Alan Hirsch Quotes

In missional churches, the baby birds have been pushed out of the nest and are learning to fly for themselves.

What we find in our heroes and martyrs is a living witness to the fact that the true life of faith can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if one takes it on bravely and gallantly, as something of a grand adventure in which we set out into an unknown country to face many a danger, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.

We will have to take risks, to chance failure, to be willing to walk away from the familiar paths that have brought us to this point.

The quest for heroic adventure then is a quest for the gospel, although it might not be seen that way by everyone.

Let’s stop kidding ourselves — there are too many instances of Christians worshiping sublimely every Sunday, but never making an impact beyond the congregation, never experiencing the powerful beauty of communitas, and never going deeper in discipleship.

Our preferences for stability and security blind us to the opportunities for adventure when they present themselves.

Put simply, the church finds itself in a post-Christendom era, and it had better do some serious reflection or face increasing decline and eventual irrelevance.

The kingdom of God is a crash-bang opera: the king is dramatic, demanding, and unavoidable.

Mission is the practical demonstration, whether by speech or by action, of the glorious lordship of Jesus.

The fact is that if Jesus’s future kingdom is secure, those who trust in its coming will enact it now.

At some point preoccupation with safety can get in the way of living full lives.

In order to develop a pioneering missional spirit, a capacity for genuine ecclesial innovation, let along engender daring discipleship, we are going to need the capacity to take a courageous stand when and where necessary.

If we could be freed from our aversion to loss, our whole outlook on risk would change.

Currently, young Christians reach adulthood bored with church experience, and with little or no sense of their calling as missionaries.

Our point isn’t to make an examination of popular film but to illustrate that the yearning for a heroic adventure lies just beneath the surface of our consciousness; film, television, literature, sports, and travel are in a sense vicarious adventures.