Alan Hirsch Quotes - Page 2

Because we believe that somewhere in the nest of paradigms contained in the phrase "missional church" lies nothing less that the future viability of Western Christianity.

If a can opener no longer has the capacity to open cans, what is it?

Whether [new Protestant church movements] place their emphasis on new worship styles, expressions of the Holy Spirit’s power, evangelism to seekers, or Bible teaching, these so-called new movements still operate out of the fallacious assumption that the church belongs firmly in the town square, that is, at the heart of Western culture. And if they begin with this mistaken belief about their position in Western society, all their church planting, all their reproduction will simply mirror this misapprehension.

Christianity is an adventure of the spirit or it is not Christianity.

In a world that demands service we position ourselves as servants.

Whether we like it or not, we are all on a journey, a Quest if you will, every day of our lives, and the path we must take is full of perils, and our destiny can never be predicted in advance.

Currently, young Christians reach adulthood bored with church experience, and with little or no sense of their calling as missionaries.

The kingdom of God is a crash-bang opera: the king is dramatic, demanding, and unavoidable.

Mission is the practical demonstration, whether by speech or by action, of the glorious lordship of Jesus.

This submission to the threshold of a cross is at the very root of our following Jesus; it changes the game completely.

Many church folk, in their self-conscious attempt to be overtly morally upright, emit all the wrong signals, thus messing with people's perception of the gospel.

The ultimate solution to the problem of spiritual complacency is to create a systematically embedded culture of holy urgency.

Truth is narrow, but grace is wide.

It is vital to see ourselves as part of an ongoing journey started by our heroes in the Scriptures.

If we could be freed from our aversion to loss, our whole outlook on risk would change.

The missional church is not a new trend or the latest new technique for reaching postmodern people.

Those of us with too much invested in the way things are will never embrace the revolutionary cause required for wholesale change.

Nowadays we raise our children in a cocoon of domesticated security, far from any sense of risk or adventure.

In order to develop a pioneering missional spirit, a capacity for genuine ecclesial innovation, let along engender daring discipleship, we are going to need the capacity to take a courageous stand when and where necessary.

A missional church is a church that must live the dialectic. It must stay in the journey.

Interestingly, it's as though the gospel story of Jesus is the archetypal heroic journey, the embodiment of the very adventure that all people in every epoch have desired.

Building community for its own sake is like attending a cancer support group without having cancer.

The fact is that if Jesus's future kingdom is secure, those who trust in its coming will enact it now.

Think of mission like the paddles of a defibrillator applied to the chest of a dying church.

If we are going to make the change from community to communitas, and not just end up with an unsustainable adrenaline-junkie culture, we must have a sophisticated process to form people into adventurer-disciples.