The Forgotten Ways (or Alan Hirsch Has a Great Brain)

I'm reading Alan Hirsch's book The Forgotten Ways (Reactivating the Missional Church)

We got the book many months back but there has been no space in my life for reading. I am now reading and loving it.

In the last few years we have read a long list of very good books. The healthy survival and growth of the church has filled many volumes that we have taken in. They have been good. But if you find yourself dreaming Church, longing for her health and engagement in the world and you really only have time for one book, get The Forgotten Ways.

Alan's question to himself was, "How did a group of 25,000 Christians in AD 100 multiply to 20 million believers by AD 310?" In pursuing the answer to this, Alan uncovers simple, profound truths that fill me with hope and excitement.

I will not delve into a proper review of the book here. I think you should read it yourself. But I will tell you some of the things I love about Alan.

I love that Alan is outrageously bright and disarmingly humble and unaffected. I love that he is not angry. I have read books through which you can actually feel the chip on the author's shoulder. I love that he is brave and hopeful and that he loves the Church with passion. I love that he is a Jewish South African who lives in Australia and follows Jesus. I love that he calls everyone "Beautiful," as in "Hello, Beautiful!" And (maybe mostly) I love that he is married to Deb. I'm a big fan of Deb Hirsch and I can't wait for her to write.

So thanks for The Forgotten Ways, Mr. Hirsch. It's a major blessing to this world.

Of Dogs and Theology

I perused Andrew Perriman's Open Source Theology site today. I don't understand half of what Andrew talks about but I like him. He's a lovely guy. But that's not what I've set out to comment about. I want to comment on his opening sentence in which he compares emerging church theology to reformed theology by catagorizing them as certain types of dogs.

"The doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement remains a major bone of contention between the yapping, excitable Jack Russell of the emerging church and the snarling pit bull of reformed theology."

We are a family that loves dogs. We've had MANY. Why many? Because shocking numbers of nice dogs met untimely deaths during their adventurous lives in Africa. Those stories are for some other time.

I like this comparison between the emerging church (Jack Russell) and reformed theology (the pit bull.) I like it because I understand it really, really well. We had two Jack Russells and a pit bull in Portugal. OK, the pit bull was technically owned by my landlady's family, but he shared our garden and believed that he was a part of our family.

The Jack Russells we've had through the years share these traits: very intelligent, very fast, very sensitive, very brave. The pit bull, as well as the numerous Ridgebacks and other big, strong dogs we've had through the years, share these traits: very strong, very loyal, very dependable, and (believe it or not) very safe.

However, the Jack Russells were also frequently braver than they should be, charging leopards and cobras and baboons without back-up. They were often so obsessed by what they were onto, be it a mouse under the sofa or a monkey in a tree, that they could not stop and listen to anyone around them. Calling them off something they had set their mind to was tough going, nigh on impossible.

The big dogs had some problems too. They were (comparativelyly) slow to notice what was going on and slow to respond to the clues. They could miss early danger signs. They were slow to reach the site where their strength was needed.

The Jack Russells had incredibly powerful senses and they picked up on what was going on around them before anyone else had a clue. This was an invaluable asset. We depended on their keen senses and courage to investigate. But sometimes this meant they went charging off without support to face that which was threatening our safety. How many times has Byron come around a corner to find his Jack Russell firmly attached to the wrist of a baboon?

Baboons aren't a personal threat to adult humans, but they regularly raid the precious family gardens of struggling African farmers who are desperately trying to raise food. The baboons feast on the maze as if it was planted for them and they are bold and haughty to small children who try to guard it. They are strong and fierce and not to be messed with. So a Jack Russell, flying through the air, attached by jaws to the flailing wrist of a big male baboon is not a good thing. Baboons kill dogs regularly.

But with Byron, as he rounded that corner, arrived The Big Dogs. The big dogs, now fully attuneded to what was going on, tore into the situation with awesome strength and determination. Now that they were aware of the danger at hand and had caught up to the site that the Jack Russells had been screaming from, they were fully engaged. With the early warning signs of the Jack Russell and her courage to go after what's out there, the strength matched with experience that the big dogs possessed came into full use.

Together, the Jack Russells and The Big Dogs were the most amazing team. But only together. Without each other, they were lacking in serious ways.

One was quick to recognize what was going on in the world around her and brave enough to go there. But she couldn't last there alone. The other was slow to respond to the environment and slow to reach the place where she was needed. But once there, she was strong and experienced in a doggy-wisdom kind of way. She had power to compliment the speed and courage of the Jack Russell.

Hhhhhmmmm. As I said, I like Andrew's metaphor. In his one sentence, I've learned a lot.

The Church Gathered... The Church Scattered

This little community that we are a part of loves to gather. We love each other’s company and the company of Jesus that we find in each other. “Gathered” is us in my sitting room, or in Marty and Carey’s garden, or in the corner café, or at sunrise on the beach. We gather here and there. We’re not really picky. We just like to be together.

But we also scatter. We go out and do our jobs. We study at our universities, teach our classes, record our albums, play our gigs, prepare our seminars, align our patients! And when we’re out there doing the jobs God has given us, we are still the Church. We are the Church scattered through this city, bringing the sweetness of the fragrance of Christ.

We put a lot of emphasis on the importance of both words. We love to gather. We love to scatter. We often say we’re the Church gathered AND we’re the Church scattered.

But very soon now, some of us are going to scatter pretty far. Rachel has already left. She flew away to NASHVILLE (!!) to start her masters degree program. Nelly will be off in a couple of days to find God’s path for her to Italy. She can’t quite shake a long-time love for the place. She’ll be on a three-week prayer sojourn with friends from 24-7prayer before doing a week of language school and then heading to the States to pursue some avenues for a longer-term return.

Barbara has always been our wandering pilgrim, but in the last few years, we have enjoyed her consistent presence as she has lived a somewhat settled life here among us. But things are stirring and Baba is off on an overland journey to Palestine to be Church on the road with a group of friends. And when she does come back, she’ll be making her home base the farm up north. It’s not much more than undeveloped land and a lot of olive trees right now, but it will be a peace-filled refuge in the not too distant future.

And we’ll be heading out by the end of August to go to the States where we will be preparing for our new life in East Africa.

Maybe we shouldn’t have talked so much about following God on the wild paths he puts before us. Maybe we shouldn’t have said that we’ve got to stop talking about being missional and just start being it. I don’t know… it’s just that this scattering thing is cutting a little too close to my heart right now. I like us gathered a whole lot.

Barbara sent me the following today. Emma Cowan sent it to her from Ireland…

"We have to keep in mind that community, like solitude is primarily a quality of the heart. While it remains true that we will never know what community is if we never come together in one place, community does not necessarily mean being physically together. We can well live in community while being physically alone. In such a situation, we can act freely, speak honestly, and suffer patiently because of the intimate bond of love that unites us with the other even when time and place separate us from them. The community of love stretches out not only beyond the boundaries of countries and continents but also beyond the boundaries of decades and centuries. Not only the awareness of those who are far away, but also those who have lived long ago can lead us into a healing, sustaining, and guiding community. The space for God in community transcends all limits of time and place."

-Henri Nouwen in 'Making All Things New'


It comforts me to know that some forms of community are not bound to geographical closeness.

As we scatter, we carry the gathered with us.