Hirsch #3: “Third Places”

On our last day in New Orleans we joined Alan Hirsch and the staff of Journey Christian Church for breakfast at a small french restaurant. The course of our conversation was focused upon the idea of missional engagement and church structure. He encouraged both Journey and the rest of us to focus first upon mission and let that guide the development of structure and organization. Rather than letting our organizations determine the mission and focus of the church Hirsch emphasizes that the mission should determine the structure, course and look of the church.

Traditional churches rely heavily upon their buildings. Churches without buildings, like Wheatland, often want to be in buildings and sometimes feel a sense of inadequacy or illegitimacy until they have a place to call their own. Unfortunately, churches end up abandoning what some have described as third places because they own and operate their own facilities. A building is not an end unto itself and every church which owns a building would agree. However, indirectly and unintentionally the building (tail) wags the church (dog). The resources required for building ownership, in both human and financial capital, demand attention and focus that can, and often does, inhibit missional engagement.

Hirsch #2 – Consumerism, Discipleship and Anxiety

During our time with Alan Hirsch he spent a significant amount of time talking about the dangers of consumerism and the evil of Santa. In fact, he tore into a Santa Claus like a pitbull. I like Santa but have to admit that Hirsch’s caricature of the plump old guy giving presents to children like a drug dealer doling out crack rang uncomfortably true. I’m not ready to get rid of him but I have been forced by this Hirsch inspired discomfort to confront what I think is a real trap for me. Thoughtless consumption and consumerism and they way in which they inhibit our staying close to Jesus.

Hirsch restated this fact from The Forgotten Ways: ” … one cannot consume their way to discipleship.”

This weekend our community discussed this very subject by focusing on Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:24-27:

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^[b]?

I am struck by the way Jesus connects the drive to have and to consume with anxiety. There is evidently an undercurrent of anxiety among the people in Jesus’ audience. From Jesus’ perspective the people are suffering from a continual and unrelenting concern for possessions. These are both possessions that would protect them from the elements as well as from the dangers of society. In addition, as Jesus discusses clothes, one may detect a hint of Jesus commenting on their concern for status. All of it is driven by a deep anxiousness. It is an anxiety that has only changed by degrees from the 1st Century to the 21st.

The fact that much of the stuff Jesus’ listeners are driven to possess are for the good, like food and clothing, only serves to help them give in to what has become an idol. It is an idol because it demands, and receives, the first allegiance of Jesus hearers (this is no less true for his hearers today).