are these 111 million christians made up of, and how do we know they’re there?
i have no idea – i haven’t read the book that is quoted but alan makes the point that this is significant even if the real number was 10% of that…
Not a new book at all, but I appreciated Pete Ward’s thoughts in God at the Mall. We need to continually consider how we can be missional and incarnational to our approch in youth ministry.
As for me, I hang out with kids in jail (as a visitor, not a resident) :).
Good comments Jonny
To fill the gap between now and when you get to a more detailed review, perhaps folks might like to visit my blog, where I’m blogging through the book chunk by chunk. I’m currently about 180 pages into it so there is plenty of content there!
I wouldn’t normally jump in with such a blatant plug, but Alan Hirsch was kind enough to give me a big plug on his site and encouraged people to visit my blog.
Thanks Jonny for the start on the book. As for my taking a pop at the alt worshp scene, whenever I did, I qualified it by staing my respect for and indebtedness to the movement. I certainly see myself as more part of that tribe than not. I admire the sheer creativity of it. My points where to highlight that it was largely not a missional movement but rather a renewal movement that introduced renewal in the church’s worshipping life. Please do not take offense.
As far as the stats go, feel free to read Barret et. al’s work on the ‘independents’. You can find it in the World Christian Encyclopaedia. I warn you it is about 5 volumes thick!! Its their own summary of their findings and no-one doubts the validity of their assesments.
i am not sure you can globalise the alt.worship into a neat summary of “not a missional movement but rather a renewal movement that introduced renewal in the church’s worshipping life.”
in new zealand the alt.worship movement emerged from a commitment to misssional incarnation in culture. we read john 1:14, we read ward’s stuff on incarnation in youth culture, we read bosch’s transforming mission, we read roxburgh’s reaching a new generation and his models of contextual evangelism.
alt.worship might not have achieved it’s full potential, it might have struggled with the blight of the rise and fall of NOS, it might have sagged under the weight of it’s own rhetorical dreams, but its inital DNA was mission.