Move Out, Move In, Move Alongside, Move From

Four basic moves of the moving missional church, from Right Here, Right Now, the latest book by Alan Hirsch this time with Lance Ford as co-author. It offers a template for looking at how fully you are living missionally with others.

Move out (into missional engagement): learning the art of the small---one person can make an impact, concentrate your efforts on smaller and smaller areas; try to find an area that will cause a tipping point; focus on small changes that will spread

Move in (burrowing down into the culture): find a subculture or tribe, ie affinity groups, and join and relate and serve with and learn from, connect with things you love to do, find or create and reside in one of the third places; learn the lingo; all mission is cross-cultural.

Move alongside (engaging in genuine friendships and relational networks): if you need to, seriously consider relocating to where neighborhoods are in need. You should live where you want to serve. You should bump into people in local ways. Three practices of incarnational engagement: proximity, frequency, spontaneity.

Move from (challenging the dehumanizing and sinful aspects of our culture): sometimes we must move from aspects of culture, such as consumerism, presenting different way than dominant culture in terms of sex, money, and power. Living in community is one of the main ways to subvert the dominant culture that wants to break down authentic community.

More to come.