I read The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch some time ago. I imagine that most people who have read the book have continued thinking through the issues it raises a long time after they’ve filed the book away on their bookshelf.
Both Frost and Hirsch have since written new books. Michael Frost has written Exiles while Alan Hirsch has released the book The Forgotten Ways.
The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church, covers some of the same ground as The Shaping of Things to Come which makes it worthwhile as a follow up or as a stand alone book.
The Shaping of Things to Come asked a lot of deep questions and pointed us towards possible directions. The Forgotten Ways seeks to build on the ground already covered but helps to plot a way forward for the missional church.
Introducing the book on the website of The Forgotten Ways we read a couple of questions that set us up for what the book is looking to answer.
How did the number of Christians in the world grow from as few as 25 000 one hundred years after Christ’s death to up to 20 million in AD 310?
How did the Chinese underground church grow from 2 million to over 100 million in sixty years despite considerable opposition?
In The Forgotten Ways, Alan Hirsch reveals the paradigmatic insights he discovered as he delved into those questions. He then translates these findings into the context of the contemporary Western church.”
I had the great pleasure of speaking with Alan Hirsch about his book and his understanding of missional church last week. My interview with Alan will be broadcast on 98.5 Sonshine FM both tonight and tomorrow night.
To listen to the interview online simply press the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.
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