John Vandervelde - Program Director

Today I'm going to take a minute to recommend a book to you that is having an impact not only on my life but also on the ministry of HoneyRock.  In 2007 Alan Hirsch wrote the book called The Forgotten Ways and it has risen in popularity over the two years it has been in print.  The book is about reactivating the missional church, and Hirsch calls it a "call for complete reorientation of the mission of the church." 

I enjoy reading books about culture and the church; these books are very prevalent today.  Hirsch's book is unlike any other book I've read on this topic.  It begins with a detailed look at the sickness of our culture--consumerism--and explains how that sickness has crept into the church and Christian ministries.  Hirsch calls the church to rid itself of this sickness and return to what he calls "Apostolic Genius" which is basically the way Jesus and the early Christ followers did church. 

Hirsch identifies 6 things that make up this apostolic genius:

1. Jesus is Lord: Jesus must be at the center of our lives and our churches: not "me" at the center but Jesus.


2. Disciple Making: Disciple making must be the core of every action of the church.  Disciple making is the life-long task of becoming more like Christ. 


3. Missional-Incarnational Impulse: remarkable movements have a thrust to seed and embed the gospel in other cultures and people groups. 


4. Apostolic Environment: Hirsch explains the type of leadership and ministry required to sustain growth and impact. 


5. Organic Systems: Phenomenal Jesus movements grow because they do not have centralized institutions to block growth through control.  Remarkable Jesus movements have the feel of a movement, structures of a network, and spread like a virus. 


6. Communitas not Community: the most vigorous forms of community are those that come together in the context of some shared ordeal or those that define themselves as a group with a mission that lies beyond themselves.  Hirsch explains that powerful missional communities have the motto "me for the community and the community for the world"  instead of the motto "community for me." 

We spent a significant amount time discussing this book at our staff off-site meeting yesterday.  It proved helpful in inspiring us to be a ministry that battles against consumerism and the entitlement mentality that has taken over our culture and our Christian institutions.  We want to be a ministry and a community that has a mission outside of ourselves. 

I encourage you to pick up a copy today.  You can do so by clicking this link:  "The Forgotten Ways" by Alan Hirsch. 

Have a great weekend!