Alan Hirsch quotes - page 2

Building community for its own sake is like attending a cancer support group without having cancer. (Alan Hirsch)
Think of mission like the paddles of a defibrillator applied to the chest of a dying church. View quote
Alan Hirsch
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. View quote
Alan Hirsch
Our point isn't to make an examination of popular film but to illustrate that the yearning for a heroic adventure lies just beneath the surface of our consciousness; film, television, literature, sports, and travel are in a sense vicarious adventures. View quote
Alan Hirsch
But herein lies the rub: Christianity has been on a long-term trend of decline in every Western cultural context that we can identify. View quote
Alan Hirsch
In order to develop a pioneering missional spirit, a capacity for genuine ecclesial innovation, let along engender daring discipleship, we are going to need the capacity to take a courageous stand when and where necessary. View quote
Alan Hirsch
The appetite for adventure and risk is not exclusive to young Christians. In face, it seems to be a fundamental yearning, knitted into the fabric of the human soul. View quote
Alan Hirsch
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. View quote
Alan Hirsch
The quest for heroic adventure then is a quest for the gospel, although it might not be seen that way by everyone. View quote
Alan Hirsch
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. View quote
Alan Hirsch
But the standard churchy spirituality doesn't require any real action, courage, or sacrifice from its attendees. (Alan Hirsch)
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. View quote
Alan Hirsch
Most churches don't have the resources for these tricks and inducements but are still bound to the imagination that church happens on a Sunday in a building. View quote
Alan Hirsch
A retreatist spirituality is not a spirituality that can, or will, transform the world in Jesus's name. View quote
Alan Hirsch
Heroes are important not only because they symbolize what we believe to be important, but because they also convey universal truths about personal self-discovery and self-transcendence, one's role in society, and the relation between the two. View quote
Alan Hirsch
What we find in our heroes and martyrs is a living witness to the fact that the true life of faith can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if one takes it on bravely and gallantly, as something of a grand adventure in which we set out into an unknown country to face many a danger, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle. View quote
Alan Hirsch
Becoming an adventurous, liminal church means getting over risk aversion. Often the difference between a successful person (or organization) and a failure lies not in having better abilities or ideas, but in having the courage to bet on one's ideas, to take a calculated risk - and to act. View quote
Alan Hirsch
Let's stop kidding ourselves - there are too many instances of Christians worshiping sublimely every Sunday, but never making an impact beyond the congregation, never experiencing the powerful beauty of communitas, and never going deeper in discipleship. View quote
Alan Hirsch
Because of this global uncertainty, the visionary and the adventurous amongst us will get to shape the future of the twenty-first century-the church included. View quote
Alan Hirsch
Indeed, we believe that twenty-first century Christians are yearning to see the adventure put back into Christianity, into the relationship with the living God - where it rightly belongs. View quote
Alan Hirsch
More important, Christian community is not something about which we can arbitrarily make decisions - it is not an optional extra. (Alan Hirsch)
This is why we are on record claiming that the missional conversation - refactoring mission back into the equation of church - contains the seeds of authenticity and renewal for Christianity in our time and place. View quote
Alan Hirsch
Michael Frost on Wikipedia. View quote
Alan Hirsch
We are the people of the ultimate Quest - we are on a wild, and sometimes dangerous, adventure to save the world. View quote
Alan Hirsch
Alan Hirsch's website The Forgotten Ways. View quote
Alan Hirsch