Quote

Put simply, the church finds itself in a post-Christendom era, and it had better do some serious reflection or face increasing decline and eventual irrelevance.

Alan Hirsch

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Alan Hirsch
Age: 65
Born: 1959
Born: October 24
Author
Theologian
University Teacher
Writer
Johannesburg
Gauteng
South Africa
Face
Decline
Church
Post
Faces
Eras
Better
Posts
Finds
Irrelevance
Reflection
Eventual
Serious
Christendom
Simply
Increasing

More quotes by Alan Hirsch

Image
There’s no such religious force in the West as powerful as consumerism.
Alan Hirsch
Image
At some point preoccupation with safety can get in the way of living full lives.
Alan Hirsch
Image
Many church folk, in their self-conscious attempt to be overtly morally upright, emit all the wrong signals, thus messing with people's perception of the gospel.
Alan Hirsch
Image
Truth is narrow, but grace is wide.
Alan Hirsch
Image
Christianity is an adventure of the spirit or it is not Christianity.
Alan Hirsch
Image
Because we believe that somewhere in the nest of paradigms contained in the phrase missional church lies nothing less that the future viability of Western Christianity.
Alan Hirsch
Image
It is vital to see ourselves as part of an ongoing journey started by our heroes in the Scriptures.
Alan Hirsch
Image
Those of us with too much invested in the way things are will never embrace the revolutionary cause required for wholesale change.
Alan Hirsch
Image
Unless the church is equipping believers to embrace the values and vision of the kingdom of God and turn away from the materialism, consumerism, greed, and power of the present age, it not only abandons its biblical mandate, it is rendered missionally ineffective.
Alan Hirsch
Image
When there is no possibility of retreat, we will find the innovation that only the liminal situation can bring. In short, we find the faith of leap.
Alan Hirsch
Image
But herein lies the rub: Christianity has been on a long-term trend of decline in every Western cultural context that we can identify.
Alan Hirsch
Image
A missional theology...appl ies to the whole of life of every believer. Every disciple is to be an agent of the kingdom of God, and every disciple is to carry the mission of God into every sphere of life. We are all missionaries sent into a non-Christian culture.
Alan Hirsch
Image
If we are going to make the change from community to communitas, and not just end up with an unsustainable adrenaline-junkie culture, we must have a sophisticated process to form people into adventurer-disciples.
Alan Hirsch
Image
It's not so much that the church has a mission, it's that the mission of God has a church.
Alan Hirsch
Image
We will have to take risks, to chance failure, to be willing to walk away from the familiar paths that have brought us to this point.
Alan Hirsch
Image
Think of mission like the paddles of a defibrillator applied to the chest of a dying church.
Alan Hirsch
Image
If we could be freed from our aversion to loss, our whole outlook on risk would change.
Alan Hirsch
Image
Mission is the practical demonstration, whether by speech or by action, of the glorious lordship of Jesus.
Alan Hirsch
Image
Whether we like it or not, we are all on a journey, a Quest if you will, every day of our lives, and the path we must take is full of perils, and our destiny can never be predicted in advance.
Alan Hirsch
Image
Interestingly, it's as though the gospel story of Jesus is the archetypal heroic journey, the embodiment of the very adventure that all people in every epoch have desired.
Alan Hirsch