Book Review: Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, Reactivating the Missional Church, Brazos Press, 2006.

Review:

Alan Hirsch’s book is thoroughly in the genre of the emerging church literature.  He believes the church in the West is on a “massive, long-trended decline,” and advocates a missional ecclesiology that is modeled by the first century church in Acts and the underground Chinese Church in modern times. Calling the energy behind these two movements the “Apostolic Genius,” he describes 6 components of the structure of Apostolic Genius: Jesus as Lord, disciple making, the missional-incarnational impulse, an apostolic environment, organic systems and communitas.  When these forces are unleashed, a true missional church emerges – one that “defines itself and organizes its life around its real purpose of being God’s agent of mission to the world.” (82)  He calls that God’s mDNA – mission codes of life that reproduce themselves (81). He cites his experience with church plants in non-traditional settings.    A missional emphasis is a needed corrective for the North American church.  His parallel with the underground Chinese Church is interesting.  There are some parts of his mDNA, however, that seem a bit contrived and forced.  Also, the dense character of Hirsch’s writing creates a cumbersome book.  But there are still significant insights that can be gleaned.

                                                                - Dr. M.L. Codman-Wilson,  5/2011

Summary:

Hirsch contrasts the Apostolic Genius to Constantinian Christendom – “where buildings become central to the experience of church, leadership is by an ordained clergy, there is institutional-hierarchical leadership and structure, the practice of sacraments are only “in church”, the church is perceived as relevant to culture, and any evangelism is based on an attractional mode of reaching out” (64) (usually always to those very much like its members culturally and spiritually). This church ethos is a “consumerist middle class church based on ideals of comfort and convenience, safety and security where people come to be fed” (40).  But it is increasingly irrelevant to modern culture.

Here are some of his significant insights:

1.      Having Jesus as Lord in the full sense of Christocentric monotheism (where there is no dichotomy between sacred and secular) (95) keeps missionaries from syncretism and allows incarnational mission. (98)

2.      Jesus-focused discipleship is a “white hot faith, a commitment to the cause [of mission], contagious relationships, rapid mobilization and dynamic methods.” (105) It is consumerism in the West that has mitigated against such discipleship and makes Christianity a “mere matter of private preference rather than public truth…Faith is treated like a commodity.” (108)

3.      Jesus trained his disciples in the midst of ministry.  By contrast seminaries “develop” leaders in a cloistered environment removed from the world as the training base.” (120). The church must “train disciples in the context of ‘life for life’, helping people act their way into a new way of thinking.” 123

4.      The missional-incarnational impulse is “outward seeding and spreading” where people “exercise a genuine identification and affinity with those we are attempting to reach.” (130)  It has 4 components: presence, proximity (being where the people are you are trying to reach), powerlessness (taking the form of a servant to those people) and proclamation. (132)  Mission then “fits seamlessly into the fabric of ordinary life. It means taking the church to the people, not inviting people to the church.”(135)

5.      The style of leadership for the missional church is team-based as Apostolic Prophetic Evangelistic Leadership Teams (APEPT). These leaders “act like midwives who supervise and assist healthy births” (as they keep seeding new emerging missional churches). (166)  All 5 teams work together as equals, sending out ministry teams, advocating social justice, doing evangelism, strengthening and nurturing the believers and teaching the gospel.  Together they form the leadership structure of the missional church.

6.      He advocates a living organic systems approach which is non-hierarchal, actually disturbs the equilibrium of the pastor/teacher maintenance church structure approach, affects society around it and is committed to some form of social or societal change (188).  People in the movement are committed to being a countercultural community held together in a cellar organization by ideological ties.  Such a movement by its very nature usually experiences real or perceived opposition from society or the institution from which the movement emerged. (194)

7.      The institutional church is a “solid church” marked by communities of heritage (an inherited tradition), communities of refuge (a safe place from the world) and communities of nostalgia (living in past successes. (197).  By contrast, the emerging church is marked by “liminal communitas”. Liminality is a transition process which accompanies a fundamental change or social position. It usually involves an in-between marginal state.  Yet in that state people create strong bonds through a shared ordeal. This describes the liquid emerging church because of the non-predictability of doing mission in the context of ordinary life, the chaos that occurs when established structures and patterns are challenged, and novelty through mission is fostered. (221-233).

Questions for Reflection or Discussion:

1.       How would you contrast or compare the traditional church with the emerging church?

2.      What do you think about his idea of consistently seeding new emerging missional churches?

3.      How is your team or group identifying with the people you are trying to reach?

4.      How are you training up future leaders in ministry in the context of ministry, “helping people act their way into a new way of thinking”?