Leadership Development Resources

The Shaping of Things to Come

Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch

“While some established churches can be revitalized, success seems to be rare from our experience and perspective.  We believe that the strategic focus must now shift from revitalization to mission, i.e. from a focus on the “insiders’ to the “outsiders”; and in so doing we believe the church will rediscover its true nature and fulfill its purpose.”[1]

“The church should define itself in terms of its mission – to take the gospel to and incarnate the gospel within a specific cultural context.”[2]

“… a church makes its mission its priority and perpetually asks itself, ‘What has God called us to be and do in our current cultural context?’“[3]

” … the missional church is always outward looking, always changing (as culture continues to change), and always faithful to the Word of God.”[4]

“Albert Einstein, one of history’s greatest thinkers, once noted that ‘the kind of thinking that will solve the world’s problems will be of a different orders to the kind of thinking that created those problems in the first place.’”[5]

“The church is in decline in almost every context in the First World.  The church is worse off precisely because of Christendom’s failure to evangelize its own context and establish gospel communities that transform the culture.”[6]

” … the emerging missional church must see itself as being able to interact meaningfully with culture without ever being beguiled by it. This is t he classic task of the cross-cultural missionary: to engage in culture without compromising the gospel.”[7]

“Essentially the early church was a missional movement to its core.  It understood that personal conversion implied the embracing on the mission dei – the redemptive mission of God to the whole world through the work of his Messiah.”[8]

“Christology determines missiology and missiology determines ecclesiology.”[9]

“It is necessary for the Church to rethink its stance entirely and to become a missionary church within the West.” – Martin Robinson[10]

“God is a sending God, with a desire to see humankind and creation reconciled, redeemed, and healed.  The missional church, then, is a sent church.  It is a going church, a movement of God through his people, sent to bring healing to a broken world.  North America is as much a mission field as any other nation or people group on the face of the earth.”[11]

“The missional church recognizes that it does not hold a place of honor in its host community and that its missional imperative compels it to move out from itself into that host community as salt and light.”[12]

“In the almost thirty years of my professional career, my church has never once suggested that there be any type of accounting of my on-the-job ministry to others.  My church has never once offered to improve those skills which could make me a better minister, nor has it ever asked if I needed any kind of support in what I was doing.  There has never been an inquiry into the types of ethical decisions I must face, or whether I seek to communicate the faith to my coworkers.  I have never been in a congregation where there was any type of public affirmation of a ministry in my career.  In short, I must conclude that my church really doesn’t have the least interest whether or how I minister in my daily work.”[13]

“Instead of asking non-Christians to Come-To-Us, to our services, our gatherings, and our programs on our terms, the incarnational church seeks to infiltrate society to represent Christ in the world.”[14]

“It emphasizes the importance of a group of Christians infiltrating a community, like salt and light, to make those creative connections with people where God-talk and shared experience allow for real cross-cultural Christian mission to take place.”[15]

“If the attractional mode sees the world as divided into two zones, the “in” and the “out,” the incarnational model sees it more as a web, a series of intersecting lines symbolizing the networks of relationships, friendships, and acquaintances of which church members are a part.”[16]

“We believe the missional incarnational church will spend more time on building friendships than it will on developing religious programs.”[17]

“The missional-incarnational church is well aware of the importance of the web relationships, friendships, and acquaintances for mission.  Christian mission is a relational activity that happens through conduit of human relations.”[18]

“It’s helpful to think of the well-known Engel Scale in this regard.  See James E. Engel, Contemporary Christian Communications: In Theory and Practice (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1979), 77-83.  This scale identifies the usual process a person goes through in becoming a Christian, with zero being close to the center and -10 being far from it.  Although it’s a very cognitive model, and we think people move closer to the center through relationship, not necessarily just through knowledge, it’s a useful guide for thinking of people moving through a process:

-10  Awareness of the supernatural;

-9   No effective knowledge of Christianity;

-8   Initial awareness of Christianity;

-7   Interest in Christianity;

-6   Awareness of the basic facts of the Gospel;

-5   Grasp of the implications of the Gospel;

-4   Positive attitude to the Gospel;

-3   Awareness of the personal implications;

-2   Challenge and decision to act;

-1   Repentance and faith;

0   Regeneration.[19]

[20]

“If you could start it again from scratch, would you do it the same way?”[22]

“We would think like missionaries and spend more time listening to, eating with, and playing with the subculture or neighborhood we were trying to minister to.”[23]

“As missionaries we need to ask, ‘What is good news to these people (What are the existential issues these people are grappling with before God?)?’ and ‘What would the church look like for these people?’ The answers will give us clues as to what element of the gospel we need to communicate first.  The inventor of the stethoscope was noted as having said, ‘Listen to your patients.  They’re telling you how to heal them.’”[24]

“Now we are seeing such a dramatic fracturing of Western society into a range of subcultures, even in the suburbs, that one-size-fits-all is increasingly outmoded.  This is called the subculturization or tribalization of the West.  In fact, it could be argued that the megachurch in America thrives mostly in monochromatic baby boomer suburbs.”[25]

“The New Testament radically reshapes the language of priesthood, presuming all believers to be priests, able to make their lives sacrifices, and able to gain personal access to the grace of God.  There is no distinction in the New Testament between priests and laity, the sacred and the secular, the religious and the everyday.”[26]

” ‘The gospel says “Go,” but our church buildings say, “Stay.”  The gospel says “Seek the lost,” but our churches say “Let the lost seek the church.”‘  The medium is the message.  And more than that, once a building has been erected, the church program and budget are largely determined by it … Next time you attend a church service, listen to all the language that betrays a belief that we come into the church to ‘meet’ God.”   [27]

“‘The church is described as belonging not to the people by whom it is constituted … nor to the district to which they belong … but rather to the one who has brought it into existence (that is, God) or the one through whom this has taken place (that is, Christ).’”

- Robert Banks, Paul’s Idea of Community[28]

“So for Paul the church was the people gathered.  As to what occurred in such a gathering, we think Acts 2:42-47 provides a neat snapshot. In this window into the regular gathering of the believers we see three broad elements, all of which should be held in tension:”

[29]

“When we look at the snapshot of the first church in Acts 2, we see six features that seem to inform these three broad commitments:

Communion (in Relationship with Christ)

• God’s word – The development of opportunities where the Christian community puts itself in places where it can hear God speak. “Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles” (v. 43).  This sense of awe and wonder was generated not only by the miraculous.  (It seems that the early church sensed God’s presence even more keenly in their gathering than at other times.  From the rest of the book of Acts it is obvious that the first Christians sensed God and heard him speak in all manner of situations, but the gathered community did seem to expect a communal sense of God’s presence in their meetings.)  It was generated also by the apostles’ teaching and the breaking of bread (v. 42).
• Worship – Fro the first Christians, worship was the opportunity for them to respond to God.  Whether it was in homes or the temple courts (v. 46), they took opportunities to praise God and apparently did so in such a way as to find favor with the broader community.  There was also a strong sense of the immediacy with God in Christ.

Community (in Relationship with One Another)

• Learning – Often in the modernist church the emphasis is on teaching, but we find that the emphasis for the first Christians was on learning, that is, the formation of individuals and the Christian community as a whole into the likeness of Christ.  This was centered on the apostles’ teaching, the community of fellow learners, and the Christian love feast (vv. 42 and 46)
• Fellowship/friendship – This is the church as antireligion.  There seems to have been no differing echelons of involvement.  “All the believers were together and had everything in common” (v. 44).  Rather than instituting offices of priests, scribes, teachers, deacons, and so on, the first Christians unraveled traditional human religion  by refusing to build sacred sites, by not having altars, and by not ordaining people to a holy office.  It was a genuine community of friends.  From the beginning, it seems that this idea of the church being an organic network or web of friendship was assumed.

Commission (in Relationship with the World)

• Serving/giving – “Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need” (v. 45).  Generosity and hospitality were hallmarks of the Christian movement from the start.  And this took the form of costly and radical sharing.  As worthwhile as food drives and Christmas hampers might be, much of the church’s generosity is not terribly costly for the believers.  Selfless, humble, and gracious hospitality will mark the church as a unique source of salt and light in the community.  Clearly the early church, centered as it was on the apostles’ teaching about Jesus, saw generosity as an obvious expression of Christlikeness.
• Gospel telling/sharing – There is no mention in this passage that the believers were “preaching” the gospel as such.  But obviously their presence in the temple courts, their worship of God, their acts of service, and their commonality had significant impact.  Together with the public proclamation of the gospel by the apostles (v. 38) it reaped a great harvest: “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (v. 47).  This is the very model we have been advocating. The webs of friendships developed by socializing, sharing, and hospitality, together with prayer (v. 42) and the teaching of the apostles creates a potent community, fully incarnated and totally missional in its orientation.”[30]

“Essentially the idea behind the phrase ‘the medium is the message’ is this: we shape our tools, and then they shape us.  What McCluhan wanted us to look at was the reciprocal effect that our tools and technologies have on us.  They are not neutral things.  They impact us deeply – much more than we are wont to believe – and we would do well to really think about what effects they have on us.”[31]

“If we take seriously that the medium is the message, then there’s no way around the fact that our actions, as manifestations of our total being, do actually speak much louder than our words.  There are clear nonverbal messages being emitted by our lives all the time.  We are faced the sobering fact that we actually are our messages.”[32]

“There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world: and that is an idea whose time has come.”

- Victor Hugo[33]

“What we mean by organic here is simply that the church in all its expressions remains true to its essential nature as a dynamic, living organism as opposed to a mechanistic-style structure.  It also refers to the way a community is structured with a view to the interconnectivity and interrelationship between all aspects of its life, function, and purpose.” [35]

“Being more missional might actually mean doing fewer things.  There is a Latin American proverb that says, ‘If you don’t know where you’re coming from, and if you don’t where you’re going, then any bus will do.”  Some congregations are clearly riding too many buses!  What they need is not more flurry, but more focus.  Becoming disciplined about being a missional church can provide such a focus.”[36]

“Christocentric:  This simply means that Christ is center.  If something is Christocentric, then its organizing principle is the person and work of Christ.  This is in effect a synonym for our use of the term messianic.  This has implications also for our belief that the missional church will be a centered set, with Christ at the center.”[37]

“Christology/Christological:  Essentially Christology comprises the biblical teaching of and about Jesus the Messiah.  When we say Christology must inform all aspects of the church’s life and work, we mean that Jesus must be first and foremost in our lives and self-definition as church and disciple.  When the word is used as an adjective, it simply means that the element being described must be referenced primarily by our understanding and experience of Jesus the Messiah.”[38]

“Ecclesiology:  Classically this refers to the biblical teaching about the nature, life, and practices of the church.  We believe that our ecclesiology should emerge from our missiology, which should in turn derive from our Christology.”[39]

“Incarnational:  The Incarnation refers to the act of God entering into the created universe and realm of human affairs as the man Jesus of Nazareth.  In relation to mission it means the followers of Jesus similarly embodying the culture and life of a host culture in order to reach that group of people with Jesus’ love.  We also use the term to describe the missionary act of going to a target people group as opposed to merely making the invitation for unbelievers to come to our cultural group (the church) in order to hear the gospel.  We see it as a term that describes a missional stance taken by the church.  If the church is incarnational, its stance is always inclined to go forth and enter into the lives of a host community.  In this sense incarnational is different from attractional or extractional.[40]

“Missiology/Missiological:  Missiology is the study of missions.  As a discipline, it seeks to identify the primal impulses in the Scriptures that compel God’s people into engagement with the world.  Such impulses involve, among others, the mismo Dei (the mission of God), the Incarnation, and the kingdom of God.  It also describes the authentic church’s commitment to social justice, relational righteousness, and evangelism.  As such, missiology seeks to define the church’s purposes in light of God’s will for the world.   It also seeks to study the methods of achieving these ends both from Scripture and history.  The term missiological simply draws off these meanings.”[41]

“Missional:  A favorite term of ours – we use it to describe the church, leadership, Christianity, and more.  A missional church is one whose primary commitment is to the missionary calling of the people of God.  As such, it is one that aligns itself with God’s missionary purposes in the world.  A missional leader is one that takes mission seriously and sees it as the driving energy behind all the church does.  The missional church is a sent church with one of its defining values being the development of a church life and practice that is contextualized to that culture to which it believe it is sent.”[42]

[2] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), xi.

[3] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 7.

[4] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 7.

[5] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 7.

[6] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 14.

[7] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 16.

[8] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 16.

[9] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 16.

[10] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 17.

[11] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 18.

[12] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 19.

[13] William Diehl, Christianity and Real Life (Fortress, 1976), v-vi, quoted in Robert Banks, Redeeming the Routines: Bringing Theology to Life (Wheaton: Bridgepoint, 1997), 59, quoted in Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 20.

[14] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 42.

[15] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 42.

[16] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003) 44.

[17] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 44.

[18] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 47.

[19] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 48.

[20] Chris Harding, unpublished Youth for Christ policy document for staffworkers, Youth for Christ, Sydney in The Shaping of Things to Come, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 50.

[21] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 52.

[22] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 62.

[23] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 63.

[24] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 63.

[25] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 65.

[26] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 68.

[27] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 69.

[28] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 76.

[29] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 77.

[30] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 78-79.

[31] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 150.

[32] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 154.

[33] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 165.

[34] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 209.

[35] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 210.

[36] James R. Krabill, “Does Your Church Smell Like Mission: Reflection on Becoming a Missional Church,” Mission Insight (Elkhart: Mennonite Board of Mission, 2001), 17.

[37] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 227.

[38] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 227.

[39] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 228.

[40] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 228.

[41] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 229.

[42] Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, LLC, 2003), 229.