Apostolic movements, not programs, called key to church’s future

SAN ANTONIO—Western Christianity’s future depends on its capacity to recover apostolic movements in the present day, author and church planter Alan Hirsch told San Antonio church leaders.

Hirsch, founding director of Forge Mission Training Network and author of The Forgotten Ways, used the apostolic movements of the early church and the underground Chinese church to make his point—churches devoted solely to the cause of Christ, not organizations and programs, lead people to follow Jesus.

In the developing world, where resources are limited, the church is increasing, he noted. But in America and Europe, where resources are far greater, it is in decline.

Alan Hirsch, founding director of Forge Mission Training Network.

In talking about the Chinese church, he asked how it grew from about 2 million believers in 1950 to an estimated 120 million followers of Christ today without the benefit of buildings, programs, youth ministries and other things the American church considers essential—all while un-dergoing severe oppression.

Growth occurs when every believer becomes a church planter, and every church becomes a church planting church, he said.

That approach became essential in China because if a group grew large, it drew unwanted government attention. By necessity, some Christians had to leave one church to begin a new house church. In the process, the church experienced viral growth.

“Every believer has the potential of world transformation within them,” Hirsch said. “The church has everything in it to get its job done.”

Hirsch identified elements that come together to create metabolic growth. “These are all interconnected and inter-related; it’s a system. … You’re going to think of each of these as a silver bullet because each is paradigmatic and important, but it’s actually the whole that matters,” he said.

“The central piece is that Jesus is Lord. … Movements that change the world are what we call Jesus movements. … Jesus is taken with utmost seriousness.”

Disciple making is important as well. “If you fail here, it seems to me you fail everywhere. It’s a quality control thing. Movements seem to me to be obsessed with it,” Hirsch said.

Missional incarnation is the church spreading itself throughout the culture, not only in reach, but also in depth, he explained.

Growth demands an apostolic environment conducive to growth, and that may present the greatest challenge to traditional churches, he said.

“If you’re going to have a missional church, you’re going to have to have a missional ministry to go with it, and I’m afraid to say the pastor-teacher model isn’t going to cut it. It’s a part of the equation, but it’s what I call a nongenerative form,” Hirsch said.

“It’s an operative type of ministry, but it assumes there’s something to pastor and teach. Missional forms are creative, but pastors and teachers are by nature not generative. It’s not their calling to be. The pastor works basically within the established community and brings harmony, and the teacher brings wisdom and understanding, but what you need to create new forms is more generative types of ministry.”

Movements organize or-ganically—an approach unlike the typical Western church model. There is no headquarters, and the structure is different. “You don’t find them; they find you. … It looks more like Al-Qaeda.”

The last piece of the puzzle is communitas. “It is the type of community that forms in the context of an ordeal, a challenge, or when people, in order to do something, … change the way we relate to each other. It’s a very different way of relationship. … Rather than just association, we need each other to survive or to get this job done,” he said.