Brady :: Friends blog

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/505578946/

For all those who read Pagan Christianity, where Frank and George hammer inherited concepts and practices of church, and were excited, disturbed, confused, or angry about it, Frank Viola has penned the more complete picture of what church can be after being de-paganized in Reimagining Church. Critics will be pleased that this is indeed is a much more positive book. This is what I wrote as an endorsement of it.

“True to form, this book contains a thoroughly consistent critique of prevailing forms of church. However, in ReImagining Church, Frank Viola also presents a positive vision of what the church can become if we truly reembraced more organic, and less institutional, forms of church. This is a no holds barred prophetic vision for the church in the twenty-first Century.”

Also, you should take a look at Shapevine’s podule (modularized, interactive, multi-media learning) series featuring Frank on Pagan Christianity.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/503093390/

It is now two years since the release of The Forgotten Ways and the book is still Brazos’ best seller, and has been so for the last eighteen months. I don’t say this out of any personal pride as I of all people know that the idea behind the book was something ‘given to me’ by God to both steward and to articulate. I am privileged to even be a part of it all–I am all too aware of my short-fallings and am constantly amazed that God would even use me. I suppose that’s what grace is all about. Can I also take this time to remind you of the really practical and comprehensive workbook The Forgotten Ways Handbook, that is about to be published. If you benefited from TFW, you will love this book and it will make it profoundly applicable in various missional endeavors. Anyhow, here are some of the reviews from various journals and commentators over ‘08…

“Captivating. . . . Hirsch creates novel terms, repackages discarded or unfamiliar words, and peppers the book with acronyms. . . . This is a powerful book that will provoke a lot of helpful thought.”

–Chad Hall, Leadership Journal

“I picked up this book with the fear that it was another book on the missional church that would lack biblical depth and cross-cultural topography. I was wrong on both counts. . . . Missionaries will both appreciate the cultural balance of this book and gain insights for planting and revitalizing cell, community and church ministry across cultures. . . . Hirsch is as adept at drawing upon church renewal writers . . . as he is at synthesizing the movement dynamics . . . or distilling the essence of current leadership authors. . . . His ability to integrate such varied and complex ideas succinctly into missiological practice is unmatched. . . . The global mission community is indebted to Hirsch for this seminal book. It is packed with solid exegesis and theological reflection and provides a fresh reading of contemporary Christian authors and a careful evaluation of paradigm-shifting authors from the leadership field. There is rich insight in each chapter for field practitioners and a fresh synthesis of the essentials of biblical missiology.”

–Steve Hoke, Evangelical Missions Quarterly

“[Hirsch] surveys the vast variety of experiments that constitute ‘the Emergent Missional Church (EMC),’ and he provides both fascinating insights and useful tools (relevant Web sites and blogs) to explore them further. Commendable is his commitment to theological priorities. . . . [He provokes an] important discussion.”

–Darrell L. Guder, International Bulletin of Missionary Research

“[Hirsch's] reflections are worth reading, reading again and most importantly acting upon. The Forgotten Ways is a welcome and significant addition to the literature on mission to the West written by a leading missiological strategist. It will prove to be a useful tool to help shape new forms of missional church–for church planters, those leading change in existing churches and all mission-hearted followers of Jesus.”

–Darren Cronshaw, Journal of the American Society for Church Growth

“The Forgotten Ways represents the potential that the emergent movement has for the renewal of the whole church. Replete with illustrations, graphs, diagrams, and insights wrought from experience, the book introduces the concept of Apostolic Genius, which exists, Hirsch argues, in all churches. The six elements of Apostolic Genius . . . make up what he calls mDNA (m is for missional). The organization of the book around each of these elements makes for clear, accessible, and practical reading. . . . There is very little to disagree with and much to celebrate in this book. Church leaders who desire to mobilize their people for genuine transformational ministry in this postmodern age need to read it. In fact, plan a staff retreat around it. Restructure and simplify the church according to it. Define mission by it. And then hang on as God moves in your midst.”

–Al Tizon, Prism

“The Forgotten Ways is not for the faint of heart. . . . This book has stretched my heart to conform to a model of church that is undeniably biblical, yet all but forgotten. This book is great for anyone longing to see a spiritual movement characterized by the rejection of those things in contemporary Christianity that limit the work of God among His people.”

–Marshall Fagg, On Mission

“Alan Hirsch’s inspiring work in The Forgotten Ways delivers for those interested in rekindling the heart of every successful church movement. Reading as part rally cry and part biology book, The Forgotten Ways takes transforming the church to the most detailed level. . . . Hirsch proposes no less than a complete, grassroots, put-up-or-shut-up, no holds barred, pull-out-all-the-stops reassembling of how we do church. But he makes it look possible. If you aren’t ready to go all-in on transforming the impact of your church, you need to stay away from this book.”

–Luke Trouten, YouthWorker Journal

“[One] of the most important books of this decade. . . . The questions [Hirsch] raise[s] and [his] critique of Western Protestantism is raising questions that will be dealt with for some time. . . . This is must read material for today’s conversation.”

–Bill Easum / Tom Bandy

“Hirsch presents a thoughtful reflection on how the Church might reconstruct itself in our current postmodern context while offering numerous insights that will be useful to those working in postmodern situations.”

–Gary McIntosh, Outreach

“The principles [Hirsch] presents could be used in a variety of church settings. The ideas are especially suited, however, for a movement that takes us into the future using alternative methods of gathering together, worship, and reaching those who are not Jesus followers. . . . [Hirsch] documents the struggles and ups and downs of discovering a new way of doing church, and his transparency is very refreshing. A comprehensive and growing Web site (www.theforgottenways.org) continues the discussion started in the book. . . . This book, a continuation of the ideas addressed with coauthor Michael Frost in The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church, is a must-read for those looking for effective ways to be the church and to reach an increasingly resistant and post-Christian Western population.”

–Timothy Friend, barclaypress.co

“[This is] a book to be read slowly and carefully, pondering and reflecting along the way. . . . I am convinced that every man and woman in America who desires to see the Kingdom of God impact our culture needs to read this book. . . . If you are a pastor, church planter, seminary student, or missionary to the peoples of the West . . . order this book, and read it. Thanks Alan for a prophetic voice through great scholarship and writing.”

–awaitingrain.typepad.com

“[This is] a book that I will read more than once. . . . The first section . . . is worth the price of the book. If you haven’t read the book already, you need to purchase it. For leaders of Christian communities, the book is that good and that revolutionary. The second part of the book is even better and gets at the heart of what needs to happen in more theological and practical terms.”

–jordoncooper.com

“In a captivating commentary, this Australian pastor and church planter argues that networks of believers play a more adept role at spreading the gospel than institutions. . . . One of the strengths of this book is that Hirsch doesn’t speak from an ivory tower but from the rough-and-tumble of a Melbourne neighborhood. . . . Hirsch’s ideas merit consideration as churches attempt to navigate their way through the confusing and often-hostile waters of adapting to the culture.”

–Ken Walker, churchcentral.com

“[This book] stands out as one of the best missions reads I have picked up in quite some time. . . . Hirsch’s work is both readable and seriously focused upon detail(s). Basically, the book is an accessible but scholarly read/analysis of the state of contemporary missions. It makes one think, to say the least. . . . Christians–all Christians–interested in evangelism and missions should read this book. . . . It is well worth the price, especially for those of us seriously interested in missions and the Church of Jesus Christ.”

–Shawn Anthony, lofitribe.com

“The Forgotten Ways . . . helps to plot a way forward for the missional church.”

–rodneyolsen.net

“I’ve now read through the whole of Alan’s book and can’t recommend it highly enough. For those of you who are leading churches or looking to pioneer new ones, this is must reading. . . . It’s thought provoking, challenging, and extremely stretching.”

–samradford.com

“Alan Hirsch brings a unique perspective to the emerging church discussion. . . . Hirsch is well read, an astute observer of society. This helps, rather than detracts from his ability to hear from God. He reminds me of Francis Schaeffer, who would probably say many of the same things if he were still alive today. . . . Hirsch’s message of The Forgotten Ways can be just as challenging to house church as to more traditional forms of church. Either way, if we are not being missional, we have missed our purpose and are mostly serving ourselves.”

–Steve Eastman, OpenHeaven.com

“I think you will find . . . The Forgotten Ways inspiring if you are as concerned as I am about reaching un-churched and unreached people with the good news of Jesus. . . . I wholeheartedly invite you all to raid your piggy-banks in order to purchase this book.”

–Floyd McClung, floydandsally.org

“In The Forgotten Ways, . . . Alan Hirsch emerges as a pace-setter. . . . He melds statistics, graphics and case studies with a creative, inspiring voice. . . . Hirsch’s writing is both imaginative and convincing. He builds his thesis with history, case studies and scripture, and one comes away from his book with a fresh look at century-old truths. . . . The Forgotten Ways acts as a dictionary and best-practices manual for emerging church in general. . . . Hirsch represents an erudite, theologically-deliberate side of emerging church thought. . . . I found Hirsch’s writing immeasurably useful and timely. . . . Hirsch goes beyond vague hints about church and culture to concrete dynamics, backing his points with the New Testament. . . . Hirsch’s work stands out as visionary, creative, and still applicable. Within the canon of emerging church literature, he is a unique voice, willing to enter postmodern culture while also critiquing it, willing to critique the church while also expressing a Christ-like love for it. The Forgotten Ways is a book I will revisit many times to refresh my memory. . . . Highly recommended.”

–Ariel Vanderhorst, bittersweetblue.blogspot.com

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/502054605/

“Managing from the future”—establishing a compelling goal that draws the organization out of its comfort zone—is a key discipline in moving us to the edge of chaos and therefore is important in developing missional church. This means placing ourselves in the new future and then taking a series of steps, not in order to get there some day, but as if you are there already, or almost there, now. This is exactly the perspective of the Kingdom of God in the New Testament. In saying that the future (eschatological) Kingdom of God is already present in our midst, we are called to act in the knowledge that it is already here now and yet will be completed then. And so we are drawn up into God’s future for the world. This ‘now’ and ‘not yet’ tension of the Kingdom defines our reality and keeps us moving, growing, and adapting. It is in the language of living systems, our ever present strange attractor (innate guiding mechanism.)

This concept of planning from the future is not just some obscure theological principle, but one of the key activators of mission in our lives and organizations and therefore a direct function of missional leadership. Leaders of God’s people need to make it a discipline in the way we do church and lead God’s people into mission. Here is an example of how it might work in developing organizations.

In 1987, inspired by a church service, a real estate lawyer, Billy Payne, set his sights on achieving a very large goal—he wanted to bring the 1996 Olympics to his hometown, Atlanta. As it turned out, he would receive no direct financial support from the city of the state. What is more, Atlanta had very few facilities suitable for the logistics of Olympic competition. Public debate and media criticism constituted a skeptical chorus during the start-up years. But piece-by-piece, Payne stitched the Atlanta games together like a patchwork quilt. He succeeded in part because his goal of bringing the Olympics to Atlanta was tangible and it connected with the strange attractor of southern pride and hospitality.

“With Coca-Cola’s commitment to sponsorship in 1992, Payne received his first seed money–$540 million. He solved the problem of too few facilities by spreading events as far as Washington, DC and Orlando, Florida. He had to create a $1.7 billion temporary organization, oversee projects involving 82,500 workers and 42,000 volunteers.” And he pulled it off with money to spare which he donated to his city. It was a truly remarkable feat born of a vision for his city. The thing is about Billy Payne, is that he understood what it meant to manage from the future. He says “I have always thought the way to engage life—in business and personally—is to set enormously high goals that seem absolutely unattainable, and work from the conviction that you’re going to pull it off. By doing that I’m convinced that you are going to reach half of them. As for the others, you’re going to go further than you would have otherwise.”

But the same dynamic exists in all great visionaries. They speak from the future. No less in Martin Luther King Jr. as in the founding of the Urban Neighbors of Hope, a missionary order to the poorest of the poor in Melbourne, or a local church plant with a vision to see people come to Jesus. The real power is this: that a compelling vision of the future is one way of generating genuine communitas by developing a corporate sense of mission that in turn ‘creates’ the future.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/500737910/

I have been reading (very slowly) Clay Shirky Shirky’s generative book on distributed organizations, Here Comes Everybody:The Power of Organizing without Organizations. The book looks at how people are organizing using technology, web, and other informal, non-hierarchical, ways. It has significance for movements and so I think it is important. Here is an excellent review, from Dave Mays, on the book.

This is a fascinating book, enlivened by real life stories, about how electronic communication tools have made amazing things possible that were impossible or cost prohibitive in the past.

The book begins with a 13-page story of how an enterprising young man using web tools was able to draw and sustain a crowd with enough people and expertise to pressure the New York City police into arresting a young woman and forcing her to return a cell phone to its owner.

“We now have communications tools that are flexible enough to match our social capabilities, and we are witnessing the rise of new ways of coordinating action that take advantage of that change.” “We are living in the middle of a remarkable increase in our ability to share, to cooperate with one another, and to take collective action, all outside the framework of traditional institutions and organizations.” (20-21)

“By making it easier for groups to self-assemble and for individuals to contribute to group effort without requiring formal management (and its attendant overhead), these tools have radically altered the old limits on the size, sophistication, and scope of unsupervised effort….” (21)

“Most of the barriers to group action have collapsed, and without those barriers, we are free to explore new ways of gathering together and getting things done.” (22)

“Group action gives human society its particular character, and anything that changes the way groups get things done will affect society as a whole.” (23)

Hundreds of pictures of the Mermaid Parade are hosted and organized on Flickr. No organization would have done this. The value is limited and the costs are high. Photos and descriptions of the London subway bombing were made available moments afterward by participants with cell phones. No media institution could have done this. But it was done.

In traditional organizations things get done because people cooperate. And people cooperate, generally, because they get paid. Thus there are ‘transactional (management) costs’ to getting things done. Many things aren’t worth doing because the costs are too high. “Small decreases in transaction costs make businesses more efficient… Large decreases in transaction costs create activities that can’t be taken on by businesses, or indeed by any institution, because no matter how cheap it becomes…there isn’t enough payoff to support the cost incurred by being an institution in the first place.” (46)

“Now that it is possible to achieve large-scale coordination at low cost, a third category has emerged: serious, complex work, taken on without institutional direction. Loosely coordinated groups can now achieve things that were previously out of reach for any other organizational structure…” (47)

“For the last hundred years the big organizational question has been whether any given task was best taken on by the state, directing the effort in a planned way, or by businesses competing in a market.” Now there is a third alternative. “The scope of work that can be done by noninstitutional groups is a profound challenge to the status quo.” (47-8)

“The media landscape is transformed, because personal communication and publishing, previously separate functions, now shade into one another. One result is to break the older pattern of professional filtering of the good from the mediocre before publication; now such filtering is increasingly social, and happens after the fact.” (81) It also means that the traditional relationship between the government and the press is breaking down. Who should receive immunity from revealing their source when everyone is a publisher?

“Email is such a funny thing. People hand you these single little messages that are no heavier than a river pebble. But it doesn’t take long until you have acquired a pile of pebbles that’s taller than you and heavier than you could ever hope to move, even if you wanted to do it over a few dozen trips. But for the person who took the time to hand you their pebble, it seems outrageous that you can’t handle that one time thing. ‘What ‘pile’? It’s just a pebble!” (94-5 quoting Merlin Mann)

“The invention of a tool doesn’t create change; it has to have been around long enough that most of society is using it. It’s when a technology becomes normal, then ubiquitous, and finally so pervasive as to be invisible, that the really profound changes happen….” (105) “We are living in the middle of the largest increase in expressive capability in the history of the human race.’ (106)

“Our social tools are not an improvement to modern society; they are a challenge to it.” “When new technology appears, previously impossible things start occurring. If enough of those impossible things are important and happen in a bundle, quickly, the change becomes a revolution. The hallmark of revolution is that the goals of the revolutionaries cannot be contained by the institutional structure of the existing society.” (107)

“All businesses are media businesses, because whatever else they do, all businesses rely on the managing of information for two audiences–employees and the world.” (107)

Wikipedia demonstrates what noninstitutional groups can accomplish. “Like everything described in this book, a wiki is a hybrid of tool and community. Wikipedia, and all wikis, grow if enough people care about them, and they die if they don’t.” (136)

“Because Wikipedia is a process, not a product, it replaces guarantees offered by institutions with probabilities supported by process: if enough people care enough about an article to read it, then enough people will care enough to improve it, and over time this will lead to a large enough body of good enough work to begin to take both availability and quality of articles for granted, and to integrate Wikipedia into daily use by millions.” (140)

“Philosophers sometimes make a distinction between a difference in degree (more of the same) and a difference in kind (something new). What we are witnessing today is a difference in the degree of sharing so large it becomes a difference in kind.” (149)

“Revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new technologies–it happens when society adopts new behaviors.” (160)

In May 1940 it took only six weeks for France to surrender to Germany. France had much better equipment, but the Germans had radios in their tanks and were thus able to communicate, respond in real time, and act as a coordinated group. (192)

“The more ubiquitous and familiar a communications method is, the more real-time coordination can come to replace planning, and the less predictable group reactions become.” (175)

This sort of thing is occurring today with “flash mobs.” By means of electronic communication, dispersed people with a common issue can be mobilized almost instantaneously. This is true of the Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights that came out of the 2006 American Airlines flight that was held on the ground in Austin for more than eight hours.

It also happens when political protestors stage an impromptu rally. It can happen so quickly and quietly that the powers that be cannot predict or prevent it.

“Any tool that improves shared awareness or group coordination can be pressed into service for political means, because the freedom to act in a group is inherently political. “We adopt those tools that amplify our capabilities, and we modify our tools to improve that amplification.” (187)

Further, it is easier for groups to form without social approval, for example a web site for Pro-Ana girls, those encouraging each other in their anorexic behaviors. (205) “Falling transaction costs benefit all groups, not just groups we happen to approve of.” (208)

“Our new freedoms are not without their problems; it’s not a revolution if nobody loses. Improved freedom of assembly is creating three kinds of social loss.” These are the loss of some occupations, the loss of current social bargains, and the loss associated with the increased flexibility and resilience of terrorist or criminal networks. “When it becomes simple to form groups, we get both the good and bad ones.” (209-11)

The Linux software, initiated by Linus Torvalds, which runs 40% of the world’s servers is a total volunteer group production, continually being improved and updated.

“Because anyone can try anything, the projects that fail, fail quickly, but the people working on those projects can migrate just as quickly to the things that are visibly working.” “This arrangement allows the successes to become host to a community of sustained interest.” (258)

“Every story in this book relies on a successful fusion of a plausible promise, an effective tool, and an acceptable bargain for the users. The promise is the basic ‘why’ for anyone to join or contribute to a group. The tool helps with the ‘how’–how will the difficulties of coordination be overcome…? And the bargain sets the rules of the road: if you are interested in the promise and adopt the tools, what can you expect, and what will be expected of you?” (260)

“Any new claim on someone’s time must obviously offer some value, but more important, it must offer some value higher than something else she already does, or she won’t free up the time.” (262)

“There is not such thing as a generically good tool; there are only tools good for particular jobs.” (265) “By understanding the two basic constraints of group action–number of people involved and duration of interaction–any given tool, new or familiar, can be analyzed for goodness of fit.” (268-9)

“The most profound effects of social tools lag their invention by years, because it isn’t until they have a critical mass of adopters, adopters who take these tools for granted, that their real effects begin to appear.” (270)

“Starting with the invention of e-mail, which first functioned to support a conversation in a group, our social tools have been increasingly giving groups the power to coalesce and act in political arenas. We are seeing these tools progress from coordination into governance, as groups gain enough power and support to be able to demand that they be deferred to.” (292)

Is the explosion of new groups pursuing new promises with new tools a gain for society? “Societies before and after revolution are too different to be readily compared….” (297)

“The mistakes that novices make come from a lack of experience. They overestimate mere fads, seeing revolution everywhere, and they make this kind of mistake a thousand times before they learn better. But in times of revolution, the experienced among us make the opposite mistake. When a real once-in-a-lifetime change comes along, we are at risk of regarding it as a fad.” (303)