Book Review: The Forgotten Ways, Part One

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[Note: This is part one of a two part book review.]

How Did The Church Grow So Big So Fast?

How did the followers of Jesus grow from a movement of maybe 25,000 in AD 100 to as many as 20 million in the span of 200 years? How did this outlawed religion become the most powerful force in the world, such that it was declared the state religion in just two short centuries?

Or consider this example: In 1950, estimates are that there were between 2 and 3 million Christians when Mao Tse-tung came to power and began a purge of all religion from China. Missionaries were expelled. Pastors were killed. Churches were confiscated or destroyed. The goal of the Cultural Revolution in China was to eradicate Christianity. In the late 1970s and 1980s, after the death of Mao, when China became more open to the West, it was discovered that under such brutal conditions the church had flourished and had grown to 80 million people. Some estimate that there are now as many as 120 million Christians in China. How could this happen? The purpose of this book is to answer that question.

Key Assumptions

There are two key concepts that Alan Hirsch describes in the second section of the book: Apostolic Genius and APEST. Before I describe these two concepts, though, there are a few assumptions that Hirsch makes that important as context for his reconceptualization of the Church’s approach to its mission. First, he assumes that the time for tweaking the current approach to ministry and mission has come to an end. It is no longer effective because the church is no longer embedded in a culture that shares its assumptions about the world. Postmodern thought has radically reshaped the landscape of our culture. The Church, by and large, has maintained the same approaches to discipleship, ministry, mission. A second major assumption Hirsh makes in tribalism. There now exist very few metanarratives that provide cohesion for a group of any size. People tend to focus not on those characteristics that bind them to others, but rather on those characteristics which make them unique from others. For example, there are few people who describe themselves as Americans any more, but there are many Latina/o Americans, African Americans, Caucasian Americans, and so on and so forth. People are much more apt to identify with their sexual preferences, for instance, than with any larger framework that might bind them to a larger society. Third, he makes an important observation that is particularly important for the context in which I am now serving. Hirsch writes on page 33 that “doing the same things better might improve what you currently have, but it cannot produce something fundamentally new.” What the church I serve needs, and what The Church needs, is something fundamentally new.

Hirsch claims that every person (and church) carries within them what is needed for the revitalization of the Church. Every Christ-follower carries within them the seed of renewal. He called this seed Apostolic Genius. A key element of that renewal then is that the church reconceptualize itself as a movement, rather than an institution. That is exactly what he aims to do in describing Apostolic Genius, and the six elements of the DNA of the church that comprise the approach: Jesus Is Lord, Disciple-making, Missional-Incarnational Impulse, Liminality and Communitas, APEST culture, organic systems.

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The Church's DNA

The goal is to implement these elements such that a church can be described as missional. That is, it “defines itself by, and organizes itself around, its real mission and purpose of being an agent of God’s mission on earth (p. 87).” Hirsch observes that every historical renewal movement of the church has exhibited each of these six elements: 

Jesus is Lord

With this simple confession the people of God have lived out Scriptural faith. This confession defines us as a people—the people of God. Hirsch argues that complex theologies and cumbersome organizational structures do much more to impede the progress of the Gospel than to propel it forward. To have the greatest impact for the Kingdom, then, we must simplify both our message and our organizational structures. See the Organic Systems section below for a description of Hirsch’s view of ecclesiology that characterizes movements of God.

Disciple-Making

This is the lifelong process of becoming more and more like Jesus. The Church trains people to live out “God with us.” This is an intentional, cooperative process initiated by God. Hirsch criticizes Methodism, saying that as soon as the class meetings and band meetings (the primary means of discipleship in the ealrly Methodists societies) were no longer required, the movement stopped growing. Hirsch advocates a return to the types of groups that characterized early Methodism, which involved a high degree of commitment and accountability. He calls for a de-emphasis on Sunday worship attendance and increased emphasis on small group involvement. Hirsh gives what has become my favorite definition of discipleship: “to seek to do that same things that Jesus did for the same reason that he did them (p. 119).” Leadership is always the limiting factor in any organization. Hirsch agues that the church’s leadership is limited because of the limited quality of its discipleship. Poor leadership, of course, results in the Church’s, or any organization’s, failure to reach its goals.

Missional-Incarnational Impulse

The Missional-Incarnational Impulse is to both expand the reach of the gospel to other cultures and deepen the reach of the faith within that new culture. Hirsch points out that as followers of Christ, we are a sent people; “So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you (John20:21).” We are to go, and as we go we are to embody the life of Christ. The Church in America has largely lost this “sent” impulse as we have focused more and more on an attractional model of evangelism. For instance, for us Methodists, the phrase “Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors,” in addition to being frequently misinterpreted, is emblematic of the attractional model. We iopen a church and if the preaching and music is good enough, people will just start showing up. In order to live into the missional-incarnational impulse, we must begin to take church to people, rather than expecting that they will come to us. He calls Christians in North America to consider themselves as missionaries to their communities.

Liminality and Communitas

Liminality refers to a state of affairs in which a person or group experiences a transitional state which may be disorienting, in which old ways of being are no longer held as true, and old structures are called into question and may be dissolved. In the midst of corporate liminal experiences, a group can disband or develop communitas. The deepest and strongest communities are forged through difficult circumstances (liminal experiences) or a common mission that is bigger than individuals or the organization. Hirsch argues that the legacy of Christendom (state church) is that we have become so comfortable that we have drifted from our primary mission as a church, and therefore have lost much of what has empowered Christianity as a movement.

Part Two of this reivew will describe the APEST Culture and Organic Systems of Missional Movements, as well as my main take aways from the book. To be notified of it's publication, subscribe to the blog by filling out the form in the right-hand navigation bar.

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