Church Planting, Missional, Spiritual Formation, Understanding Context
Alan Hirsch
Thursday I got to attend a seminar given by Alan Hirsch (co-wrote ReJesus and The Shaping of Things to Come with Michael Frost and wrote The Forgotten Ways) at Valley Forge Christian College. It was an awesome day which again convinced me about God’s call upon our lives, and the kind of church Veritas will become.
Here are some thoughts that he shared that stuck out to me:
1. The problems in the church will not be solved by the same thinking that got the church into the problems in the first place. (I think that is a quote from Albert Einstein with church added in there)
2. Constantine is still exercising our imagination when it comes to the church.
3. Church= lack of imagination. We have lost the sense of imagination.
4. All truth equals subjective change. (Soren Kierkegaard)You are your truth. You must live out your truth.
5. Embodiment is important in the transmission of the gospel. We are the best chance of people seeing Jesus.
6. Discipleship must tackle consumerism.
7. We don’t think our way into a new action, we act our way into new thinking.
8. Action is crucial as part of discipleship.
9. Mission is not something that the church has to dream up. It comes straight from the heart of God. God is a missionary God. God is deeply redemptive. (Missio Dei- the missionary God or the mission of God.)
10. If you are a Christian you are a missionary.
11. Enter into the community. Be a part of the community. Listen to the community. Then we ask two questions: What is Gospel for these people? What is church for these people? Church follows mission.
12. If you can’t imagine it, you can’t do it.
13. What we need are missionally responsive, culturally adaptive, organizationally agile, multiplication movements.
14. Don’t plant churches…plant the gospel.
These thoughts have been running around my head since Thursday. Take time to chew on them. Wrestle with them. I know I am and we at Veritas will be as well.
31 Mar 2009 RyanBraught
Ryan –
Wow! What an experience, eh? Alan Hirsch is just that kind of presenter and speaker. He’s definitely on fire for Christianity and not at all the poster child for Churchianity.
Your post reminds me of the following quote by Walter Wink –
Actualizing the Kingdom
The early church did not seek to formulate a theory of illness; instead, it healed the sick. It did not attempt to explain how the demonic could exist in a good world made by a good God; instead, they cast out demons. They had no hypotheses about how prayer works. They simply prayed…. Their attitude was not anti-rational or anti-theological, but merely concrete. They looked, not for adequate ways to conceptualize the Kingdom, but for ways to actualize it.
I am absolutely convinced that this is the outlook we must reclaim and refuse to negotiate if we are to become an authentic witness of Jesus Christ in the world.
Thank you so much for your thought provoking and sobering post, my brother. Know of my prayers for Veritas and your ministry!
Hi Ryan and Daniel,
Two great posts about where we in the 21century church in USAmerica need to be thinking, heading, working… by two authors I admire and appreciate.
Both posts are thought provoking and encourage us to get out of a deep rut we are in. Shouldn’t be too hard for Church of the Brethren folks to do… as we began in exactly that way… getting out of the church as usual rut and into the life is mission mode of sharing Jesus with the world.
Thanks to both of you for sharing!
Dear Friends in Christ,
I wanted to share this great link with all of you from Ron Sider’s Evengelicals for Social Action webiste. Please read the featured article on the Nonviolent Palm Sunday & Holy Week. Here’s the link: http://www.esa-online.org/Display.asp?Page=holisticministry
God bless you all –
In Christ,
Dan