The incarnational aspect of our Lord’s ministry went beyond the theological truth that Christ was literally God in flesh. Jesus came as God in flesh to be with people. He told his disciples that his mission was to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus did not camp in the temple in Jerusalem and build a ministry around a physical location. No Christ Jesus came to love the masses. Jesus went to the lost and served them. An incarnational ministry means that the church goes to people the way Jesus did! If Jesus came in our day, he would probably be just as misunderstood by the established Church today as he was by the Jewish leaders in his day.
The gospels tell us that Christ Jesus was a “friend of sinners,” (Matthew 11.19). He associated with tax collectors, prostitutes, the diseased, and the down and outers of society. The religious leaders despised him for it and called him a glutton and a winebibber, because he attended the parties of the sinners, (Luke 7.33-35). Socializing with these kinds of people ruined Christ’s testimony before the religious leaders of His day. The missional church is also often misunderstood and maligned as it attempts to reach out to people in the same manner of our Lord.
At the heart of being incarnational is simply loving people like Jesus loved people; loving people enough to go to them. The missional church understands that Christians are to follow the example of Jesus. Jesus came to physically be with us and to reach us with the Father’s love. The missional church is an assembly of Christ’s follower’s that understands that they must penetrate the culture with their presence. Jesus did not retreat from culture, but penetrated it. He was out among the people, going to their parties and reaching out to them in love. Christ socialized with people of whom the religious leaders of his day would have nothing to do with.
The missional church sees its mission as the same as the Lord’s. Christians should be spiritually distinct from the world, but we are not called to be socially segregated from it. God wants us to be a living Christ-like influence in this world. Jesus drew close to us and the missional church seeks to draw close to those who do not know Him. This is what it means to be incarnational; in the world but not of the world! The world is not something that the missional church seeks to be isolated from or to shun. The world is a place we engage and penetrate as missionaries spreading the love of Jesus.
I do not pray that you take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them in to the world. (John 17.15-18)
2 Comments
06/27/2009 at 8:18 pm
You have assessed correctly, and this is both what my greatest struggle as a pastor of an established, traditional church with the mindset of my people, and the biggest challenge I face personally in not just being a manager of the “temple” but also seeking to personally evangelize others myself. I am convicted by your post, challenged by the high standard of Jesus Christ’s ministry, and hopeful for a revival amongst American Christians and the universal Church worldwide.
01/05/2010 at 11:44 am
Dear Pastor Timothy,
I work with a prayer ministry who’s focus is on Christians leading ministries and planting Christian churches in Utah whose hearts are led to bring the deceived to Biblical Truth in love. In this regard, I work with a great number of sending organizations, one of which is Vision 360 in Michigan. One of my weekly reports from a Pastor in Utah mentioned a new “incarnational church” plant in Utah. I’d never heard this term before and a google search led me to your blog. Long way to tell you how I came here…
I have questions after reading your post on the incarnational church. Does your church still meet as a congregation in a church building? How do you go about your ministry to reach the lost? I’m asking because this method certainly is Biblically sound. My pastor stuggles just as the Pastor Kris who felt convicted by your post. We all want to reach our communities for Christ – all genuine Christians do, certainly. We ache for others to know the truth and find joy in relationship with Christ. We just don’t seem to know how to reach them anymore. The world has become so dark and negative that it’s tempting to hide our heads in the sand and go about our worship with a blind eye to the world. But that’s not what Jesus would have us do.
Our church in Littleton, CO is filled with a lot of older people who are very comfortable and set in their ways. We have few young people and young families, and every attempt to outgrow this stagnant situation has failed it seems.
Our (very small) youth group has gone to Utah to lead VBS to draw the decieved there into the fold. They have gone door to door locally with bags of goodies and invitations to our church. Our church now offers a free tutoring program called Whiz Kids every week for the local elementary (we’re located in a neighborhood that has many indigent and immigrant people.) We have a food bank that gives food to the poor every other Friday. We collect toys and gifts all year to give to the poor. Members of our church volunteer in the local elementary school carnival as an outreach every year. Yet all of these attempts to reach our community to bring souls to Christ have produced no growth in our church.
We have a wonderful pastor who teaches the Bible with great enthusiasm and has a passion to reach our communtiy. We stay because his teaching is sound and we love the fellowship. I had come to the conclusion (perhaps wrongly) that there are different kinds of churches to meet different kinds of needs. I personally don’t like big churches. Not all churches are for young people or families. There has to be a place for the older folks to feel comfortable too. At the same time, we don’t know who’s lives are being touched by these outreaches who eventually attend other Christian churches and commit their lives to follow Jesus.
My point is, I’m wondering what you all do differently, what it really means to be incarnational as a body of Christ (aren’t we all one body together in His name?) Do you go to into downtown St. Louis to talk with homeless people one on one? Preach from street corners? Proselytize in pubs and clubs? Exactly how do you reach the sinners where they are?
I hope you have time to enlighten me because I’m really intrigued by your blog here. Thanks so much and God bless you. Please email me with your reply at annee_mchughes at yahoo.com.
anne