Hirsch notes: Christology first

Alan Hirschs gave a talk he called, "Jesus Made me Do It", at the CMA conference in January. He talked about putting your Christology first, then Mission, and then Ecclessiology. I'll start here with what I heard Alan say and then add my own thoughts.

Our Christology informs the mission, which then informs the ecclessiology. Jesus is Lord and Savior, Jesus invites us to commission with his mission, and his community is formed around him and his mission. If ecclessiology comes first, our buildings and rituals shape us instead of Christ and missions becomes something that a few fanatics are into doing overseas and the rest of us write checks to send them. Christ ends up knocking on the door of the church to get in.

If mission comes first and informs our Christology and Ecclessiology, then we end up with a humanistic, social agency church with an unknowable far off Christ.

So we can change our ecclessiology and do church differently, even in really good, fun, interesting, unique, and engaging ways and find ourselves without mission because we don't see Christ and his mission that we are commissioned into.

Jesus said he would build his church. What that says to me is that he is the center. If he is building is it's about him. What is he about? His mission. Jesus mission was not to build the church but to proclaim the kingdom of God, which he commissioned his followers to do and said to keep training the new believers in him to do this until he comes again. So the church is the Christ followers (Jesus is their savior and Lord), who are on Jesus mission.

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