(2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading ...ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church
Alan Hirsch & Michael Frost
Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost have written so many amazing books on ‘missional’ church. It’s what they do. But in their newest, ReJesus, they bring their life’s work into crystal-clear focus. ‘Missional’ is all about Missio Dei, the God of mission – who is, they say, “Christ-like.” And Christ shapes mission which in turn shapes our church life: Christology > missiology > ecclesiology.
In an era of out-of-control ‘church growth strategies,’ Hirsch & Frost call readers to ‘Re-Jesus’ the Church along personal, collective, imaginative, and organizational lines, posing these questions:
- What ongoing role does Jesus the Messiah play in shaping the ethos and self understanding of the movement that originated in him?
How is the Christian religion informed and shaped by the Jesus that we meet in the Gospels?
How do we assess the continuity required between the life and example of Jesus and the subsequent religion called Christianity?
In how many ways do we domesticate the radical Revolutionary in order to sustain our religion and religiosity?
How can a rediscovery of Jesus renew our discipleship, the Christian community, and the ongoing mission of the church?
What others are saying:
Frost and Hirsch challenge us to reinstate Jesus as the central focus of our spiritual lives-both as individual disciples and as communities of his people. The Jesus they present is not the domesticated Jesus that we learned about in Sunday school, but the “loving, wildly passionate, dangerous, radically merciful and always surprising” Jesus portrayed in the Gospels. An encounter with this Jesus transforms us from the inside out and radically changes our approach to mission.
-Felicity Dale, author, An Army of Ordinary People
Frost and Hirsch have done it again! In their characteristic way (heart-pounding in a spiritual sense) they invite us to a journey with God. Don’t miss this trip!
-Reggie McNeal, author, Missional Renaissance
For anyone in the missional conversation in even the slightest way, this book addresses what is by far the most important thing about it theologically and practically.
-Dan Kimball, pastor and author, They Like Jesus but Not the Church
Frost and Hirsch tear away false characterizations about Jesus and reveal a wild and radical revolutionary . . . anything but boring. This book is a huge leap in the right direction.
-Neil Cole, pastor and author, Organic Church
ReJesus will rock your world-and cause you to reJesus your life, reJesus your church, and reJesus your Bible. Expect “reJesus” to become a mantra and a mobilization in the revitalization of Christianity in the 21st century.
-Leonard Sweet, professor and author, The Gospel According to Starbucks
Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost continue to push the church into the future with their latest project, ReJesus. Herein they focus on what every Christian church must focus on–Jesus Christ–and they develop a Christ-centered strategy for missional ecclesiology. This is a timely and relevant book and deserves a wide readership.
-Tony Jones, national coordinator of Emergent Village, doctoral fellow in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, author, The New Christians
In this bold, compelling, and prophetic masterpiece, Hirsch and Frost articulate the beautiful vision of the Jesus-centered Kingdom that is driving this new Reformation. Hirsch and Frost brilliantly weave together insightful biblical exegesis, critical historical reflection, transforming spiritual discipleship, probing cultural analysis, and even a good bit of humor in ways that help readers get free from the deadening yoke of the Christian religion and rediscover the wild, untamed, life-giving Jesus of the Gospels. I hope everyone who professes faith in Christ will dare to read this book. They will not put it down unchanged.
-Greg Boyd, Senior Pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, co-author, The Jesus Legend
drmikekear
ReJesus, by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, is a book about seriously studying the Gospels in order to reform the Church into the image of Jesus Christ. Too often, especially in the USA, the Church has been made into the image of predominant culture. The same can be said of Jesus Himself. We create God in our image. in ReJesus Frost and Hirsch confront us with the Jesus of the Gospels, who is wilder than our Judeo-Christian culture would like. The Jesus of the Gospel means business.
I recommend this book. The illustrations and comparative studies in the lives of radical Jesus followers are also to be commended.
Mar 17th, 2009
dougorama63
Wow! A wake-up call for Western Christianity!! ReJesus kicked me square in the derrier. Frost and Hirsch have summoned the Christian Church out of its cubby hole and into a radical (root) imitation of Jesus Christ. The Church is to do nothing less. For too long we Christians have domesticated Jesus so severely that most Christians yawn when they hear His name. The authors correctly observe that the only way to let this wild Messiah loose is for the Church, individually and corporately, to engage in a thorough study and implementation of the Gospel narratives of the life of Jesus. The only way to have a vibrant relationship with Jesus is to copy Him. And as we do this, new life is breathed into the church and the world.
Read this book! It lifted my spirits and gave me hope that the Living Christ still wants to use us in His mission to unite all things in heaven and earth.
Mar 19th, 2009
digitalnomad777
Just wanted to take a moment to tell you about an amazing book that I just finished. It is called REJESUS-A WILD MESSIAH FOR A MISSIONAL CHURCH and was written by authors Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch.
This book was nothing short of honest and in your face! It takes a deep look into the church today, and what we have created in our own attempts at religion by human effort and daringly compares them with the Gospels and the New Testament church. The results are very interesting, and it is really obvious that we have greatly missed the mark.
Done in a very loving, yet honest way, Michael and Alan present us with new ideas to help restructuce our foundations… which basically means that we have to REJESUS everything… getting back to the very roots of the Gospel and applying them to our every day lives as well as in our local fellowship and community. They show us that it is our own individual responsibility to manifest and demonstrate the gospel of the Kindom, and that as a collective we are to work with the head himself, Jesus Christ, to advance and establish his reign everywhere we go.
We are also responsible for training and raising up disciples capable of doing this very same thing, producing Christlike character and true passion in the body, as opposed to the stale, boring, lifeless cookie-cutter religion that we see in churches today.
They also do an amazing job at taking a look at the REAL JESUS of the Gospels. Not the “nice guy meek and mild” Jesus that America seems to have created. They talk about the Jesus who turned over tables in the temple, nearly got thrown off of cliffs, stood in the face of politics and religion and refuted it, and told everyone that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood. He was no little pussycat… but more of a roaring lion… a fearless warrior who demonstrated true love by his own sacrificial death to save a humanity that had rejected him.
An amazing book! I give it 3 thumbs up… and an 11 out of 9.
A.J. Nichols
radicallyaltered@gmail.com
http://radicallyaltered.wordpress.com
http://talesoftenacity.wordpress.com
Mar 20th, 2009
lucasland
agree with 99% of what they have written in their new book ReJesus. So, if I spend most of my time criticizing or questioning their work, it is only because I agree with them so much. We criticize most that which we love most.
The basic thesis of their book is that the church throughout history, particularly in our time, has tended to stray from its founder, Jesus. We have created idols, false images, of Jesus. In order to “refound” the church, we must return to a radical (to the root) understanding of Jesus. The central idea here is that our theology should be shaped in this order: Christology > Missiology > Ecclesiology. We have tended to do it in the exact reverse order, allowing our ecclesiology to shape how we practice mission and define the person of Jesus.
I think Frost and Hirsch are on to something important here. However, I have three concerns/clarifications/additions.
1. Which Jesus?
The authors hint at the problem of unpacking the baggage we have attached to Jesus. They try to unmask many of the idols we have created that obscure the radical biblical Jesus. However, we are left without a clear vision of who this Jesus that we are to “refound” the church on is or how we come to know him. I think it is necessary to engage in some discussion about how we read the Gospels and discern the character and nature of Christ.
I would also like to add that we should take a stab at nailing down some things about Jesus, but be open to God and others changing our understanding. For example, I am committed to the fact that Jesus teaches an ethics of non-violence, or better, just peacemaking. There are many who read the same text and disagree. There is room within the history of interpretation for more than one perspective. Are the authors insisting we reach a consensus about some or all aspects of Jesus’ nature and teachings? What would be the essential things we need in order to “ReJesus” the church?
2. A Line or a Circle
I wonder if their model (Christology > Missiology > Ecclesiology) is still too linear a way of thinking about theology. Their diagram does have a loop back to Christology, but a cyclical model could more accurately describe the way that our Ecclesiology informs our Christology. In other words, perhaps the model should reflect not only an ideal for forming theology, but the reality of these discipline’s interdependence.
3. Putting the Last Things First
The final change I would make is the addition of Eschatology at the beginning of their model. While some context is included, Jesus is not set within the context of the broader biblical narrative. They make the same mistake as Red-letter Christians. While it’s better than “Buddy Jesus” it is still less than the fullness of the biblical Jesus. Eschatology is too often thought of primarily as a study of the “end times.” Properly understood it is more about the telos, purpose or goal of both history and the mission of God. Placing Jesus within the context of God’s ongoing mission also helps to mitigate the problem of interpretation and creating an idolatrous version of Jesus.
The idea of “refounding” the church also has some problematic elements. There is a danger of becoming primitivist and insisting that the church go back to a first century church. This can result in disengagement with the world we live in. We cannot “go back.” We must live in the time we are given.
For many ministers and Christians this is an excellent book written in a popular style, but engaging some deeper ideas. For an egghead like me it doesn’t address all the issues that its main tenets raise. Frost and Hirsch continue to stir good discussion and thinking about the church past, present and future.
Mar 21st, 2009
Ewright523
In REJesus Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch make the case for re-jesusing the church. Through the centuries the church has added layer after layer of religious baggage turning the church into something Jesus never intended. The answer is to re-Jesus the church…to refocus ourselves, our doctrines, our practices, and our mission on the person and work of Jesus Christ. “Rather than call this reformation, we will call this task refounding the church because it raises the issue of the church’s true founder or foundation. And in our opinion, nothing is more important for the church in our day than the question of refounding Christianity” (p. 5).
When the church refocuses on Jesus everything will change. It will change the Church’s worship, its discipleship, and, ultimately, its mission; realigning it with its true course.
Likes and Dislikes
I battled back and forth with myself while reading this book. I hated parts of it, and absolutely loved other parts. Frost and Hirsch, I believe, are at their best when they present the foundational elements of what happens when we REJesus the Church.
Their discussion of Orthopathy-Orthopraxy-Orthodoxy is
wonderful…especially the explanation of the Hebraic understanding of
“knowing.” I loved the quote “We are never alone when we do a holy deed
because we partner with God in the redemption of the world. In other
words, a deed done in his name is a means of grace, a sacrament” (p.
152).
I also like their explanation of the changes that
REJesusing the church will cause in the Church…a Christlike community
that reflects his character, life, and activity…a holistic community
that seeks to offer up all of life to the lordship of Jesus…a
peace-loving community that is considerate, submissive, merciful,
fruitful, impartial, and sincere…a worshipping community that exalts
Jesus and declares his sovereignty…a devoted community that
experiences intimacy with Jesus…a graced community that relies on the
work of Jesus for salvation…a holy community that seeks after the
righteousness of Jesus…a healthy community that feeds on God’s Word
and the ministry of the Spirit.
I found myself nodding in agreement with their discussion about stripping away the layers of things that separate from the true message of Jesus, but infuriated that those same layers are not seen as bringing others to the true message of Jesus. They wanted a Hebraic understanding of Jesus, but separated his debates with the pharisees from their cultural context. As Andrew Perriman points out, “the controversy with Judaism tends to be construed as a simplistic
competition between authentic community and institutional religion…” (Article on Open Source Theology).
A few of the problems I have…
Problem #1-There is no adequate picture of Jesus offered. Frost and Hirsch state, “If the heart of Christian spirituality is to increasingly become like our founder, then an authentic comprehension of Jesus becomes critical” (p. 13). Then they progress to give us no authentic, comprehensive picture of Jesus.
They obviously have a picture within their minds as they write this book, and yet they simply rely on a few catchy phrases to define their image of God. They want us to, “go back to the daring, radical, strange, wonderful, inexplicable, unstoppable, marvelous, unsettling, disturbing, caring, powerful God-man” (p. 111)…but again offer no real explanation or defense of their position. They simply affirm that others have done this adequately and better. I think their Jesus tends to look a little like them. Andrew Perriman brings up this same point here, and Ed Stetzer ask that question of one of the authors here.
Problem #2-They offer no picture of their own, but they are great at poking holes in other views of Jesus they deem inadequate. (This is closely related to the previous one.) They dedicate an entire chapter to knocking over some inadequate pictures of Jesus, and I agree that some of them may need to go. My problem comes when they, at least by the way they write and layout the section, imply that the picture of Jesus offered by a “motley crew of unlikely people…Some were unemployed. Some were working occasionally as artists. Others were suffering with mental illness” is somehow better than that offered by Jesus-lovers throughout the centuries…even the very people who created the images in which they are now poking holes (p. 107). I have this same backlash when non-Christians with no commitment to Jesus (and probably haven’t even read the Bible) are asked what Jesus is like. (Which they do in the chapter “The Church Jesus Built.”)
Problem #3-A devaluing of Church history and religion. There is an intense amount of writing in today’s Church degrading the role of “religion” in Christianity. Most often they simply mean rote religiosity. With that I can agree, but I think it is lazy and dangerous to be so loose with our terminology. Religion is simply the set or system of belief. Like it or not…Christianity (reJesused or not) is a religion. What needs to be attacked is the rote, meaningless practice that never enters the heart and is completely happy with the liturgical ritual in whatever church it may take place be it Catholic, Charismatic, Baptist, or Methodist.
Frost and Hirsch state, “When Paul explains the content of the Gospel, it doesn’t consist of propositional statements about creation, sin, atonement, and redemption. It is a recapturing of the historical story of Jesus!” Then they note the “flowery Nicene Creed from the fourth century” (p. 194). Of course they were different, they were addressing different things and needed to be different. The later did not negate the former.
What Can We Use?
There is much to commend this book. I am constantly challenged by the life of Jesus, and I believe that He is the standard by which Christian discipleship is to be judged. Frost and Hirsch do a great job of setting Him up as the leveling line of our discipleship.
I also think their explanations of what the church will look like are invaluable. I may disagree with some of their explanations (attacks on pop praise and worship), but their underlying philosophical structure is great.
All in all…it was a good, challenging read.
By Eric Wright
I blog at TheMergeBlog.com
Mar 29th, 2009
dustball44
I just finished Hirsch and Frost’s new collaborative effort, “Re-Jesus; A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church” and thought it was a fun, challenging, and insightful read.
Throughout church history there have been many “back to the foundations” type movements. The church heritage that I come from (Restoration Movement) was one of these. These movements emphasize the throwing off the unhelpful layers of church tradition and practice that have built up over the years and get back to being a New Testament Church. Part of this is a result of a general naivete of what the first century church looked like (have they read 1 Corinthians?). But part of it is a genuine desire to clear the way for people to know Jesus and to not be hindered by the crap that can get in the way.
In a sense this is what Hirsch and Frost have attempted to do in ReJesus. The difference however is their starting point. Many “back to the beginning” movements (and many of us pastors) start with making changes in or adjusting our ecclesiology. The authors take things back a few steps and start with Christology which they contend must be prior to our missiology or ecclesiology. And it is for this reason that I think they are on to something that, while we’ll always be readjusting and recalibrating, would bring powerful change and break down some of the barriers for people trying to find their way back to God.
Dustin Bagby
dbagby@gmail.com
http://www.dustball.blogspot.com
Apr 7th, 2009
RJJFleming
Near the end of their book, reJesus, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch put forward a provocative idea: Jesus didn’t ask us to worship Him. Jesus demanded obedience instead.
This is a simple idea when you think about it. In its day, this idea changed the landscape, shifted the paradigm, and turned the world upside down.
To this day, I nod my head in agreement with this idea. But, then, while the idea is still reverberating, I shake my head in sadness as I realize how far from it I’ve strayed. I think longingly of a time long past “when I knew next to nothing” and Christianity was exciting and scary and exhilarating and delicious and sweet and all that was Christianity was someone named Jesus; no institution, no programs, no buildings, just Jesus. That was all and that was enough.
If I approach the message of Christ as a call to obedience it changes radically what I do on Sunday morning and even more radically what I do on Monday morning.
Frost and Hirsch don’t claim this idea is original. But, then again, Christianity is not about originality. It’s about following. Following, by its very nature, is not original. Paul told the Philippians to follow him as he followed Christ. And we follow those who came before who followed Christ. Nothing original here.
But a lack of originality does not necessarily preclude the use of creativity.
Sounds odd, doesn’t it? Originality is not creativity: This is the kind of paradox Frost and Hirsch seem to address in reJesus. And, as they compellingly argue, we need to address this kind of paradox, both as individuals and in groups.
How do we follow Christ creatively?
Their answer does create possibilities for creativity: We need to get to know the Jesus of the gospels. What kind of man was/is He? What did He teach? What is it about Jesus that surprises us? And, maybe as important as the things we don’t know, what do we do with the things we think about Jesus that cannot be validated by the gospel accounts, about the “things we know that ain’t so?”
This is the second book they’ve written together. The first book, The Shaping of Things to Come was about ecclesiology and how the church could become more missional and incarnational. ReJesus, however, centers upon the more foundational idea of how a study of Jesus (Christology) informs and shapes the mission of the church. “Christology,” they say, “is the key to the renewal of the church in every age.” Christology leads to Missiology which then informs Ecclesiology. This is constantly recalibrated with every age in church history.
As they say: “The inference is that by and large the church as we currently experience it in the West has to varying degrees lost touch with the wild and dangerous message it carries and is duty bound to live out and pass on.” In their third chapter, they include a generous profile of the Pharisees, a group about whom Jesus said nothing good. Every point they make about the Pharisees could also be applied to many contemporary groups of Evangelicals. Their point? That our institutional structures and even our so-called Christian sub-culture has lost touch with the Jesus of the gospels. And this is what we need to regain: We need to re-Jesus the church.
If their first three chapters are theologically heavy, their fourth chapter takes a light-hearted turn. The chapter is entitled “I Have a Picture of Jesus” and examines artist’s depictions of Jesus through the centuries. They discuss paintings they rename “Bearded Lady Jesus” and “Spooky Jesus” to show how our preconceptions can work their way into who we think Jesus was and is. I’d love to take a small group through just this chapter and then end the session with a paraphrase of the prayer by C. S. Lewis, “Lord, I pray to you not as I think you are but as you know yourself to be.”
All in all, I liked their book; it gave me much to think about and I recommend it highly. Their last three chapters give practical advice as to how to put the idea into practice and how they think Christians could be obedient to their calling. You may not agree with everything they say and they don’t provide an exact blueprint. But then again, they leave plenty of room for creativity.
Apr 16th, 2009
dlandt
I found ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church to be the strongest book written by the Frost/Hirsch missional duo. The main thrust of their newest work is that mission and ecclesiology must be born out of who Jesus was and is. Their book is an invitation to take another look at Jesus and have our assumptions challenged and converted. This fresh conversion with the very Jewish and 1 century messianic figure will inform our ecclesial and missional concerns and questions.
To be faithful to their thesis you may want to consider reading ReJesus before ReMission.
I very much appreciated the authors synthesis of the writing of Jacques Ellul. If you aren’t familiar with Ellul’s writing, ReJesus is a wonderful primer. The other feature of this book, that is worth the purchase, is their stand alone biographical vignettes of people throughout history they see embodying the life of Jesus in their unique contexts.
ReJesus has the new perspective feel of The Jesus I Never Knew meets Jacques Ellul. It is an engaging and important read and my favorite so far from Frost and Hirsch.
dlandt
dlandt.typepad.com
Apr 20th, 2009
smh00a
By Steve Holt
In missional church circles, “Frost & Hirsch” is certifiably a household phrase. The authors, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, have written one previous book together – The Shaping of Things to Come – and two separately. (Exiles, Frost; The Forgotten Ways, Hirsch) The Aussie duo takes their most recent work, reJesus, in a slightly different direction, though, centering their study and reflection on the person and meaning of Jesus Christ.
Not to say their other books haven’t been Jesus-focused, because they have … in a circuitous way. Their other books have been more nuts-and-bolts manuals to starting churches and faith communities in contemporary culture, especially The Forgotten Ways and Shaping. This is not surprising coming from two missiologists.
But Frost & Hirsch are also practitioners of the mission they preach, a mission they have found is fueled and led by the suffering servant, Jesus. Thus we have reJesus, a worthy follow-up to their past study. In their previous books, both separately and together, Frost & Hirsch have argued that a robust Christology must precede both missiology and ecclesiology. Translation: our sense of mission and the shape of our communities take their cues from the life and teachings of Jesus. (ironic, though, how their book on Jesus follows books on both mission and the church)
reJesus examines Christian vocation in light of a Savior and Example who has, as Frost & Hirsch argue vehemently, been largely misunderstood throughout the ages and especially in recent centuries. Our blonde, Western, domesticated Jesus must give way to a wild-eyed revolutionary who looked to turn the world he entered on its head. Lest someone think Frost & Hirsch adhere to a [Mark] Driscoll[ian] view of Jesus – that he had ripply muscles, carried an AK-47, would have liked to watch ultimate fighting, and presumably suppressed women – let me stop you right there. They don’t. They are simply arguing for a Jesus who cannot – nay, will not – be tamed by our religious institutions and power-grabbing efforts. He has other plans.
Those new to Frost & Hirsch (or, perhaps, “Frirsch” for short) will need to get used to copious footnotes and quotes from other authors/speakers, as well as their patented charts and diagrams, used to visually display difficult theological concepts. This will be helpful to some, annoying to others. One great aspect of the book is their interludes throughout in which they feature a “revolutionary” who impacted his or her world in a Jesus-like manner. Examples include Martin Luther King, Jr., Janani Luwum, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, William Wilberforce, and, of course, Mother Teresa.
Having read their other books, I found myself skimming parts that were warmed up for use in reJesus, and thus this book wasn’t as “aha!” for me as it might be for, say, a person who is a) new to Christianity; b) new to emergent/missional Christianity; or c) uninterested with technical missions strategies. My fear is that many for whom this book was undoubtedly written are already uninterested with the ongoing missional church conversation and would rather just “follow Jesus.” In other words, reforming the institutional church may not be on the radar screen for many who read this book, though it touches, at times, on precisely that. The overwhelming focus, though, is clearly Jesus, who is characterized as holistically and biblically as in any book I’ve read. For Christians taken by the person of Jesus, pick up this book.
(to be posted at harvestboston.wordpress.com or http://www.jesusmanifesto.com)
Apr 27th, 2009
jchensonsr
I finished ReJesus: A Wild Messiah For A Missional Church recently and find myself coming back to it in my thoughts and in the various conversations I have throughout a given week. If you are one of those I’ve referred to the book, I hope you picked up a copy (or, for Kindle readers, downloaded a copy in the promised 2 minutes) and are finding it to be as stimulating a read as I have.
I am recommending the book for various reasons, as it comes at a time when reports like the American Religious Identification Survey are coming out and when national magazines like Newsweek are running articles with titles like, “The End of Christian America.” I believe this book is provocative enough to spur Christians on in this day and time to ReJesus in order to reengage the culture and world of today.
Before moving on, what the authors, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, propose is that the church of today begin removing all of the debris added on to the Gospel since the birth of the church. I underlined the authors’ stated mission at the beginning of the book to see if they could actually go beyond so many other authors’ attempts to take us back to first century Christianity. What Frost and Hirsch state as their core task of the book is to:
explore the connection between the way of Jesus and the religion of Christianity . . . to attempt to assess the Christian movement in the light of the biblical revelation of Jesus and to propose ways in which the church might reconfigure itself, indeed, recalibrate its mission around the example and teaching of the radical rabbi from Nazareth.
The authors thoughtfully lay out a way of exploration, by doing things like repenting from missing the point of Jesus, by reconsidering the Shema in Jesus’ understanding and teaching, by getting back into direct contact with Jesus through the disciplines of our faith, and, by revisiting how Jesus built community.
But, my favorite, way to ReJesus is to seek out a new picture of Jesus. One of my favorite sermon series I try to update every other year or so is Pictures of Jesus. I begin the series with images of Jesus I’ve collected as an intro to getting people to take a new look at Jesus. Cole and Hirsch effectively to continue expanding my view and reminded me that there are many angles from which to look at Jesus–even one they refer to as the “bearded-lady Jesus.” They also made me think of how our ecclesiology and theology so closely follow whatever image we carry of Jesus.
Cole and Hirsch have put together a compelling work here, though there are places–like in the chapter on the Shema and thoughts relating to oneness/Trinity of God as well as a quick dismissal of form criticism without stating what can be learned from it in a study of Jesus ( one of my favorite books is The Meaning of Jesus, by Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright, which compares/contrasts these views)–that could use some refining and elaboration. They correctly maintain focus on Jesus throughout the book; believing that the way ahead for the church in our world of today is by looking back to the one who started it all. They leave the study of Jesus up to the reader rather than providing their presentation–or favorite picture–of him. Their point–the missional movement of the church is to be anchored not in “bearded-lady Jesus,” but the wild messiah we find in the Gospels–is well-given and, as we see the church becoming more irrelevant to the world around her–must be well-taken.
http://wonderingthoughts.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/05/rejesus-review.html
May 11th, 2009
labman2808
Living in the age we live, we’re all familiar with the term ” re-boot “. Over time we download, upload, delete and edit things on our computers. Files get fragmented and corrupted and the original operating system ceases to function properly. In a nut shell, that would be the overall premise of Michael Frost’s and Alan Hirsch’s most recent book, ” reJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church. We need to re-boot our operating systems to it’s original formulation to the centrality of Jesus.
First glance of the catchy title left me a little apprehensive. In the back of my mind I mused the thought of a quick fix for all post-Christendom’s's and the church’s problems. Perhaps, like pushing a button, a clever program you cut and paste into your church’s context and your fixed, ” mission-al accomplished.
Far more than any program, this book will and should the spark the synapses in the mind of your church to see the redemptive imagination of Jesus and His Kingdom.
The book is broken down into seven chapters;
How Jesus Changes Everything
ReJesus and Personal ReNewal
ReJesus fro the Church and Organization
I’ve got a Picture of Jesus
The Shema Schema
Three, Two, One …Engage
The Church that Jesus Built
Recently, I heard Len Sweet comment that the church suffers from JDD ( Jesus Deficit Disorder ). I believe Frost and Hirsch have done a superb job of tackling the deficit in this book.
It was interesting in that when I was sent the book to review a friend of mine attending seminary over on the mainland was reading ReJesus at the same time. So we enjoyed some great conversation from different perspectives, he from a more academic/ theological view, and me from a more practitioner/ street level view. If your reading this book for a theological grounding into the missional conversation you might find it a little thin. The most theological chapter in the book is chapter five, ” The Shema Schema “, which focuses on Christology being the center and starting point into mission. It’s only from here ReJesus reveals that we know the Christ-likeness of God. It’s only in Jesus, we see God and what His mission is.
This is where my friend complains of the books theological thinness, we’ve squeezed Jesus ut the context of the bigger story. But Frost and Hirsch have made it clear that part of their motivation is to move away from complex theological propositions and formulas. I like this. I’m growing weary of books on the theology of mission. I’s like throwing gasoline on a fire, it rages for awhile with great theological musings and eventually dies down until the fire is fed again. A friend who works the inner city streets, mused recently, ” when all is said and done…will we have done anything more than just talk.”
Again, I’m talking from a street level perspective, there is a real urgency out side the walls of your local faith communities, especially among the marginalized, the fringe in the inner cities. Jesus made the comment, ” the harvest is huge and the workers few.” We can wait until all our theology is lined up, and have the scholars affirm its soundness and then move. All I can say is take a walk down to your inner cities, if you listen closely you can here blind Bartimeaus calling from dark, garbage strewn alley. I believe Frost and Hirsch recognize the urgency and have opted for a practitioners approach to mission rather than theological.
In William Cavanaugh’s book, The Church as God’s Body Language, he says, ” People are usually converted into a new way of living by getting to know the people that live that way, and thus see themselves as being able to live that way too. This is the way God’s revolution works. The church is meant to be that community of people who make salvation ( Jesus ) visible for the rest of the world. Salvation is not a property of isolated individuals, but is only made visible in mutual love.
ReJesus, is the best book I have read in a long time. If you’ve been walking along the side lines of the playing field of what missional really is. Maybe be you’re a little anxious, a little apprehensive, a little unsure that you don’t know the game plan but, you feel Jesus calling you out on to the field. This book is for you.
It is a book for faith communities trying to under stand mission, but more than that, it’s for communities courageous enough to put mission into practice. I can not recommend this book enough.
One last thing I loved about the book was the vignettes ( little Jesus’ ), stories of people through out history who engaged in Jesus’ mission. If your looking for something theological, this might not be it…but, if your interested in the ” practice ” of faith, Jesus and God’s mission, this book will inspire and encourage you.
From Frost and Hirsch, ” As should be obvious by now, we believe that the Christian faith must look to Jesus and must be well founded on him if it is to be authentic. If NASA was even .05 degress off in luanching a rocket to the moon, they would miss the moon by thousands of miles. And in many ways this is the same as it applies to the gospel. Because of the fundamental role Jesus plays in Christian identity, ministry, and mission, we believe it is critical to geth this right and to constantly keep checking. Church history makes it clear that such shifts take place. But these shifts are usually in advertent and take place incrementally as other issues press in and traditions create their own overlay obscuring the core of the faith. Wahtever the process, it results in an insidious change in the resulting religion.”
” Therefore we propose that the church should be recalibrated around it’s founder, Jesus. But, what would this look like?
” Here is a curious question that will highlite the issue for us: If the church only had the four gospels to go by, what would it look like? Certainly discipleship would be emphasized, as would the prominence on living in and under the Kingdom of God. There would likely be a strong emphasis on uncluttered lifestyle and adventuresome community with lots of love, faithfulness, mercy and justice going around. Would this be an adequate expression of Christianity”
” The renewal of the church in our time is dependent on the renewal of the gospel. And the renewal of the gospel requires the recovery of the centrality of Jesus for faith and thought. We must reJesus our theology as well as our churches.”
D. Ritschl in a quote from the book says, ” The ultimate problem, which has caused our theological helplessness, lies in the separation between Jesus Christ and the Church.”
I think if we’re all honest in that separation we will find the ” Wild Messiah for a missional church ” that Frost and Hirsch write about. We have over time downloaded, uploaded, and deleted this from the original operating system of the church and it’s mission. The operating system is corrupt, fragmented and ceases to function properly. Frost and Hirsch have not got a clever program to install into the context of your church. The ask you to re-boot everything back to Jesus. They offer everything Jesus, not quick fix solutions or answers. You might even find you have more questions. But the answer is in the total focus on Jesus. The question is are we courageous enough to reJesus.
May 13th, 2009
circularthoughts
ReJesus:A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church, is the latest offering by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. In this book Frost and Hirsch argue that the church in the West has lost her focus and direction and needs to recalibrate her mission around the person and work of King Jesus. They do this by exploring the “connection between the way of Jesus and the religion of Christianity” (6).
When I am asked if I am a Christian I normally respond by asking the person to explain what they think a Christian is. Almost without fail the answer I get is not the same as my understanding. For example, in the United States, I often hear things like, “A Christian is a Republican,” or, “A Christian is a person who hates gay people,” or “A Christian is a person who is mean and judgmental” and various other not so flattering descriptives. When I am overseas I hear things like, “A Christian is a pork eating, wine drinking, adulterer,” if I am in the Muslim world, or, “A Christian is one of these,” which is said while making the sign of the cross on their chest. I honestly do not remember anyone ever answering my question with anything close to my understanding of what a Christian is; that is a person who follows the way of Jesus.
This is exactly what Frost and Hirsch seem to be suggesting in this book. The church, at least in the West, has been taken captive by so many special interests and denominational superstar personalities that no one really knows what this thing we call Christianity is really all about anymore. The answer, according to the authors, and I agree, is to return to our founder, to ReJesus the church.
When the called out ones (which is the meaning of the Greek word ekklesia which is translated church in our English Bibles) turn back to Jesus some very interesting things begin to happen. First, the called out ones will follow the example of Jesus not some denominational founder or superstar. The called out ones will also take back up the practice of equipping everyone to be ministers of the gospel instead of seeking to simply get people into pews. The called out ones will also take on an outward focus of service instead of the consumeristic what’s in this for me downward spiral that seems to have entrapped so many. The called out ones will have a much broader understanding and experience of worship. They will see it as a service to mission as all things are offered up to God, not just some songs. The called out ones will practice the presence of Jesus in ways that are not performance based or legalistic but instead an “intense and private connection between a disciple and his or her heavenly Father” (182). The called out ones will see the need for consistent re-evanglization so as to avoid the pitfall of becoming self-reliant and self-righteous. In other words, the called out ones will continually remember the cross and what Jesus did for us so as to not slip into a false belief that it is our “pietism or our personal devotion that sets us free” 184). The called out ones will “abandon its preference for good-manners piety and adopt again the kingdom values as taught by Jesus” (184). Finally, the called out ones will devote themselves to scripture and the exercise of the spiritual gifts, for the purpose of building up and caring for each other. (The points in this paragraph were taken from Chapter 7 – The Church That Jesus Built, pages 165 – 189)
I liked this book very much. It is actually my favorite out of all the books that Frost and Hirsch have written, both as co-authors and individually. My recommendation is this; if when you read the Bible you see a difference between the way of Jesus and the religion of Christianity, then buy the book and read it. If you don’t see a difference, then don’t buy the book.
http://www.circularthoughts.com/circular_thoughts_on_foll/2009/05/rejesus-a-wild-messian-for-a-missional-church.html
May 30th, 2009
NLoyd23
Today, I want to look briefly at a book called, “ReJesus” by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with these names, you should definitely pick this book up because they are among the most articulate and well-thought-out voices in the “missional theology” discussion today. I would highly recommend nearly anything from either of these two authors to give perspective and depth to whatever you have heard called, “missional”.
At under 200-pages, I expected ReJesus to be a rather quick read. I expected to find a popularized, easy-to-read summary of what it means to be missional.
But, while the book is clearly written and very understandable, it was anything but a quick read. I found myself reading paragraphs over and over, not because the authors didn’t write clearly, but because there were so many thoughts to explore and rethink in every sentence.
This work is clearly more than a popularized summary of what it means to be missional. This is a concisely written missional theology manifesto. It has depth of thought and intentionality that went beyond my expectations.
ReJesus is a book aimed at redeveloping Christology as the center of the modern church. Or as they state it,
“to reinstate the central role of Jesus in the ongoing spiritual life of the faith and in the life and mission of God’s people… it is an attempt to recalibrate the mission of the church around the person and work of Jesus.”
The critique of the writers is that the church has, over many centuries, gotten sidetracked from the person of Jesus to a system of morality, liturgy, ritual and theology/philosophy. Hirsch and Frost both argue that though these other things may not be necessarily bad, that our first call is to follow the life pattern of Jesus.
In this return to making Jesus central they challenge us to re-evaluate how our personal relationship to Jesus should look, how our church organization should function and work, what our preaching should focus on, and the type of things we teach and model that should prized. It is a call to ACT and LIVE like Christ, not simply WORSHIP and THEOLOGIZE about him.
In one very excellent chapter, they even challenge our personal picture of Jesus in light of the gospels. We are taken on a journey through the art that has depicted Jesus over the many centuries to see the impact that it has had on forming our perception of him.
This is an excellent book. It draws heavily on critiques of Christendom from Soren Kierkegaard and Jacques Ellul (who wrote another excellent book titled, “The Subversion of Christianity”). It is full of quotes from both of these excellent thinkers and is obviously heavily influenced by their work. Both Kierkegaard and Ellul are brilliant but difficult to read, so this book may be a good source to make sense of their ideas without the extra effort.
In the end, this is a book I would highly recommend for anyone wanting to seriously wrestle with the issues that church faces in today’s culture. I would caution that it is not an “easy read,” so if you’re looking for something a little more popular, look elsewhere. But, for those of you who wanna dig in, get dirty and start thinking, this is the book for you.
MY RATING: 3.5 out of 5 stars
http://nickloyd.com/2009/05/08/book-review-rejesus/
Jun 6th, 2009
EMAshley
In their latest book, ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch begin by noting that “the name of Jesus has been invoked as central to movements that do not seem to be in accord with the Jesus we find in the pages of the Gospels” (4). The solution, according to Frost and Hirsch, is for the Church to be “reJesused.” Meaning, the Church must continually refocus and remember that Jesus is central to who we are and what we do.
While reading ReJesus there were times when I found some of Frost and Hirch’s claims to be pejorative and unhelpful. For instance, they write off the Nicene Creed as “flowery” and claim that “Paul has nothing to do with this airy doctrinal language.” Granted, the language is different from Paul’s, but it isn’t opposed to it. Creeds certainly have an important role to play in helping the Church think and believe rightly about Christ, salvation, etc.
Yet, disagreements aside, Frost and Hirsch do helpfully remind us that we must continually be “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). For each of us that follow Christ as our Lord and Savior, it is not unnecessary for us to be reminded that Jesus Christ is central to everything we say, do, and think. According to Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:20, we are “ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” As His ambassadors, it is vital that we adequately represent our Savior as He truly is. And one of the best ways that we can do this is by meeting Him again and again as He is given to us in the Scriptures. In other words, we need to be ReJesused.
http://ericmashley.blogspot.com/2009/06/re-jesus.html
Jun 16th, 2009
Pam Hogeweide
he title and cover of this book totally hooked me. I had a lot of anticipation about what fresh insights would inspire me within the pages of the book. I loved how the cover of this book suggested a relatable, creative read that would engage my imagination. I am a collage artist in my spare time and so the blurring of images and graphics with the gritty fonts used on the book’s cover completetly hooked me. I am quite likely going to print up a copy of the cover and use it in a collage project. Great graphics.
Great, great title. The authors call their work ReJesus, as a means of explaining how the collective body of Christ followers (in the West) known as The Church, need to get back to basics with our Founder. We need to be refound, not reformed or renewed or redeveloped. We need to be rebooted like a computer and return to our original operatng system, which for the Christ follower is Christ himself. Thus, according to Hisrsh and Frost, we need to ReJesus. I love this coined term and I am 100 percent on the same page as the authors in regards to this clarion call.
My primary criticism of this book is that it’s cover did not match it’s contents in that the book reads more like an academic text for seminarians. Rich with theological terms, like orthopraxy, pericope, routinization of charisma, missio Dei, etc… it is a text book with a really cool title and really, really cool cover.
In all fairness, perhaps this is the readership the authors were targeting. Ok, fine. But I kinda would have liked fair warning about that. In all truthfulness, I would not have read this book had I known it would mostly appeal to my intellect rather than my heart. 99% of the book content was lecture in style. One percent, in my estimation, storytelling. And for me, the most effective means of imparting information and knowledge is through the power of a great narrative. This book is sparse on story.
Having said that, one of the features of the book that I thoroughly enjoyed was the biographical sketches of various men and women who have demonstrated a commitment to following Christ, people who appeared to not need a dose of ReJesus’ing. This was not so much story telling as it was a kind of shout-out to some of the heroes and “sheroes” (as Shane Claiborne is apt to say!) of the faith. Ok, cool.
Another fun feature of the book is the graphics within. Not the diagrams or tables, God no, those were boring. Reminded me too much of all those mathematic classes I floundered in during my youth…I still flounder at math….but the authors saw to it that popular and iconic images of Jesus found in art were included. They wrote their observations and reviews of how art has reflected a distorted view of how we in the West have envisioned Christ. A soft, domesticated Savior who is nice to everybody and has good manners. Nope, not the Real Jesus, asserts Hirsch and Frost. And I would agree. Again, I did not have a disagreement with the content of this book. My criticism is that it was overwhelmingly academic in vocabulary, writing style and even the charts and diagrams and tables. It is the style that didn’t work for me.
Here’s an example of what I mean by overly academic:
Our commitment to exegesis are now so one-dimensional that we longer know how to connect with the Bible in a much more personally engaged manner. We suggest that along side the task of exegesis (which we must do), we need to learn the spiritual art of reading ourselves into the text, participating in it, normally forbidden to the academic approach. We think that we have much to unlearn in regard to our approach to Scripture, and therefore the God of the Scriptures, and much to relearn as we seek to reJesus our lives and churches. (p. 147)
Don’t misunderstand me. I may only be a cleaning woman by trade and a high school graduate by education, but I am intelligent and understand what this means. I understand the premise of the book. I just didn’t care for the overly academic approach in giving the message and wonder how much more accessible this book would be to everyday people had everyday language been used instead. As it stands, I’ll be passing this volume along to a woman I know who is a theologian. She may likely appreciate it more than I have.
There were many gleaming moments in the book for me, mostly when the adademic posture was relaxed and the tie was loosened. My favorite passage in the entire book is found in the last chapter where the authors issue a kind of statement of the difference between loving The Church versus not liking how church is done:
…to be sure, we do not like gatherings of strangers who never meet or know each other outside of Sundays, who sit passively while virtual strangers preach and lead singing, who put up with second-rate psuedo-community under the guise of connection with each other, who live different lives from Monday to Saturday than they do on Sunday, whose sole expression of worship is pop-style praise and worship, who rarely laugh together, fight injustice together, eat together, pray together, raise each others’ children together, serve the poor together, or share Jesus with those who have not yet been set free. We do not like the church if it’s a fractured organization with hundreds of competing creeds, names, and doctrines, teaching a multitude of contradictory beliefs and insisting on compliance with a raft of recently invented traditions. But if it’s a family of Jesus followers striving, no matter how inadequately, to be Christlike, holistic, peace-loving, worshipful, devoted, graced, holy and healthy, then we will love it with every ounce of physical and emotional strength we have. (p. 172-73)
I give the content of the book three stars, but the cover and especially that effin’ amazing title Five Stars, which averages my review to Four Stars.
And there you have it.
Aug 31st, 2009
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