[rating:3]
( Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2006)
295 pgs
Alan Hirsch is an Australian with a passion for starting church planting movements. He is a church planter, the founding director of Forge Mission Training Network, and a denominational leader. He published this book in 2006, which makes it the oldest book we have reviewed in these pages. However, one of our SNL members asked if I would review this book for the benefit of the SLN members. So I did.
I must say I do not read a lot of books on church planting. However, this book deals with much more than that. He focuses on the nature of the church itself. He also examines the way in which the church is discipling its members. Overall I found this book interesting and filled with information. The following is an overview of some of what struck me most.
First, I have to say that Hirsch apparently likes diagrams. He has lots of them in this book. He also makes use of numerous technical terms, some of which he creates himself. I must admit I always am a bit leery of books that require a glossary of terms at the back of the book for the reader to understand what is being said. At times I found the book getting a bit too technical and diagram driven.
One thing I did appreciate in Hirsch is that, although he brings a rather devastating indictment on the church, I did not find his tone as dismissive or as critical as I have found other writers to be in books such as Revolution or Pagan Christianity. At times, people who critique the church treat it as if it has nothing of value remaining in it. I tend to become sensitive to those who dismiss the church wholesale and then suggest an entirely different approach, which often has not yet been proven to be effective. While I would be the first to agree that the current church needs major improvements, it must be acknowledged that, as imperfectly as it has been functioning of late, it has still managed to bring Christianity from the First Century all the way to the Twenty-First Century. Clearly it has managed to do a few things correctly! I struggle with writers who are unwilling to take the current church from where it is, to where it needs to be.
Hirsch argues that there are “latent inbuilt missional potencies” that lie within every church (15). But to release them, “What we need now is a new set of tools. A new ‘paradigm’—a new vision of reality: a fundamental change in our thoughts, perceptions, and values, especially as they relate to our view of the church and mission” (17). Of course, this is why we read books, to give us a fresh perspective on things we may believe we already know well. Whenever I read such statements from those who are evaluating the effectiveness of today’s church, I always ask two questions: First, is what they are suggesting really a radical new view, or simply a fresh restating of what we already know? Second, is the alternative they are proposing truly workable or merely an idealistic fantasy? I always want the author to tell me of specific examples of where their theory has been put into practice. In this, Hirsch rises to the occasion.
Using calculations from Rodney Stark, Hirsch suggests that there were perhaps 25,000 Christians on the planet by 100 AD. (I personally find this estimate to be low). He then suggests that by 312 AD, there were 20,000,000 (18). He asks how the early church could have experienced such phenomenal growth when they did not have church buildings, formal institutions, or even legality. My first thought was that the church in China actually grew much more rapidly, to a larger size, but that is beside the point. Hirsch is looking at a 212-year period. A lot can happen in two centuries! Nonetheless, he does make a valid point. It would seem that the most rapid advance of Christianity occurred before it had all the tools, structures, and church growth techniques it is blessed with today. Which raises a great question: With so many church growth tools, conferences, books, resources, and theories floating around today, why is the church plateaued or in decline in so many places today?
Hirsch shares candidly about his own journey to learn how to plant healthy, reproducing churches. He relates how, through failure, he came to realize that much of what he was doing was unbiblical and, in the long run, ineffective. He notes that most of the great missional movements have begun “on the fringes” (30). He also suggests that for forty years, the church growth movement focused on helping churches become what people were looking for. It promoted a “consumerist” approach to reaching people (45). Yet Hirsch concludes: “”We plainly cannot consume our way into discipleship” (45).
Hirsch concludes that the key to church growth today is what he terms “Apostolic Genius.” He explains that it is “the total phenomenon resulting from a complex of multiform and real experiences of God, types of expression, organizational structures, leadership ethos, spiritual power, mode of belief, etc. And it is the active presence, or the lack of it, that makes all the difference to our experience of Jesus community, mission, and spiritual power” (78). Hirsch also coins the phrase mDNA which represents the “missionary DNA” that he claims lies latent in every church. The six aspects of the mDNA together form the Apostolic Genius. These six elements are: Jesus is Lord, Disciple making, Misisonal-incarnational impulse, apostolic environment, organic systems, and communitas not community” (79). For the remainder of the book, Hirsch unpacks these key elements that he believes are the essence of a true New Testament church and the answer to today’s church reaching an unbelieving world.
Much of what Hirsch says in the following pages I found interesting and helpful. But I did not like the way he used the phrase “apostolic genius.” For one, I believe the key was not “Apostolic Genius,” but the Holy Spirit. The problem with many of these writers is that they condemn one system as antiquated and dead, and then turn around and propose a new and improved system. The reality is that it has always been the desperate dependence upon the Holy Spirit by His people that has led to the phenomenal growth of the church. Why come up with a new term you have to explain in a glossary at the back of the book? Why not just call it what the Bible does, the Holy Spirit? I found this aspect distracting. While of course Hirsch recognizes the powerful working of the Holy Spirit, that only becomes a piece of the puzzle, rather than the key. Whenever a writer declares he has the key to the church’s 2,000-year-old problem, and it is a new term the author has just coined, I am skeptical. Nevertheless, I think that much of what Hirsch observes is noteworthy. I just wish he had stayed with biblical terms.
Hirsch notes that when the church began to have buildings and to declare them to be “holy” it inadvertently consigned places such as the marketplace or home to appear to be “secular” (95). He rightly notes that this has had a profoundly negative effect on the church. He also claims that the church has largely “lost the art of disciplemaking (104). He suggests we have done this by reducing discipleship to mere intellectual assent. We think because we know something or we believe something, that it is the same as practicing it. He also notes that the shape of most church buildings is designed to accommodate a largely passive congregation (110). He warns that if we do not disciple our people, the culture will (111).
Hirsch also notes that the quality of our discipleship has a direct effect on the quality of church leadership (119). He notes that today’s churches are driven largely by their attempts to “attract” people to attend their services rather than training and motivating their people to be sent out into the world (179). He argues that church follows mission. He claims that when we start with the church, it often fails to become missional. However, if you help God’s people grasp their call to be on mission, they will establish churches with that focus (143). He observes that there is a plethora of leadership resources available to the church today, yet it is suffering serious decline (150). He suggests that the key is “apostolic leadership” (151). I was intrigued by his discussion on this subject. I have read a number of people who mentioned apostolic leadership and there is clearly no consensus on what this means. Often theologies or ecclesiology’s provide different views on the term “apostolic.” This is an area I felt I came away with wanting to study more myself.
He notes that the problem with institutions is that there are too many with a vested interest in keeping things the same (185). He also notes that there are few examples of megachurches that began a church planting movement (215). He also makes the interesting observation that the middle class culture is largely contrary to the missionary impulse (219). Finally, he observes that groups that have gathered for purposes other than missions (prayer, Bible study etc.) rarely move to become missional (235). Yet groups that begin with a mission mindset, often later embrace other features as well, such as prayer and Bible study.
There is much good material in this book. It has some Pentecostal leanings, such as including John Wimber in the list of great church leaders in history who have changed the face of Christianity. Yet Hirsch also seems to be fairly even handed in his biblical and theological approach. He also provides examples from a diversity of denominational and national backgrounds.
Overall I enjoyed this book. I made notes of a number of issues that I felt compelled to do further study on. I also felt like he offered significant challenges to the current church without sounding as if he had already packed his bags and abandoned the existing church. For those wanting their thinking pushed on this subject, this is a good book. At times his pushing of his term “Apostolic Genius” may seem somewhat artificial, but he does offer some helpful insights. I think it is incumbent on every church leader today to be reading in this field and to be open to ways they can lead their church to function in a truly more New Testament manner.