Five Ideas from the School of Alan Hirsch

Leaders are readers. In light of that, I want to share a few insights from a book I’ve found very timely for the work we do with churches in transition.

The book is called, Metanoia: How God Radically Transforms People, Churches, and Organizations from the Inside Out and is written by Alan Hirsch with Rob Kelly. 

This is not a complete summary of the book but rather a few of my initial take aways as I make my way through it. The reason I’m reading the book is because I had the privilege of hearing Alan Hirsch speak about this idea at a workshop I attended while at Exponential (a global church multiplication conference in Orlando, Florida in March). 

My hope is that these ideas will whet your appetite to possibly pick up the book or at the very least, consider the implications of the ideas I’m wrestling with myself. 

Five Ideas from the School of Alan Hirsch*

 1. We must properly define metanoia  

 The Greek term metanoia—traditionally and inadequately translated as “repentance”—means something more like “a radical change of mind,” or “a fundamental intellectual re-orientation,” through which we turn away from older habits of thought and action and embrace a new way of thinking and living. Repentance means not primarily a sense of regret, but a renunciation of narrow and sectarian human views which are not large enough for God’s mystery. It is about a transformed metaphysical vision of reality (p. 20). — Alan Hirsch  

The word meta simply means “beyond, above, or overarching.” And the word noia (a derivative of the noun nous) refers to a way of thinking. Metanoia therefore involves a paradigm shift, the recognition and rejection of various false frameworks for understanding the world itself and waking up to a whole new world in which Christ is Lord and King (pp. 6-7). — Alan Hirsch 

To do metanoia is to bring about a whole paradigm shift. 

2.  Unlearning is essential if genuine shifts are to happen 

Alan Hirsch and his organization have done significant work with congregations seeking to change and become more missional. He told us in his workshop that his team didn’t fully appreciate the importance of unlearning in their early work with churches seeking to change. He has since come to realize the importance of “unlearning the flaws in the system” before proceeding with deeper change.  

We didn’t understand the importance of unlearning as a precondition for new learning, nor did we comprehend the process of conscious remapping in bringing about genuinely paradigmatic change. In other words, we failed largely because we did not understand the importance of collective metanoia in instigating change in both human lives and Organizations (p. 2). — Alan Hirsch

3. It’s unwise to act with yesterday’s logic

The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence itself; it is to act with yesterday’s logic. —  Peter Drucker

This problem with trying to negotiate today’s challenges with yesterday’s logic is all too real. For instance, in my [Alan] work in helping people grapple with the nature of church-as-movement, I have found that the problem of change does not really lie in people misunderstanding the “new” ideas of missional movement. (Such ideas are actually ancient but have been forgotten.) Rather, the problem is in helping people escape the old ideas so deeply entrenched in the collective rationality and rooted in habits and practices. We seem to prefer to cling to the old wineskins even though we know they are inadequate to contain the new wine (Luke 5:39) (pp. 11-12). — Alan Hirsch

4. Now is the time for leaders to return and reorient themselves

We tend to retreat from metanoia, imagining it to be a miserable process of highlighting our failures and shameful acts, but the process of metanoia allows us to see with fresh eyes the beauty awaiting us if we turn toward God’s reality. And when many leaders within Christ’s church are experiencing epidemic levels of anxiety, discouragement, and frustration, perhaps there could be no better time for leaders and their organizations to re/turn, re/orient, and re/tune to experience the full and abundant life that Jesus established in his incarnation (p. 26). — Alan Hirsch

A change of worldview can change the world viewed. — Joseph Chilton Pearce

5. If paradigm change doesn’t occur, shifts are impossible 

Epictetus, the Greek philosopher, once noted that it is impossible for a person to learn what they think they already know. This is the closed-minded, non-metanoic mind that refuses new insights and relies on inherited understandings. Sadly, this form of closed-mindedness means that better ways of doing things will forever remain unexplored. I (Alan) have long held that if paradigm change does not occur, it is impossible for a fundamental shift to take place in either the individual or organization. What we need are re/newed mental maps as well as a re/newed sense of orientation and direction (p. 28). — Alan Hirsch 

 Final Thoughts

These ideas are just the beginning of a deep well of understanding that also includes practical guidance for how to make the paradigm shifts we need to make in order to be the church God wants us to be. As I continue to read this book, I will be looking for ways to digest the ideas and use them in the work we do with churches in need of metanoia. 

Let me know what idea stands out to you.

Your learning partner,

Cam Taylor 

* All Alan Hirsch quotes are from Metanoia: How God Radically Transforms People, Churches, and Organizations from the Inside Out