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June 4, 2008
Audio Ur: Alan Hirsch Defines "Missional"
The word "missional" is everywhere. But what does it mean? Is it another way of saying "seeker-focused" or "purpose-driven"? Not according to Alan Hirsch, author of The Forgotten Ways and The Shaping of Things to Come. In this edition of Audio Ur the insightful, yet soft-spoken, man from Down Under talks with Skye Jethani and Marshall Shelley about what it truly means to be a missional church.
To download this episode of Audio Ur, click here.
Posted by UrL Scaramanga on June 4, 2008
Comments
I'm hearing some things here, and some nuances, that I haven't heard from Alan before, and they are helpful. One is the "hiddenness" of God in Christ and the implications for mission. The other is "moving into the neighborhood." Maybe I've been out of touch with Alan, but it also seems to me that his framework has expanding. Great stuff!
Posted by: len at June 5, 2008
Hi Skye and Marshall. I am so sorry that it seemed I dominated the conversation.
Thanks for the podcast and the chance to meet the Out of Ur team. I'm a long time fan.
Posted by: Alan Hirsch at June 5, 2008
Alan, et al,
This is great stuff. The tension I sense in being missional among so many sub-cultures and tribes is how the church can be a tribe that is at once incarnational AND missional. To borrow ideas from Hauerwas and JH Yoder and Rodney Clapp, how can the church be a formative culture (incarnational) that also leaves believers as missionaries within their native tribes (missional). If Alan is still reading this blog string, I would love his thoughts.
Peace,
Chad
Posted by: Chad Hall at June 6, 2008
Hi Chad. The short answer is "with great difficulty". Part of the tensions comes from the fact that missional and incarnational go together. In this sense, all missional effort is cross cultural. to learn other people's culture and to 'be with then' in it is an act of love and requires some commitment. But it lies at the heart of the Christian message doesn't it?
Posted by: Alan Hirsch at June 7, 2008
Alan, I think you're right on this. And, to put it another way, a community who truly puts in flesh (incarnates) God's purpose must necessarily be missional (being with various tribes and cultures in loving and Christlike ways) because being so is at the core of God's purpose and heart. It's a good and powerful tension: the church is a peculiar people, a people who draw together to intensify their peculiarity, and whose peculiarity is marked by cross-cultural engagement.
Thanks for your work on this. Very informative, helpful and encouraging.
-Chad
Posted by: Chad Hall at June 7, 2008
I loved Alan Hirsch's book, The Forgotten Ways, and highly recommend it.
This is a good follow up to this podcast. Great info on how to embody the mission of the church.
Posted by: Ken Fleck at June 8, 2008