XMind

Alan Hirsch at Velocity in GA, Feb '10

1. Intro

   1. America has a very important role in the evangelization of the West.

   2. If we do not win the battle in the States then we will loose the battle in the West.

   3. The church is rocking on in other places but not in the western world

2. Articulate why we have to think differently about the church

   1. Why do we need to be missional

   2. Something in the American entrepreneurial spirit can help you take your apostolic place in the world.

   3. Missional is not just another cool buz word it is a deeply theological and biblical word

   4. Cultural Distance

      1. 0----1-----2-----3----4 distance

         1. each point is a cultural distance point

         2. Language

         3. Race

         4. People's history

         5. The church has hung out around #1 where church was central to society and central to the life of the people

         6. 'Subculturalization' has added distance from #1 and also immigrants

         7. The distance between 0 and 1 is getting smaller.

         8. So, increasingly the church is being pushed out. we have to be cross cultural missionaries now

         9. Attractional church: the churches missionary stance in relationship to the culture. If everyone is between 0 and 1 then people will come to you easily

            1. If people are outside, between 1 and 4 then it is too hard

            2. Outreach and in drag.

            3. within 3 to 5 years a new believer would no longer have relationships outside the church

            4. The gospel travels over relationships.

            5. Attractional could now be called extractional because that is what happens.

            6. This now means that the people between 1 and 4 are being asked to come out of their culture to visit the church.

            7. But we are obligated as believers to go to them, to their culture.

            8. Cities particularly experience this all the time.

      2. Ralph Winter used the idea

   5. Australian research

      1. Self identifying non-Christians

         1. God

            1. 90% believed there was a God...of some kind

         2. Jesus

            1. very positive. He did exist

               1. this is very helpful

               2. Perceived set.

                  1. you can remember 2 or 3 brands in the perceived set

                  2. Who is the greatest person who ever lived. Jesus

                  3. That is something you can really work with

         3. Spirituality

            1. Very important now

         4. Church

            1. extremely badly

      2. The good news is therefore basically sound

         1. God

         2. Jesus

         3. Spirituality

      3. So where do we need to put our emphasis

         1. The church has to adapt itself

         2. Your "delivery system" for the first three needs to be changed

   6. The traditional or mainline church

      1. 20% loss of church denomination in Australia each year.

      2. it is dying every day.

   7. The one doing the job is the contemporary evangelical independent church

      1. Churches with marketability or appeal

         1. 10-12% of Aussies where there is a strong appeal culturally speaking between church and culture

         2. In the US it is much much more. like 40% of Americans who would feel comfortable in a church

      2. 95% of churches are trying to be big and have the appeal of the megachurch and are competing for the 40%

         1. But whatever it takes to pull off being a mega church is pretty tough.

         2. Most of the aspiring churches will never make it

         3. Now the 40% of Americans is shrinking

      3. Now, what about the 60% of Americans who will not go to the mega church?

         1. Blasé: it does something for you but not for me

         2. I'd never go there they will mess with your head, don't go

         3. So, how are these people going to hear the gospel?

         4. Topic

         5. More of the same will not get us anywhere, this is organizational insanity

         6. The problems of the church cannot be resolved by the practices that created those problems in the first place

         7. Digging holes, but if you need to dig a hole over there then you cannot just dig your hole deeper.

         8. You are perfectly designed to reach the people you are currently reaching.

            1. what are you going to design to reach the people you are not reaching.

         9. The church of Jesus is designed to be a messenger.

3. We have to find new ways of being the church

   1. Reaching the 60% who would not go into the appealing church

   2. You cannot sell a Christendom approach to a post Christendom body.

      1. It is going to require innovation

         1. The battle we will fight

         2. You can go to Germany, the birthplace of the reformation. believers are marginalizes

         3. Switzerland is the same

      2. The battle for the future of the church in the West will be won at the level of imagination or it will be lost at that level.

      3. two questions

         1. What is church for this people group

            1. find out what is happening and articulate the church in that

            2. missiology has always been a subset of ecclesiology but it is the other way around

            3. the mission has a church not the church has a mission

         2. What is gospel to this people group

            1. how are people expressing their search and longing for redemption

            2. Are we following a reformation model where people feel guilty

               1. then we have to make people feel bad before they feel good.

               2. then we become the Pharisees

            3. Are they feeling shame?

            4. We are to be the good news people

            5. You plant the gospel we don't plant churches

            6. Idolatry might be better than sin. People understand the idols of work, sex, money, image, relationships

4. Alan Hirsch

   1. Director of the Forge Mission Training Network

      Alan is the founding Director of Forge Mission Training Network. He is the
      co-founder of shapevine.com an international forum for engaging with world
      transforming ideas. He is also part of the leadership team of Christian
      Associates, a missional church-planting agency with focus on Western Europe.
      Known for his innovative approach to mission, Alan is a teacher and key
      mission strategist for churches across the western world. His popular book The
      Shaping of Things to Come i(with Michael Frost) s widely considered to be a
      seminal text on mission. Alan's recent book The Forgotten Ways, has quickly
      become a key reference for missional thinking, particularly as it relates to
      movements. His new book ReJesus (out late 08) is a radical restatement about...