Reflections on an Evening with Alan Hirsch

Last week I had the privilege of hearing twice from Alan Hirsch. Hirsch leads a church planting network called Forge, and over the years has become one of the leading voices on church planting. I've read some of his stuff, have heard him speak now a few times, and am deeply challenged by his thoughts.

At the first event I attended Hirsch gave a presentation titled, "The Faith of Leap," which is the title of a forthcoming book of his. The talk centered around the idea of "communitas." This is a concept that he introduces in his book The Forgotten Ways. Communitas essentially is the community that forms in the midst of an ordeal, challenge, or task. An example he gave is of manhood rites of passage in other cultures where boys are left in the bush by the village elders to find their way to the tree where the elders will meet them and teach them about being a man. It is in this quest, this adventure marked by risk and danger where community among the young men is formed.

Hirsch suggests that by and large risk and adventure are missing in most of our churches claiming, "Our longing for adventure has been taken out of the venture." As we look through the stories of the Scriptures and the early church, we find experiences chalked full of risk, chaos, and adventure and somewhere throughout the course of church history, church became safe.

I'm challenged by this and I tend to agree with Hirsch's assessment. Where is the risk in most of our churches? Where is the danger? Where is the uncertainty? Perhaps the reason that churches are full of passive, bored, and non-committal people is that we have failed to give them the adventure their souls long for, that we have failed to hand them the sword of cause.

A few weeks ago I shared a vision of planting 5 churches in 5 communities in 5 years with our church. The following week a guy who is new to our church told me that he finds most churches seem to be about "self-preservation," but that it seems as if we truly have a desire to be outward-focused. He then shared that a vision of planting churches is exciting. I don't know if we'll accomplish this or not, but it certainly is a risky, dangerous, and uncertain pursuit. At the same time it could be an adventure that people long for and my hope is that we'll take hills together and along the way form communitas...whatever that is.

What is the adventure you are on? What is the risk that you or your church is taking? How can we recapture the dangerous wonder of what it means to be a follower of Jesus?

5 Antbiotics that Stop the Gospel

Several years ago I noticed what looked like a small bug bite on my leg. A few days later it had become a big red spot. A few days after that I had red spots all over my body. Against my will I finally went to see a doctor about this. It turns out that I had Lymes Disease and these were textbook (they literally brought in a textbook and showed me) symptoms. Once the doc assured me that I would live he prescribed an antibiotic and ensured that if I took this antibiotic for 3 weeks I would be fine. I did and I've been fine ever since.

As many know Lymes disease is transmitted through a tick, a tiny creature the size of a tip of a needle. Once this infested tick burrows its way into your skin the disease spreads: spots, fever, potential arthritis, paralysis, and some have even died from the disease. It's fascinating to think that something so seemingly tiny can have such a big impact. I think that the Gospel or good news of Jesus is like this. It seems rather small, but when we allow it to burrow its way into our hearts it impacts our entire being and spreads throughout our community and world. Allowing the good news in us transforms individuals, churches, communities, and the world. Yet, just as I took an antibiotic that stopped the Lymes disease from spreading, I believe there are antibiotics that are inhibiting the growth in our churches, and perhaps more severe, inhibiting the growth of the gospel.

1. Division/Disunity. One antibiotic that will stop a church dead in her tracks is DIVISION. When a church is not united it essentially is accomplishing nothing. It doesn't matter how good the preaching is, the music is, or the children's ministry is, division always dwarfs growth. What makes this such a formidable antibiotic is that just about anything can cause division: the color of the carpet, style of music, where to place announcements in a service, or how to spend money. If overlooked or brushed aside these little things will lead to division in the church, which leads to the second antibiotic.

2. Lack of mission. Nothing keeps a church united more than a common mission. What is the mission of your church and do the people in your church know it? Just about every church has a mission statement and most of the time they're pretty clever and well-worded. Mission, however, isn't defined by a statement on your literature, rather its defined by the practices of your church. The mission has to be communicated clearly and constantly. When people hear it over and over they'll begin to get what the church is about. Then when it comes to decisions on carpet, money, and music, all of these decisions are evaluated against the overall mission. When there is a lack of mission no one knows what the church is trying to accomplish and the result is several competing missions, thus accomplishing nothing. When you aim for nothing you hit everything.

3. Inward Focus. If I just pay attention to the inside of my house then the outside of my house will eventually be hard on the eyes. The same is true with our churches. When a church exists solely for its own members it becomes like a country club where people simply gather to have their own private comfortable club, while the world around them suffers. The church is an organization that exists for the benefit of the non-members. We're called to GO and MAKE, not to STAY and FAKE. Nothing spreads faster than when others are talking about it. When our churches exist simply for ourselves then no one else knows about us, talks about us, or cares about us, and worse yet no one knows about, talks about, or cares about Jesus.

4. Gossip. When I first joined a church staff I naively thought that it would always be the most uplifting place to work. Everyone would always be encouraging and we would always graciously work through issues together because that's how Christians behave right? While working for a church was and is for the most part very pleasant, the truth is that the same kind of gossip that takes place in your secular office is alive and well in most churches. Gossip will wreak havoc on a church because gossip is bad news and it is at direct odds with the good news that we're called to tell. If gossip exists in your life and/or church...stop it dead in its tracks or it will stop the growth of the church and the gospel dead in it's.

5. Complacency. It is true that a church of 3,000 could be dealing with an antibiotic. All of the aforementioned issues can exist in churches of any size, but perhaps none like complacency. The danger with growth is we can fall into the trap of believing that all is well because all is big. Don't just assume that just because the church has experienced growth means we can just sit back and get comfortable because now everything will take care of itself. Even if I pastored a church of 3,000 there are still 16,000 people far from God in my own community alone. When we grow complacent and take our hands off the throttle the church loses.

There are times when antibiotics aren't a good thing. What are the antibiotics in your life and in your church? What is inhibiting the growth of the gospel? Tell the doctor "no;" Put the medicine back in the cabinet and allow an epidemic of good news to spread!