My blog reader today had an entry from Bob Roberts, Jr. Roberts wrote the book Transformation: How Glocal Churches Transform Lives and the World, which I thought was a good book. Anyway, his entry today was a result of a discussion that he and Alan Hirsch had over the weekend on why faith spreads. Thought I’d share it:
Alan Hirsch and I have been hanging out this weekend and have talked, debated, evaluated and had a blast the past 3 days. Last night, we were talking about movements. Why did movements in the early church grow like they did? Why has China, and now parts of India, exploded like it has? This isn’t meant to be comprehensive at all, but, as we talked, three things really stand out in my mind.
First, everywhere these movements spread, they were generally more communally based societies. When the head of the household came to faith, so did everyone else. Ho Chi Minh was right when he told Stalin Communism would work better in Asia than Europe because of the communal element and the power of ideas.
Second, Christianity was new. This meant that it didn’t have centuries of history, Ecclesiology, denominations, and personalities to pollute it like we have had. Thus, the DNA of the church was stronger and more viral allowing it to take hold and spread. In short, it was powerful when applied.
Maybe a third, and this one would really needs to be researched, it’s more sociological in nature. Since the beginning of time, man has felt this sense of wanting to be and do significant things. How could he do that in the first few millennia? He could only be in government. When Christianity spills out of the Jewish confines into a broader Gentile context, it gives humanity a chance to love, serve, give, and count all the things that really matter. No other religion or government prior to that point allowed that. Could this be why, as Rodney Stark writes in The Rise of Christianity , faith spread from a few thousand to millions by its second century? The first example of a classless society was Acts–that’s pretty radical, more than today, given the time, context, and everything else.
Maybe a fourth–one other thing that has really struck me. I’ve always said we start with planting the seed of the Gospel in society and then the church emerges. Alan’s formula is: Christology + Missiology = Ecclesiology. That’s what I’ve said–Alan just said it better and more complete. I have been stunned, visiting with some Ph.D. missiologists in our church, that many people, missiologist, and theologians start with Ecclesiology first!!! No wonder there are no movements in the West!
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