About the Author

Alan Hirsch is the founding director of Forge Mission Training Network, 100Movements, The 5Q Collective, and Future Travelers. All these are focussed on developing missional leadership and movemental organization. Known for his innovative approach to mission, Alan is considered to be a thought-leader and key mission strategist for churches across the Western world. Hirsch is the author of The Forgotten Ways; 5Q; The Shaping of Things to Come, ReJesus, and The Faith of Leap (with Michael Frost) ; Untamed (with Debra Hirsch) ; Right Here, Right Now (with Lance Ford) , and On the Verge (with Dave Ferguson) . Alan is co-founder and adjunct faculty for the M.A. in Missional Church Movements at Wheaton College (Illinois) . He is also adjunct professor at Fuller Seminary, George Fox Seminary, among others, and he lectures frequently throughout Australia, Europe, and the United States. He is series editor for Baker Books' Shapevine series , IVP's Forge line, and an associate editor of Leadership Journal. His experience in leadership includes leading a local church movement among the marginalized as well as heading up the Mission and Revitalization work of his denomination. He has been on leadership team with Christian Associates, a mission agency planting churches throughout Europe. Alan is adjunct professor at Fuller Seminary and lectures frequently throughout Australia, Europe, and the U.S. A NOTE ABOUT MY BOOKS: FROM ALAN HIRSCHMany people ask me whether there is some reason and logic of my various writings or whether they are random reflections on various subjects related to the missional church. Given that with the publication of The Permanent Revolution in February, I have completed my "library" of missional books, I thought that it is well worth explaining the rationale for my authorship to this stage. So for those who are interested, this is how it goes.... -The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church is really a foundational book and is considered seminal in setting the incarnational-mission conversation in the West. It really is scaffolding with which we can go about reconstructing our way of being along missional lines. It covers areas of incarnational mission, messianic spirituality, and innovative leadership, but redesigns these clearly along missional lines. I believe that the ideas therein are as valid as ever, and Baker is drafting a second, fully updated, edition as I write, so look for it. However, it is worth saying that it was written to help church planters to think like missionaries in the West as the assumptions behind the more formulaic church growth type approaches were no longer valid in our context. This has proved more and more true as we have advanced into the 21st Century. I have to admit that we (Mike and I) never expected the established church would take it seriously. The intended pioneering audience, along with the keen sense of urgency with which we wro

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