This morning Alan Hirsh gave a truly thought provoking and challenging talk at Exponential '08. He outlined four areas the church must recover if it's to survive and flourish in western culture including America.
1. We must recover the centrality of Jesus in His own movement
We've lost the conscience and potency of Jesus
We must always recalibrate back to Jesus, our authenticity is rooted in it.
2. We must recover discipleship as a core task
Movements only grow in proportion to their ability to make disciples
God has made us in His image, and we're to return the favor - Voltaire
3. We must recover the ethos and structure of apostolic movements
Movements mobilize the people of God
Movements are reproducing and reproduce-able
Every believer a church planter, every church a church planting church - Chinese Underground Church
4. We must recover an incarnational and missional impulse