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THE FORGOTTEN WAYS – ALAN HIRSCH
(’n Klompie opmerkings, vrae en aanhalings-Pieter van der Walt)

 

LW hierdie is bedoel om ‘n gespreksriglyn te dien wanneer groepe die boek saam lees in ‘n gemeente

Werk ons nie vir 99% “evangelistic-attractional” (p. 34) en “maintenance”-gerig nie?  Ons predikante is opgelei om meer “maintenance type”-leiers te wees.  En Hirsch sê tereg: “… it is missional leadership that we need” (p. 120).  Maar daar is tog ’n mate van “maintenance” nodig.  So wat van ’n kreatiewe spanning tussen “maintenance” en “mission”?

“… our missionary approach developed into that of targeting specific groupings in the newly tribalized urban milieu” (p. 32).  Daar is nie vandag ’n homogene kultuur soos in die Christendom-era nie, maar allerhande “tribes” of subkulture.

“If the church service is the only space where we can meaningfully interact with unbelievers, we’re in trouble.” (p. 38)

Kerkgroei (indien enige) vind by ons hoofsaaklik plaas deur “switchers” (p. 45)(en in Paarlberg se geval ook nuwe residensiële uitbreidings).

Elke huiskerk of selgroep is “a church in its own right” (p. 46).  (Hoe sal so ’n siening die eenheid van die kerk beïnvloed?)

Wat is daar in Paarlberg “that works against the very purpose for which it came into existence”? (p. 55)

Watter subkulture is daar in ons gemeente en omgewing?  En hoe moet ons “missional-incarnational” in hierdie kulture inbeweeg? (vgl. konsep van “cultural distance” op p. 56; op p. 61 word verwys na die groot klomp subkulture onder die jeug!)(En: Hoe gemaak met ons bediening by die munisipale woonstelle in terme van die subkultuur daar?)

“…all our attempts to communicate the gospel are now cross-cultural.” (p. 58)

Die “Emerging Missional Church” “tends to be an underground movement.” (p. 69)

Die Christologie van die Nuwe Testamentiese kerk “lies at the heart of the renewal of the church at all times and in every age.”  “Christianity is essentially a ‘Jesus movement’ and not a religion as such.” (p. 99)

“… the major threat to the viability of our faith is that of consumerism.” (p. 106)

“… if we don’t disciple people, the culture sure will.” (p. 111)

Sien skets op p. 134 oor “Incarnational mission” – met 1 Kor. 9:22-23 oor hoe Paulus inkarnasioneel gewerk het.

“Attractional church demands that in order to hear the gospel, people must come to us, on our turf, and in our cultural zone.  In effect, they must become one of us if they want to follow Christ.  I can’t emphasize (hier ontbreek seker die woord “enough”??) how deeply alienating this is for most non-Christian people who are generally happy to explore Jesus but don’t particularly want to be ‘churched’ in the process.  The biblical mode, on the other hand, is not so much to bring people to church but to take Jesus (and the church) to the people.” (p. 142)

“Third Place Communities” – p. 144 en 145 (Waar kry jy ’n “third place” om bv. die woonstelmense te ontmoet en diepgaande verhoudinge met hulle te bou?  Of ’n “third place” vir verskillende groepe van die jeug?)

“Roxburgh goes further in saying that in actual practice, a predominantly pastoral conception of the church and ministry now actually constitutes a major hindrance to the church reconceiving itself as a missional agency.  He also says, in relation to the institutionalization and dominance of the pastoral function embodied in ordination, that ‘the guild of the ordained will have to be removed; this is one social function that will not move us through liminality.’” (p. 152)

“… the self-understanding of the church became fundamentally non-missional.  Because all citizens were deemed to be Christians, all that was really needed were the pastoral en teaching ministries to care for and teach the congregation. … A direct consequence of this was that the apostolic, the prophetic, and the evangelistic (APE) ministries and leadership styles were marginalized and effectively ‘exiled’ from the church’s official ministry and leadership. … This divorce of APE from the pastoral / teaching / didactic (PTD) has been disastrous for the local church and has damaged the cause of Christ and his mission.” (p. 169)

“With numerical growth, it seemed that we were increasingly being drawn away from the natural rhythms of life, from direct ministry, and that our roles seemed to become more managerial than ever before.” (p. 182)

“… it is the network structure, where power and responsibility is diffused throughout the organization and not concentrated at the center, that more approximates our real nature and calling as the body of Christ.”  …  “So it should be no surprise to us that genuine Jesus movements are essentially networks.” (p. 188)

“… maintaining a movement ethos is one sure antidote to the dangers of increasing institutionalism.” … “H.R. Niebuhr noted that ‘there are essential differences between an institution and a movement: The one is conservative, the other progressive; the one is more or less passive yielding to influences from the outside, the other is active in influencing rather than being influenced; the one looks to the past, the other to the future.  In addition the one is anxious, the other is prepared to take risks; the one guards boundaries, the other crosses them.” (p. 190)

“… movements are characterized by the following elements (p. 193):”
sellulêre organisasie (soos in selkerke)
werwing van nuwe lede vind plaas deur bestaande sosiale verhoudinge
’n verbintenis van lede o.g.v. ’n sekere ervaring (soos bekering by gelowiges)
waardes en doelwitte
werklike of “perceived” teenstand van samelewing of groep waaruit beweging voortspruit
(Volgens Gerlach + Hine)

“… shifts in emphasis that take place in institutionalization” kan uitgedruk word in terme van “the metaphor of moving from being hunters to being herders. … Mission becomes Strategy   Roles become Tasks   Teams become Structure   Networks become Organization …” (p. 195)

Om weer by ’n “missional ethos” uit te kom: “… we need ‘to shed all that which does not matter’ and get back to the uncluttered way of Jesus.  The reader is wise to take these elements seriously when establishing pioneering missional activities or in remissionalizing established ones.” (p. 195)

Verskille tussen “institutionalized religion and movement ethos” – sien tabel p. 196

Liquid vs. Solid church (Lg. is die kerk as instituut)(Peter Ward).  Liquid church is “a church responsive to that increasing fluid dimension of our culture…”  Solid church “finds itself increasingly stranded from its surrounding culture.”  “In catering to the religious needs of some (largely the insider) it has as a consequence failed to respond to the wider spiritual hunger of not-yet-Christians.”
“Liquid church is essential because it takes the present culture seriously and seeks to express the fullness of the Christian gospel within that culture.  The defining element of this is church as a living, adaptive network highly responsive to the deep spiritual needs and hunger expressed in surrounding society.” (p. 197 en 198)

“If we are to recover our latent Apostolic Genius in the West, we need to ask exactly the same question of ourselves.  What is the irreducible minimum of the faith?  What can be done away with?  What is too complex and heavy to carry into a new missional situation and an adaptive challenge?  We too need to eliminate the things that don’t matter.” (p. 214)

“The ship is safest when it is in port.  But that’s not what ships were made for.” (Paulo Coelho)(p. 217)

In krisissituasie kry jy “communitas.”  “Communitas … describes accurately the type of communality or comradeship that was and is experienced in the phenomenal Jesus movements, and so is an essential element of Apostolic Genius.  The persecuted church in both the early Christian movement and in China experienced each other in the context of a shared ordeal that binds them together in a much deeper form of community than the one we have generally become accustomed to.” (p. 218)

“And the point of all this is that these are prescriptive descriptions for the church because it seems that liminality and communitas are normative for the pilgrim people of God in the Bible and in the Jesus movements of history.” (p. 224)  Is “prescriptive” en “normative” ’n goeie woordkeuse hier?

“… without any real engagement with the ‘outside world,’ churches quickly become sheltered artificial environments, ecclesial fish tanks that are safeguarded from the danger and disturbances in the surrounding environment.  They become closed systems with their own peculiar cultures that have little relational, social, and cultural associations to the world outside (and we call this holiness.)” (p. 230)

“Christianity is concerned with the unfolding of the Kingdom of God in this world, not the longevity of organizations.” (Easum)(p. 231).

“Mission is and must be the organizing principle in the church.” (p. 232)

Dit lyk of Hirsch wil sê dat ons die ekwilibrium in die kerk doelbewus moet versteur indien ons dit “missional” wil maak.  “The challenge is not to direct living systems, but to disturb them in a manner that approximates the desired outcome and then for leadership to try and focus the intention by the use of meaning and vision.  This process of disturbing the system is a critical function of leadership.  It is about creating conditions in which change, adaptation, and innovation will take place.” (p. 233)

“Managing from the future – establishing a compelling goal that draws organizations out of its comfort zone – is a key discipline in moving us to the edge of chaos and therefore is important in developing missional church.  This means placing ourselves in the new future and then taking a series of steps, not in order to get there someday, but as if you are there, or almost there, now.” (p. 234)

“… Gordon Cosby … had observed that no groups that came together around a non-missional purpose (e.g., prayer, worship, study, etc.) ever ended up becoming missional.   It was only those groups that set out to be missional (while embracing prayer, worship, study, etc., in the process) that actually got to doing it.  This observation fits with all the research done by Carl George and others that indicates that the vast majority of church activities and groups, even in a healthy church, are aimed at the insiders and fail to address the missional issues facing the church in any situation.” (p. 235)

“If evangelizing and discipling the nations lie at the heart of the church’s purpose in the world, then it is mission, and not ministry, that is the true organizing principle of the church.” (p. 236)

“One of the most missional things that a church community could do, is simply to get out of their buildings and go to where the people are – and be God’s redeemed people in that place in a way that invites people into the equation.” (p. 240)