powerful potential
Framework for Missional Community
The current Christian church needs to reconnect , not with a trendy new movement , but with the power of the original one .
One of my deepest-held beliefs is that all of Jesus ’ people contain the potential for world transformation . Our problem is not that we don ’ t have the potential , but rather that we have forgotten how to access this potential because we have been so deeply scripted to think of ourselves through more domesticated , non-missional manifestations of Christianity . We have been so programmed out of our callings that it is generally hard for us to think and act dif- ferently than what we have for hundreds of years and not to persecute people who try to trail-blaze alternative ways .
But we have now come ( at last !) to the point where we recognize the decline of Christianity in the West — and now in America — is directly related to the way we have done things to this point . The search for alternatives has just heated up .
Aslan is on the move again ; it ’ s time to get unplugged , reframed , re-scripted , and recommissioned to be the people Jesus designed us to be .
If this was said another way , I would suggest we are perfectly designed to achieve what we are currently achieving . If Christianity is in decline , at least part of the issue goes to the contemporary way we live out faith in a watching world . But this is not what Jesus intended . The church that Jesus designed is made for impact — and massive , highly transformative impact at that . Wasn ’ t it Jesus who said , “ I will build My church , and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it ( Matthew16:18 )?”
Hang on ! Jesus says that the gates of hell don ’ t prevail against us ! It is we as God ’ s people who are on the advance here , not hell . Contrary to many of the images of church as a defensive fortress suffering the terrible , relentless onslaughts of hell , the movement that Jesus set in motion is designed to be an advancing , untamed , and untamable revolutionary force created to transform the world . And make no mistake : In Jesus ’ words is a real sense of inevitabil- ity about the eventual triumph of the gospel . If we are not somehow part of this , then there is something wrong in the prevailing designs , and they must change .
There is a need for a missionality that can be lived out right here , right now , by everyone . And this , my friends , takes some re-framing , some redesigning of the way we go about being God ’ s people . I ’ d like to examine together what I see to be the essential framework for missional Christianity in this blog series .
Alan Hirsch
It ’ s time to get unplugged , reframed , re-scripted , & recommissioned to be the people Jesus designed us to be .
Alan Hirsch is an author , speaker , professor , and founder of 100 Movements , Forge Mission Training Network , and Future Travelers . All three organizations focus on pioneering leadership development , training , and consulting the church on missional movement .
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