The Forgotten Ways…

January 3, 2008

I’ve been chewing on Alan Hirsch’s latest book, The Forgotten Ways, over the past few months. It’s somewhat of a follow up to The Shaping of things to come by Hirsch and Michael Frost.

It’s a fairly dense read and Alan coins a number of new terms, which might be why it took me so long to dig through… but it was well worth it.

There are plenty of reviews around on the book, a few personal gems:

All great missionary movements begin at the fringes of the church, among the poor and the marginalized, and seldom, if ever, at the center.

An advertising executive recently confessed to me that they are now deliberately stepping into the void that was left by the removal of Christianity from Western culture… Much of that which goes by the name advertising is an explicit offer of a sense of identity, meaning, purpose, and community… If through advertising marketers can just link their products to this great unfilled void, they will sell.

If we don’t disciple people, the culture sure will

The fact that God was in the Nazarene neighborhood for thirty years and no one noticed should be profoundly disturbing to our normal ways of engaging mission.

Start with the church and the mission will probably get lost. Start with the mission and it is likely that the Church will be found.

Some other resources by Alan Hirsch and on The Forgotten Ways

- The official forgotten ways website
- Alan Hirsch’s Blog
- Interview of Alan Hirsch
- PDF of The Forgotten Way’s first chapter
- Rodney Olsen interviews Alan Hirsch on sonshine.fm
- Jordon cooper does an excellent reflection on The Forgotten Ways
- Soularize podcast roundtable with Spencer Burker, Neil Cole, and Alan Hirsch
- Two audio sessions with Alan Hirsch and many others at Forge
- Audio downloads of Alan speaking at the Canadian Church Planting Congress