The last reflection I wanted share on my time with Alan is twofold: First I wanted to share how much I appreciated Alan's personal presence. Evangelicals too easily evaluate an individual's ability by their skill to communicate only. But Alan's impact was ten times more powerful through his personal presence. What I appreciate about Alan is his laid-back demeanor couple with the thoughtfulness of a nutty professor and the heartbeat of a kingdom visionary. His visionary impulse came through in two ways: first he reminded us that world history hinges around small gatherings of believers that dare to dream big. Second, he repeated often the following assertion: "Every believer contains the potential for world transformation." Most vibrant thinkers who have lived more than 48 year might find this statement overly optimistic. Do you?
Secondly, I want to urge you to read "Forgotten Ways" and wet your appetite with the premise that great apostolic movements have six irreducible elements. Here they are:
-- The center and circumference is driven by a simple confession: "Jesus is Lord"
-- Disciple making is the irreplaceable core task
-- The movement seeds and embeds the gospel with a "Missional-incarnational Impluse"
-- Apostolic Environments constantly push initiation and innvation
-- Organic systems must be embraced over broken structures
-- The movement experiences Communitas, not Community...you will have to read about this yourself!