The Forgotten Ways...

I've been chewing on Alan Hirsch's latest book, The Forgotten Ways, over the past few months. 

It's somewhat of a follow up to The Shaping of things to come by Hirsch and Michael Frost. It's a fairly dense read and Alan coins a number of new terms, which might be why it took me so long to dig through... but it was well worth it.

There are plenty of reviews around on the book, a few personal gems:

All great missionary movements begin at the fringes of the church, among the poor and the marginalized, and seldom, if ever, at the center.

An advertising executive recently confessed to me that they are now deliberately stepping into the void that was left by the removal of Christianity from Western culture... Much of that which goes by the name advertising is an explicit offer of a sense of identity, meaning, purpose, and community... If through advertising marketers can just link their products to this great unfilled void, they will sell.

If we don’t disciple people, the culture sure will

The fact that God was in the Nazarene neighborhood for thirty years and no one noticed should be profoundly disturbing to our normal ways of engaging mission.

Start with the church and the mission will probably get lost.  Start with the mission and it is likely that the Church will be found.

Alan offers a real primer on what it means for us to 'be the church' in the 21st century.

Lon Wong
http://solarcrash.com

Comments

[Rhett Smith]

Lon,

Just last night, my brother-in-law said that he ranks this book among his top 5-10 theology books of all time.....so I must read it.

And yeah...4 Hours a Week is captivating....really, the premise is that if one can limit or be efficient at their work, then it frees them up to pursue what they are passionate about....his hope is that people's work though is something they are passionate about as well.

rhett