The first part of John 1: 14 says this, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."
I have recently been hearing a lot about this new term, incarnational ministry. And John describes its meaning better than anyone. Jesus (the Word) made his dwelling with us. The word dwell literally means...to live, to make ones home, to inhabit, reside, or make residence. Jesus dwelt among us. He came from his home to live with us. Not just for a visist, but to live as one of us. That is what I call incarnational. God became man and dwelt among us. And durring this time Jesus carried his ministry everywhere he went. The ministry of Jesus was founded as God coming to man. He inhabited a family, a job (carpenter), friends, the temple, and everything else people in his time dealt with. He inhabited our broken world, and yet was perfect.
So here's what I have been thinking about regarding incarnation ministry lately. Why does the ministry of the common church look so different? In more specific words, Why does the common church expect lost, hurting, sick, outcast, hungry, orlonely people to dwell in the church. Why does the church have expectations for people to come to it, instead of the church going to the people?
Now please don't read into these questions as me having a negative view of the church. There are many churches out there that don't fit into this category. I believe that the church is the bride of Christ. And I also believe that God is purifying His bride. This simply means that the church always has somehting to work on. And setting the ministry of the common church up to the life of Jesus will show us some faults and areas to improve on.
What would the church look like if it was founded upon the incarnational ministry of Jesus? I think buildings, crosses, bilboards, giant flags, and multi-million dollar landscaping projects would fade away. I think that people (which really are the church) would have something bigger to look forward to than just a Sunday morning service.
It is my hope that pastors would pastor their people. Youth pastors would get out from behind their desks and go to lunch at the high school or rant and rave at the Friday night football game. Offerings would overwhelmingly be spent on meeting the needs of people around the community, in the area, and in other parts of the world. The people who show up on Sunday morning would show up with the same intentions of living out holiness at work each day of the week. That the church would make its dwelling among the people. And get over the fear that they might be dissapointed, laughed at, or God forbid take a cut in the weekly offering.
I realize this idea is tough, raw, and aggressive, but I think that was reflected in Jesus. He wasn't an in the box, straight cut kind of guy. He was so revolutionary that we still talk about him today (2,009 years later). So I hope that we can each (as members of the church) consider how we are living lives based upon the incarnational ministry demonstrated by Jesus.
