After studied the growth pattern
of early Apostolic church and the contemporary Chinese church, Hirsch observed an
Apostolic Genius that drove the "Jesus Movement" from merely 25,000
Christians in A.D. 100 to approximately 20 million Christians in A.D. 310.[1]
Hirsch introduced six essential elements
(or mDNA, missional DNA) that make out the Apostolic Genius, which all starts
with the simple confession that "Jesus is Lord", a conviction that
requires to surrender every aspect of every life to Jesus and demands everyone
of His followers to respond to this conviction. Hirsch's mDNA framework is
reflected in the following sections.
mDNA and Apostolic Genius
Hirsch's mDNA comprises the
following elements: Disciple Making, Missional-Incarnational Impulse, Apostolic
Environment, Organic Systems, and Communitas (not Communities), all centered on
"Jesus is Lord". He argues that the traditional church structure in
America didn't have the mentality and structure to support a virus-like growth,
which would require a strategic shift from a consumerism "attractive
model" to a "movement ethos", and moving away from being a "religious
institution" to a more organic missional network. To support an explosive
growth, Hirsch suggests that "all the elements of mDNA must be present and
are in dynamic relationship with other elements, and an adaptive challenge acts
as a catalyst, then Apostolic Genius is activated."[2]
mDNA starts with disciple making in Hirsch's model.
Disciple Making
Hirsch points
out that many churches in the West has largely lost the art of disciple making
and has reduced it to an "intellectual assimilation of theological
ideas", which produces a rather anemic cultural Christianity highly
susceptible to the lures of consumerism[3].
My own word for this problem is that we produce a lot of "part-time
Christians" who live a double life and shop around for better church
programs to feed their own interests. To return back to the true disciple
making, Hirsch suggests we replace the "Greek Concept of Knowledge"
(right thinking leads to right acting) to the "Hebrew Concept of
Knowledge" (right acting leads to right thinking) by three habits: raise
the bar on discipleship, develop a set of discipleship practices, and activate the
priesthood of all believers. With the equipped disciples, we then need to send
them out.
The Missional-Incarnational Impulse
Hirsch
emphasizes that a missional church should be a church moving outward to the
world and going deeper into the culture and context. In order to achieve this
missional impulse, Hirsch lists several practices for "Going Out",
such as proximity (locate locals), frequencies (become locals), and spontaneity
(allow time for the unexpected). For "going deep", he suggests having
meaningful engagement and be ready to share Gospel. Hirsch argues that without
an Apostolic environment, this impulse of going-out and going-deep cannot be
sustained.
Apostolic Environment
In order to
foster the development of mDNA in every disciple and in every church missions,
Hirsch suggests that we need to create an Apostolic Environment where we help
apostolic leaders embody, symbolize, and represent the church's mission to the
missional community, and in turn, these apostolic leaders will call forth and
develop the gifts and callings of all of God's people. Hirsch claims that one
of the major reasons for mainstream denominational decline is the suppression
of these "apostolic" people because they "disturb the
equilibrium of a system in stasis."[4] Hirsch
argues that churches should remove the hierarchical huddles and create an
Apostolic environment that allows visionary leaders to pioneer and multiply.
These apostolic leaders will need a dynamic network to thrive, which Hirsch
calls it "organic systems".
Organic Systems
In order to
sustain a flu-like growth, Hirsch suggests we avoid the artificial religious
institution (rigid, high-conformity) and create a networked structure to
support an organic missional movement, which is easier to re-produce,
contextualize, and communicate. Habits and practices are recommended including
steps to stir up movement (behave like a movement), structure organically
(decentralize and embed mDNA into each cell), Network and communicate
extensively (collaborate and dream together), and sneeze the gospel (aim for
simplexity, release early and often). Last, Hirsch wants to create a community
that built upon the comradeship.
Communitas, not Community
The last element
in a mDNA for a dynamic movement is to develop a community that shares the same
danger, ordeals and challenges which forms the bound among its members
(comradeship). Hirsch claims that sometimes the danger and risk can be good,
even necessary for us.[5] Without
this comradeship, a church may lose its fighting power and gradually settle in
an artificially formulated "safe-guarded" environment without any
real engagement with the outside world. Hirsch suggests we develop a
transformative vision (create a daring vision and out of comfort zone),
position the church within the hub of life (build church around people, not
people around church), engage in shared endeavors (joint community projects),
and put adventure back into the venture (expect adventure, risk, and
experiment).
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