Hirsch and Frost #3

In order to understand what caused the explosive growth (the missional kaboom) in the 1st Christian Church and the 21st underground Chinese Church, Hirsch unpacked two components of "Apostolic Genius." In our second day he explained Apostolic Environment and Organic Systems.

Apostolic Environment

• If you want a missional church there needs to be apostolic leadership.
• An AE is an atmosphere where those with the gifts for generating catalytic change are free to push the church and challenge the status quo.
• They are the custodians of the DNA of Christ’s gospel, the gospel of the church.
• They too are the seeders of missional DNA.
• This will require the release of apostolic energy/Spirit in planting churches and/or push boundaries.

Organic Systems

• A simple structure of organization that develops naturally and not through force.
• Not a hierarchy
• No need for institutionally sanctioned professionals (seminary degrees or ordination).
• The structure is an interconnected web.
• So if one part fails the whole structure is not put at risk.
• Decentralized.
• Decentralized systems are less likely to be subject to heresy than centralized systems.
• The system will self correct.
• These systems seek to not manage people but the environment.

Other ideas of the day:

• Discipleship: lX(little Christs)  leads to embodiment (life + message) leads to spiritual authority leads to leadership.
• APEST: created order not just redemptive order (G-generative/M-maintenance)
• A- seeders of ideas, generators of movement, extended of kingdom (G)
• P- sensitive to God, discernment, calls for repentance , challenges the status quo, speak on his behalf (G)
• E- infectious recruiters to the cause. (G)
• S- creators of community, vital to health and organization (M)
• T- brings of wisdom, integration of ideas, creators of understanding, theologians (M)

Four Movements of a Movement
Hirsch suggested one of the reasons the 1st century church and the 21st century underground Chinese church experienced exponential growth was that they were "movements" and not institutional, bureaucratic organizations. He listed four key factors in a "movement."

• Vibe/Ethos (feeling)
• Starting- transformational vision for society, articulated in simple terms, early adopters are passionate, martyrs, “believers.”
• Decline- “doubt”, it does not reproduce new forms, but only questions old forms, suffers from the utopian flaw (reality does not achieve vision), structures fail (we believe the message, but we can’t deliver), ideological wain (doubt of message), ethical framework slips (no belief to constrain morality),  absolute end (death).
• Renewal- identify factors that caused for decline, doubts and negative thinking and deal with them, sigmoid growth (up and to the right), refound and reinvent (“radical traditionalism”).

• Network (structure)
• individuals, cells and organization
• networks within networks
• Not a hierarchy, but a web of connections.
• You can remove a cell and the web maintains its connections.
• "Chaordic" theory- chaos and order
• Order the core values of what makes us us.
• Allow creative expression (chaos) of those core values.
• Distribute power and function to the outer limits.
• Resist centralization

• Virus (spread)
• "Memes" code to ideas (genes to genetics) (Dawkins)
• We don’t get ideas, ideas get us.  Our minds are just the expression of our genes desire to survive.
• An idea infects you and you become a host.
• Pay It Forward
• Exponential growth

• Reproducing(able)
• Begin with the end in mind.
• Don’t plant a church, plant a movement
• Plant Jesus and that will become a movement. This will allow for creative expression.
• If what we do can’t be reproduced by ordinary people it is too complex.
• If it is not easily repeatable, it is not a movement. 

Quote of the day: “The best way to preserve tradition is to have children, not wear your father’s hat.”