Alan Hirsch, Director of Forge Mission Training Network, and author of The Shaping of Things to Come and The Forgotten Ways, spent a day with pastors at GRTS and the Grand Rapids Community was invited Chapel where he spoke.

The following are my brief notes of his lecture. It was also recorded and is available for download.

Four Essentials for the Western Church in the 21^st Century

1. The church must rediscover the absolute centrality of Jesus (Christology)

• We must (re)align ourselves with Jesus Christ
• We must go back to the roots of our faith
• The closer we get to Jesus… the more dangerous he is
• Has Jesus been subverted from the church?
• Jesus does not suit our middle class sensibilities

2. The church must rediscover the ethos of discipleship

• We need discipleship not entertainment
• Without discipleship you end up with a church that is less than Jesus intended
• The authority of the church to speak, comes out of our ability to embody the message

3. The church must rediscover a missional-incarnational impulse

• This exposes the very nature of God
• The church doesn’t have a mission… the mission has a church
• We must reframe around “sent-ness” not “come-ness
• Incarnation- into one’s world (Jesus- 30 years in the neighborhood and no one “noticed.” This is the opposite of colonizing people’s cultures or an “attractional” posture.

4. The church must rediscover the ethos of the structure of apostolic movements

• Consider church’s resources in the first 200 years contrary to the resources the church has today. Have our resources mixed our message?
• Movements are not elitist. Everyone is involved, everyone carries the potential for change (priesthood of all believers)
• “Movements” are reproducing and reproducible
• Movements avoid centralization of power
• We must broaden out our understanding of leadership as it is currently too narrow (Eph 4)

There are many ways to reflect on these comments. My initial thoughts stem from a more practical perspective: For church planters, I can see these ideals being inspiring. For congregations… and youth ministries… steeped in their own traditions (think of the programming you “have” to do), what does this re-discovering look like and is it truly possible?

Rediscover we must. It may be the difference between serving others or serving ourselves. One is Christian, the other is not…

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