Q1: Alan Hirsch on Post Christendom Mission

The Q Conference kicked off right away with an 18-minute talk by Alan Hirsch, author of The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church. Some quotes...

• The church is becoming increasingly isolated.
• The culture in which the church is operating is becoming more complex.
• We are moving away from a culture that centers around the church.
• Attractional church = defined as church that expects people to come to it. This works well within its’ cultural orbit. But not with those who are significantly distant from the church.
• A missionary mindset should be extractional as well as attractional. That is, we go to the culture, not just expect them to come to us.
• In a survey in post-Christian Australia that people gave thumbs-up to God, Jesus and Spirituality…but bad marks to the Church.
• Problem: 40% of Americans are attracted to the “contemporary church growth model” but 90% of all church plants are pursuing that model. That is a missional problem. We need innovative new ideas for reaching the other 60%.
• Organizational insanity = trying to get significantly different results by doing primarily the same thing better.