The Shaping of Things to Come--Critical Review

Since the following review was submitted for a grade, it is intentionally critical (in the academic, not negative sense) of Frost and Hirsch's influential work. Their book is the book to read when beginning to understand the missional church movement in Australia. Overall, the book is well-written and has valuable insights. Do not be distracted by the weaknesses revealed in this review. They only show areas of improvement, for which every book, except the Bible, has room. Please take note of the positive aspects mentioned, and note that I recommend this book to be read.

The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church, by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. Peabody: Hendrickson; Erina: Strand, 2003. 236 pages. Reviewed by Wesley L. Handy.

In The Shaping of Things to Come, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch argue that discipleship should be “based” around Christology, and ecclesiology should be “reframed…entirely on missional grounds" (xi). Michael Frost, the founding director of the Centre for Evangelism and Global Mission at Morling Theological College in Sydney, has written several books including the recently released Exiles: Living Missionally in Post-Christian Culture (2006). He was also co-director in the establishment of the Forge Mission Training Network, which Alan Hirsch is currently the National Director. Furthermore, Frost has planted a missional church on Sydney’s northern beaches called Small Boat Big Sea.[1] Alan Hirsch, coming from a Jewish background, is active in training missional leaders through Forge and puts his missional ideas into practice with The Red Network (formerly South Melbourne Restoration Community).[2] Hirsch also has recently published a book entitled The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church (2007). Frost and Hirsch are active in developing the methodology their first prescribe in The Shaping of Things to Come. Though their book claims to not be a “how-to” book, they do not approach the subject from an academic “ivory tower,” they are actively putting into practice what they propose.

Their basic proposal is that missiology, best represented by the incarnation, drives ecclesiology. Fundamental to their method is the contemporary cultural morass called postmodernism. They argue that the Christendom-mode church fails postmodern cultures; in fact, it formed a grand “comma” in history between the early apostolic church, prior to Constantine, and the late missional church arising from the ashes of modernism. They identify three principles of the church that guide the structure of the book: it is incarnational, it is messianic, and it is apostolic. Furthermore their presuppositions are that the western, Christendom model of church is both “dated and untenable" (15), and the church has an essentially “indissoluble relationship to the surrounding cultural context" (16) which is moving away from modernity towards postmodernism. They claim that “whereas Christendom has unraveled because of its seduction by Western culture, the emerging missional church must see itself as being able to interact meaningfully with culture without every being beguiled by it" (16).

The book is divided into four sections that discuss the current state of Christianity and the three characteristics of the missional church. The first section of the book compares the Christendom-mode and missional-mode church. Frost and Hirsch give four characteristics of a missional church. First, a missional church creates “proximity spaces” whereby Christians and “not-yet” Christians can interact.[3] Second, the church participates in “shared projects” with members of its surrounding community. Third, the church is involved in commercial enterprise and so “bringing some intrinsic value to a community.” And finally, the church maintains an “emerging indigenous faith community" (23–8). While the Christendom church has been attractional, the missional church is incarnational. It is reaching out to its immediate context in culturally meaningful and holistic ways. Where Christendom has been dualistic, the missional church rejects Greek philosophical dualisms in favor of messianic Jewish spirituality. The church does not separate sacred and secular but views life holistically. Finally, whereas Christendom has been hierarchical, the missional church focuses on the egalitarian, apostolic five-fold ministry.

One positive aspect of the authors’ description of the missional church is that Christianity is pictured as pertaining to all of life, even the mundane. Furthermore, they take seriously the necessity of interaction between the church and the world for evangelistic and meaningful impact to take place. This flows well with the example of the early church as sharing the gospel daily in the marketplace. Frost and Hirsch believe that something about the nature of the church is evangelistic. They find that the changed life is one the key apologetic for Christianity. Holiness is not being physically separate from the world, but being compassionate, kind, and loving (54–5). And though they will limit the vocal proclamation of the gospel intimately with the role of the evangelist, they find a key role for the verbal telling of the gospel.

Section two defines the incarnational aspect of the missional church. The incarnation of the Jesus Christ models the contextualized church. Like Jesus, the church identifies with “all the conditions, even the limitations, the struggles, and the doubts of humanity" (36). The church is local; in the same way Nazareth supposedly played a role in the development of Jesus, so does the local context play a role in the way the church “engages” the world. Finally, the humanity of the church points to “Jesus [as] the reference point for all genuine knowing, all true loving, and all authentic following of God.” These four truths lead to two conclusions about incarnational ministry: first, the church “must always enter fully into the context in which it happens to find itself" (37); and, second, the church will need to “identify with them in all ways possible without compromising the truth of the gospel itself" (37). Thus, the missional church sees its context as an unreached people group and reaches them through church multiplication. In order to facilitate this growth, the missional church does not create sacred places to keep out their targeted group, but creates “green” spaces, or “Third Place Communities”, where Christians and “not-yet-Christians” can interact (75).

Frost and Hirsch intentionally incorporate missions’ principles in their ecclesiology in order to prove that ecclesiology flows from missiology. However, this is a classic “chicken or the egg” dilemma. Biblically, does mission precede church? The authors neglect this discussion at large. Though they point to the incarnation as evidence that God’s mission preceded the church. The case could be made stronger with other Biblical evidence. Furthermore, they claim that the church must become marginal. This reflects David J. Bosch's understanding of Jesus ministry (see Transforming Mission, 33). Though Jesus was concerned with the poor, as was Paul, the marginalization of the church was not a part of its essence. It may have been marginalized as a result of its ministries, as well as other cultural reasons (see Robert Louis Wilken’s The Christians as the Romans Saw Them), but nowhere does the New Testament, nor church history, imply that the church remain on the edges of society out of obedience.

In chapter five, Frost and Hirsch define exactly what constitutes a gathered ekklesia. From Acts 2, they identify three broad commitments: communion through God’s word and through worship, community through learning from the apostles teaching and through fellowship, and commission through serving/giving and through Gospel sharing (78–9). Then they offer four spheres of authority in the church: Christ’s nonnegotiable commands; biblical principles adaptable by dynamic equivalence; contextualized apostolic patterns; and freely adaptable church practices (80). This “dynamic process whereby the constant message of the gospel interacts with specific, relative human situations" (83) is called critical contextualization.
What are the authors’ hermeneutical principles? Though they are dedicated to scripture, they accept dynamic equivalence process uncritically. A discussion of the relationship between form and meaning is primary. They quote Paul Hiebert’s model for critical contextualization, but do not consider his arguments for culturally transcendent forms in Christianity.[4] Yet, they embrace Charles Kraft’s dynamic equivalence model, disagreeing with Hiebert.[5] Hiebert proposes three types of contextualization: noncontextualization, critical contextualization, and uncritical contextualization.[6] Frost and Hirsch created a model critical of church forms, but their critique of postmodern culture is wanting. They call for the church to “enter fully” into the context while not compromising the gospel, but the do not give any criteria for critically evaluating the culture. Thus, they castigate Christendom for selling out to western civilization, while they themselves are in danger of selling out to postmodernism. Critical contextualization is not just critique of the forms of the church, but also of the culture.

Beginning in section three, the authors define the messianic aspect of the missional church. When it comes to “messianic,” Frost and Hirsch confuse the mindset of 1st century Palestine with later Medieval, or even later 19th century, Judaism. The find the dualistic Greek mindset prevalent through Western civilization has trumped the holistic Jewish mindset. Though they argue for the biblical directive toward right living (121), they end with a dualism between right living and right thinking that reflects the anti-rationalism of postmodernism more that messianic Judaism. They claim that by “reading the gospel through the Epistles, a disturbing distortion develops; [e]ffectively, the Gospels are not taken seriously as prescriptive texts for life, mission and discipleship" (113). Their solution is through “reapproach[ing] the Scriptures with a renewed post-Jesus Jewish mysticism perspective" (115).

What does modern Judaism have to do with Jesus? Though all truth is God’s truth, all truth must be checked against the word of God. The Judaism of Jesus’ day does not match post-Jesus Jewish mysticism. How can later Judaism critique the Greek mindset of early Christianity? This viewpoint also naively forgets that the New Testament was written in Greek. For authors who argue that the “medium is the message,” these facts appear to be contradictory.
Their chapter on “medium is the message” is the key to understanding their critique of the Christendom-mode church. The outward forms of the church communicate a message. Cathedrals may communicate beauty, transcendence, or feudalism, just as once-a-week, audience style preaching may communicate dedication, uniformity, or irrelevancy. Frost and Hirsch desperately want to communicate the holistic relevancy of Christianity and they encourage outward forms that are commensurate with that message. Though the danger is that the church begins to cater to the “itching ears” of the community, the question should not be ignored. One cannot deny that form influences meaning. If they are totally correct in this chapter, then Frost and Hirsch have supported their thesis.

The final section of the book reveals the authors’ understanding of the apostolic aspect of the missional church.[7] Their understanding of apostolic leadership revolves around the five-fold ministry proposed in Ephesians 4:11: apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors and teachers. Frost and Hirsch argue that the western church has been enamored with the pastor and teacher, but has ignored apostles, prophets, and evangelists. They argue that all five ministries are found equally and without distinction of hierarchy in the local church. They do not exalt the apostle above the other ministries; rather they see this leadership model as key to the missional growth of the church (175). They argue that since this model is intrinsic to the “DNA” of the church, it is “reproducible” and “self-sustaining” (175–6). However, Frost and Hirsch have ignored the original languages in interpreting this text. Pastors and teachers are one ministry. Also, they have interpreted this passage to refer to local churches rather than the church universal. Furthermore, they incorporated corporate-world principles that some Christians are too uncomfortable to accept to define the nature of church leadership. They are trying to show that the biblical model is confirmed by secular studies, but their argument that the ministries are balanced in the local church contradicts the results of the studies. Nonetheless, biblical arguments for the cessation of offices are wanting. However, the authors’ critique that the western church has avoided these ministries because they challenge existing power structures is left unwarranted (172, n. 10). More evidence could be provided.

The authors began by claiming that they set-out to show why the missional church is the “way forward in the important work of rediscovering a New Testament mandate for the church in the twenty-first century" (xi). The reader is left unconvinced that the missional church, as defined in this book, is the only way forward. If one was already questioning the authority of the church, or already immersed in postmodernism, perhaps one would resound a hearty “amen” after reading the book. However, though the authors deliberately incorporated missiological principles in determining their ecclesiology, they did so uncritically. They also uncritically accepted postmodern culture. Their Christology, though claiming to be biblical, tied Jesus to later Jewish mysticism, and gave too much credit to Nazareth in the life of Jesus. Perhaps there is an underlying overestimation of culture and its effects on individuals, particularly God. See Kostenberger's critique of similar incarnationalism in The Missions of Jesus and the Disciples According to the Fourth Gospel: With Implications for the Fourth Gospel's Purpose and the Mission of the Contemporary Church; and compare this to David Hesselgrave's chapter on "Incarnationalism and Representationalism" in Paradigms in Conflict.

Nonetheless, their approach was not devoid of scripture. They constantly reaffirmed their reader that they believed in commonly held theological truths. They were trying to emphasize aspects of Christianity that modernism or Christendom had ignored. By constantly questioning existing models, the authors recognize that the success of the marginalized missional movement hinges on the participation and cooperation of established churches. If the establishment is unwilling to continue questioning, then the project will fail. Though The Shaping of Things to Come is a must read for anyone desiring to how missiological principles can influence ecclesiology, it fails to prove that the missional church is the only way to proceed in the future. Nonetheless, Frost and Hirsch have established that it may be one way to reach a post-Christian society, given a more thorough exegesis of culture.

[1]See http://www.smallboatbigsea.org/; http://www.smallboatbigsea.blogspot.com/.

[2]See http://www.red.org.au/index.html.

[3]This “not-yet” Christian terminology is not distinctive to Frost and Hirsch. Rather, it is a fundamental understanding for missionaries in reaching their people group through rapid church planting. Cf. David Garrison, Church Planting Movements (Richmond: IMB, 1999), 43.

[4]Paul G. Hiebert, “Form and Meaning in the Contextualization of the Gospel,” in The Word Among Us, ed., Dean S. Gilliland (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 1989), 101–20.

[5] Charles H. Kraft, Anthropology for the Christian Witness (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1996), 132–7. See also Kraft, Christianity in Culture (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1979).

[6]Paul G. Hiebert and Eloise Hiebert Meneses, Incarnational Ministry (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995), 167–9.

[7]See Wolfgang Simson, Houses that Change the World: The Return of the House Churches (Emmelsbull, Germany, C & P Publishing, 1999), 102–29, for another contemporary advocate of the five-fold ministry.