Forgotten Ways - Intro

I have been on a book-devouring kick ever since Thanksgiving. I realized that my quiet time wasn’t enough to keep me out of a “funk” so I added to it reading and reflection from other sources. No, not the Qur’an, although I do own it and refer to it every time some Christian nut-job goes on a Nostradamus kick and says something brilliant like 9/11 was predicted in the Qur’an. But don’t get me started on that. I’m blogging about something else today.

I have been reading books on soul care, Christian leadership, and the church. Adding this type of reading to my quiet time devotions has really helped me to focus on my particular circumstances and allowed God to speak to my soul. I’m not saying this is the approach every believer should take, but this has worked quite well for the type of person I am.

The most recent book I have finished is Alan Hirsch’s The Forgotten Ways. This has been a very heavy, laborious read, both because of Hirsch’s intellect and also because the ideas really required a lot of reflection and comparison to theology, especially ecclesiology (theology of the church) that I had been taught. I’m still wrestling with the ideas of the book and maybe that’s why I’m choosing to blog some of that content.

Today, I’ll just lay out the context of the book. Hirsch argues that the church which the Lord established upon His Ascension was radically transformed when Constantine not only legitimized the faith, but made it the official religion for the Roman Empire. In so doing, the church experienced widespread acceptance which lasted about 1,500 years, a period he calls “Christendom.” During that time, the thing we call “church” today was formed. It even flourished. However, with the French Revolution came the idea that church and state should be separate. America was born in this secularizing environment. And, for the last 200+ years, God’s people have been trying to turn the clock back so that they can continue doing church in the same manner rather than adapting to the changing world.

And this is where Hirsch suggests something new, or rather, something very old. He says that the current context of the church is more like the context within which she was created. So, he argues, we need to get back to the Forgotten Ways of the church. And in case you find yourself content with the status quo, he sites that evangelicals represent less than 9% of the US population and the number is dropping every year. By 2025, it’s estimated that the number will be closer to 5%. Worse yet, Hirsch also says that our Christendom-Christianity is appealing to less than 16% of the population. He insists that it’s time to change our thinking about church, be willing to throw out a lot of what has been done for the last 1,700 years, and get back to our roots…