If you attended the VERGE conference, you’ll know that missiologist and theologian Alan Hirsch. Michael Stewart used Hirsch’s work on Missional DNA in The Forgotten Ways to give structure to the conference. Alan also led some of the pre-conference to VERGE, which was a stimulating time. Alan’s unique combination of intellect, humility, creativity, and faith have led to some great insights over the past few years. Here’s a list of some of them:

• Review of ReJESUS
• Church Planting or Gospel Planting?
• Organic Systems
• Partial review of Forgotten Ways
• INCH creation a truly missional church

Here one of the outstanding videos of Alan Hirsch unpacking the 6 elements of Missional DNA. This video focuses on communitas. I’ll be posting the rest of the videos throughout the week. Together they constitute a great summary of his book The Forgotten Ways.

I’ve appreciated Frost & Hirsch’s previous writing, their willingness to look at Jesus, community, and mission from a fresh perspective. Although I struggled through The Forgotten Ways, I definitely found the struggle worthwhile. ReJesus offers the same fresh perspective but from a much better pen. Either Frost or Hirsch have improved in their writing ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church!

The thesis of the book is that the Western church has overlooked the wild side of Jesus and under-emulated it. Sounds like Wild at Heart repackaged, but hardly!Attempting to retrieve the humanity of Christ, they build upon the theological foundations of imitatio Christi, the imitation of Christ. The notion that we should imitate Jesus was jettisoned from theological reflection for several centuries due to its moralistic overtones. Frost & Hirsch seem to be aware of these dangers, but it will be interesting to see how they relate their thesis to Chalcedonian christology.

In order to sufficiently reJesus the Church, they propose a three-fold focus (and take us on a Latin tour!): missio Dei, participatio Christi, & imago Dei. They write:

Those taken captive by the sight of Christ must be prepared for a reintegration of the theological concepts of missio Dei, participatio Christi, and imago Dei. These three concepts are foundational for a rediscovery of missional practice in our time. They are also foundational for us to reJesus the church in the West.

They go on to claim that a fresh perspective on mission, Jesus, and church will release Christianity into a renewed level of impact. I’m excited to keep reading but concerned about some of the conclusions. Already they have mixed theological concepts that are at odds, affirming total depravity in one breath and prevenient grace in the next. Hopefully thier missiological creativity will not outpace theological integrity!

In addition to holding to 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. – Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 233

Unfortunately, it is precisely this question-asking and viable novelty that most leaders fear. The traditional, modern paradigms of leadership advocate a top-down, answer-possessing, anti-novelty approach. Yet, if we will lead remaining open to the power and insight of the Spirit in the Church, we will reap dividends and live out the priesthood of the believers! Oh, do I have room to grow in this!

Deb Hirsch, wife of missiologist Alan Hirsch, recently gave a talk on Seven Obstacles to Engaging in Mission at an Organic Church conference.

My earlier critique of Alan Hirsch’s book, The Forgotten Ways, was incomplete and imbalanced. Though there is too much self-coined jargon to wade through, making it a frustrating read, after the first half of the book there are some real gems. So while my earlier praise and critique stand, Hirsch is due more praise, especially from a church planter’s perspective.

The chapter on “Organic Systems” is very helpful. He nicely sets traditional churches in contrast to organic churches:

Planting a new church, or remissionalizing an existing one, in this approach isn’t primarily about buildings, worship services, size of congregations, and pastoral care, but rather about gearing the whole community around natural discipling friendships, worship as lifestyle, and mission in the context of everyday life. (p. 185)

 

Hirsch then proceeds to lay a theological foundation for why Organic, which is primarily rooted in allusions to the biblical doctrine of creation, especially as it pertains to the church. Noting organic metaphors such as living temples, vines, bodies, seeds, trees, etc. he argues that this imagery is not haphazard but latent with are intrinsically related to the essence of the church (180). Next, he rightly tethers this creation imagery to the triune Creator noting that “an organic image of church and mission is theologically richer by far than any mechanistic and institutional conceptions of church we might devise” (181).

After laying this foundation for Organic church, Hirsch develops insights based on his research and reflection on the nature and function of organic systems. I will briefly list them here: 1) Innate intelligence: trust the organic nature of the church 2) Life is interconnected: follow this impulse in community 3) Information brings change: free and guided information flow is vital to growth. 4) Adaptive change: constantly adapt and react to your environment.

In turn, he advocates building relational networks that have “viruslike growth.” More to come…

Planting a new church, or remissionalizing an existing one, in this approach isn’t primarily about buildings, worship services, size of congregations, and pastoral care, but rather about gearing the whole community around natural discipling friendships, worship as lifestyle, and mission in the context of everyday life.

Click here for an expanded critique of Alan Hirsch’s Forgotten Ways.

My church planting coach, Mark Moore, recently recommended the following books (w/disclaimer that he doesnt agree with everything in them). I’ve read a couple and now have more to read! I’ve linked a couple to personal blog reflections/reviews.

The Shaping of Things to Come (Frost, Hirsch)

The Forgotten Ways (Hirsch)

Radical Renewal (Snyder)

Houses that Change the World (Simson)

Organic Church (Cole)

I don’t know what it is with some of the missional books being published these days, but their titles can be so out of touch and ambiguous (cf. Off-Road Disciplines, Creps). The Forgotten Ways: reactivating the missional church (subtitle is much better) is no exception to lousy titles, but the content is certainly thought provoking and generally summative of some missiological thought (McGavran, Walls, Bosch, etc).

In Section one, Hirsch brings the reader into his own missional and not-so-missional story as missionary and church planter. At one point he claims to have planted 6 churches in 7 years, not all of them successful. Hirsch draws on his rich and varied experience as a church planter to critique recent models of church in the West. He concludes that in order to have a truly missional church one must possess Apostolic Genius (AG. another naming failure), which he describes as “something that belongs to the gospel itself and therefore to the whole people who live by it.”

AG is comprised of six components of missional DNA: 1) missional incarnational impulse 2) disciple making 3) communitas 4) organic systems 5) apostolic environment and, at the center 6) Jesus is Lord. The longest and Second section of the book is devoted to defining and describing just what and how this mDNA is and does.

I am currently finished with about a third of the book, so I will offer one critique and one praise before concluding this review in another post.

Praise: Hirsch creatively combines elements which appear to be essential to missional movements, while incorporating the frequently neglected theological center of mission: monotheistic christology (cf. Wright, Bauckham) or as Hirsch puts it christocentric monotheism.

Critique: Despite the incarnational component of his mDNA, Hirsch ends up baptizing the decentralized, “organic” modes of church and incorrectly oversimplifies the connections between the early church and the missional church. On page 64 he includes a chart that reflects his stated simplification, drawing tight parallels to the Apostolic church and the missional church of the past ten years. Two issues arise here: 1) the NT does not concretize any form of church, allowing for diverse expressions of church 2) the missional movement is only ten years old and it remains to be seen how much in common it will have with the early church.

Review Part II