Saturday, January 31, 2009

Alan Hirsch's Six Elements of Apostolic Genius


At the centre of the mission of God is the unchanging concept that Jesus is Lord. Jesus transforms lives, he changes lives. He is Lord.
For churches to be effective in the 21st Century we need to build around this foundational theological truth 5 other elements. (See Alan Hirsch's Forgotten Ways Website here)  (The rest of this blog is snatched from His site - and is attributed to him!)
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1. Missional-Incarnational Impulse: This element describes the twin impulses of remarkable missional movements, namely the dynamic outward thrust and the related deepening impulse which together seed and embed the gospel into different cultures and people groups.
2. Apostolic Environment: This element will relate to the type of ministry (and by extension the type of leadership) required to both initiate and sustain metabolic growth and impact. Apostolic creates fertile environment required initiating and maintaining the phenomenal movements of God. We simply cannot get exponential movements without it.
3. Disciple-Making: Essentially this involves the irreplaceable, and lifelong, task of becoming like Jesus by embodying his message. Disciple-making is an irreplaceable core task of the church and needs to be structured into every church’s basic formula.
4. Organic Systems: This will explore the appropriate structures for metabolic growth. Phenomenal Jesus movements grow precisely because they do not have centralized institutions to block growth through control. Here we will find that remarkable Jesus movements have (1) the feel of a movement, (2) structure as a network, and (3) spread like viruses.
5. Communitas not Community: The most vigorous forms of community are those that come together in the context of a shared ordeal or, communities who define themselves as a group with a mission that lies beyond themselves—thus initiating a risky journey. Over-concern with safety and security, combined with comfort and convenience, have lulled us out of our true calling and purpose. Everyone loves an adventure. Or do we? The chapter on communitas aims at putting the adventure back into the venture.

1 comment:

  1. Its a great book, quite tough on the brain, but potentially revolutionary and applicable across borders, cultures and denominations boundaries.

    The biggers challenge is identifying where it is happening and how it is happening on our front and fleshing it out further.

    blessings
    Andrew C

    ReplyDelete

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