I'm interested in hearing your views of "incarnational", especially as they apply to your different settings. Here's a definition of incarnational I found on Matt Stone's blog - Journey's In Between;
"...incarnation is not about reinventing and compromising faith to fit into contemporary culture [or] selling out, but is getting down and dirty: making the move to be amongst and one of whilst yet retaining purity and modelling holiness in the midst." Ian Emery
3 comments:
It is interesting that this word (incarnation)and the discussion surrounding it comes up time and time again.
Again this week I read it here and in fact our group is having email discussions on the very topic.
The theme of discussion is about - "What exactly do I bring my unsaved friends to?" "Is our Wed night meeting 'seeker' friendly [my words] enough to have my neighbour come along to, is that the purpose of our gatherings?"
The idea is connected to our very ecclesiology, the very way we understand what 'Church' is. We use the rhetoric "Church is not a meeting or a building", yet in our next breath we wonder if my 'church' is appropriate to 'bring' people to!
I get this picture that the church is like the banks of a mighty river that need to break, that we the church need to get beyond the flood banks of our buildings and meetings and events and wash into the society around us. That when someone says 'who is in your church' it is so hard to answer as it depends on the effects of all the people in my church's flood water influence. It is no longer about counting them as they come in from outside, but rather a kind of standing on a hill watching your church flood out slowly seeping into the cracks of society around us, swelling the timbers of consumerism, doing mass water damage to injustice and destructive relationships. Drowning out war and bringing with it a message of salvation.
It is a destructive picture I know, but so is the message of the mustard seed, a bush that was a destructive weed to farmers and home owners.
It is also messy and hard to measure.
I imagine a time when we actually have a reverse measure. A time when we look at churches with many many people in seats and think, "gosh, they must be ineffective, they are all sitting around in church all week in meetings, rehersals and services (serve-us's!)
Any way, just some random thoughts :)
I love Eugene Peterson's rendering of John 1:14, "The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood."
Anyone who has experienced a flood knows that when the river breaks its banks the water seeps into every nook and cranny. What a great picture Vawz. We are waiting for people to come and swim in the river, rather than looking forward to the river breaking its banks and spreading out through the floodplains.
Post a Comment