Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Good Stuff

Thoughts by Alan Hirsch who is the author of The Shaping of Things to Come, Via Bruce.

"Missional effectiveness is determined by: 1) Apostolic environments, 2) Disciplemaking and 3) Organic systems …

The West has complicated the church and made discipleship simple. China has a simplified the church and made discipleship complicated. Good disciples produce good leaders…

Church planting movements don’t move through hierarchies. Hierarchies stunt growth …there is more clutter to deal with. Control does not bring spontaneous expansion. Bottom up patterns create movements…

They (missional movements) look more like Al Qaeda than the Catholic Church. Such movements are like a swarm …a virus that can’t be taken out. They maximize survival by spread. They can only be eliminated by being attacked on an ideological level where the movement is glued together. They are networks of meaning…

We are people of the “story.” Not just people of the book. Complexity mucks it all up. Jesus movements are not complex. Pentecostal movements are not complicated. They focus on Jesus."

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