Alan Hirsch: Forgotten Ways - Reactivating the Missional Church.
In this webinar Alan will explore two foundational ideas essential to mission in post-Christian urban contexts based on his experience of leading a church in Melbourne, Australia and developed at further length in his book Forgotten Ways.
Church in the missional mode. As our culture moves further from Christianity ‘the time has come for us in the West to learn that all our attempts to communicate the gospel are now cross-cultural.’ How does this idea of crossing cultures shape our structures and ministries as a church? And in particular ‘What are the characteristics and implications for missional church over and against the model of Christendom?’
Church as movement. The church in global cities needs to be ‘a living, adaptive network, highly responsive to the deep spiritual needs and hunger expressed in surrounding society.’
How does the church develop the means and mindset that enables it to respond to our ever-changing city? How might this help us take opportunities during the unprecedented challenge of ministry in a time of coronavirus?
‘The challenge of constant adaptation and reshaping along missional lines remains a fundamental part of what it means to be faithful to the idea of church as Jesus intended it in the first place. This is no alien work; rather, it forms a fundamental part of our witness in the world in which we live.‘
Alan Hirsch serves as founding director of Forge Mission Training Network. He has church planted amongst the marginalised and is a thought leader in the missional church movement.