Peace Catalyst International: Chandler, AZ

My friend Pastor Jay Pathak was talking to the mayor of Arvada and wanted to know his vision for the city. After sharing a number of things, the mayor confessed, “I guess I want people to be good neighbors.” Jay assured the mayor that he could help with that one! Since then, Jay has mobilized and worked with more than fifty other churches in Colorado to encourage people to “rediscover the art of neighboring.” They are now taking the love commandment seriously by pursuing relationships with their neighbors.

Jay’s church, the Mile High Vineyard, is one of many churches following Jesus into the marketplace and into the neighborhoods of their city. They illustrate one of the most profound and important things God is doing in the world today: calling his church to be incarnational (also described as “missional”). So what is an incarnational church?

The easiest way to understand what I mean by "incarnational church" is to compare two approaches: the incarnational approach and the attractional approach. In the attractional method, the goal is to attract attendees. Churches want to get people to attend service on Sunday. By contrast, the incarnational church focuses on incarnating the gospel at work and with neighbors from Monday through Saturday. The attractional church’s primary emphasis is “come,” whereas the incarnational church’s primary emphasis is “go!” The attractional church focuses on buildings and professional clergy, while the incarnational church focuses on laity serving in the marketplace.

A wise reader will discern two things about what I just wrote. First, in order to make my point, I exaggerated. I made my comparison of the two approaches too black and white. Second, both approaches are good, and we need both. The reality is that every church is both attractional and incarnational at some level. But I see an imbalance in the church. We are really good at the attractional approach, but not so good at the incarnational. In this blog I want to address the importance of being incarnational.

You don’t have to be a genius to realize that the incarnational church models itself after the incarnation: God became flesh and dwelt among us in Jesus to reveal Himself to humanity (John 1:1-18). In the same way, the incarnational church seeks to embody Christ and dwell among a broken world. As it says in Eugene Peterson’s famous Bible translation, the Message, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood” (John 1:14).

The incarnation is one of the most profound mysteries of the Christian faith and the most spectacular instance of contextualization in history. God, the great bridge-builder, enters our context to make himself known to us. But the Incarnation is more than that. It is not just descriptive of what God has done, it is prescriptive of what we must do.

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8 NLT).

We are commanded to imitate the humility and sacrificial nature of Jesus in the incarnation. Not only does Paul say this, but Jesus himself commissions us in the same way: “As the Father has sent me, I also send you” (John 20:21). This is the broadest mandate of all the great commission passages in the New Testament. At least one important aspect of it includes being incarnational in our approach to society.

To be incarnational is to follow the one who is a friend of “sinners.” Jesus hangs out with the wrong crowd. He embraces the marginalized, the moral misfits, and the non-religious. Jesus gets a bad rap because he likes to party with people: “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners'" (Luke 7:34).

Jesus embodies the welcoming grace of God. He engaged all types of people but never compromised his integrity. His love knew no boundaries, though his ethics did. Jesus went about doing good to all people, something that we are commanded to do: “Always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people” (1 Thessalonians 5:15).

So what does an incarnational church look like in practice?

The incarnational church works hard to transform its city. It focuses on people and programs outside the church walls. It affirms the importance of the church gathered (the Sunday service) but puts a greater emphasis on the church scattered. It helps its people embody the gospel in their daily lives from Monday through Saturday, to follow Jesus at their jobs, institutions, and neighborhoods of the world. So it focuses less on church-initiated programs and more on training people in their daily lives. And when they do develop programs they prioritize programs that transform their city, not just ones that serve their church (for an excellent book on this see, To Transform A City by Eric Swanson and Sam Williams).

Incarnational churches take seriously God’s command to Jeremiah:

Seek the welfare (shalom) of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare (shalom) you will have welfare (shalom) - Jeremiah 29:7

The incarnational church believes the whole church is sent into the world (not just a few missionaries), so it builds its ministry primarily around laity and not professional preachers. Thus, one of the most practical signs of a truly incarnational church is the number of teachers, mothers, businessmen and such who see themselves as sent and who actively engage with people in their daily lives. Members of incarnational churches understand that they represent Jesus’s real presence in the world.

A good example of this is found in the book of Acts. The first church in the Gentile world was established by "no-name" followers of Christ who lived their lives, did their work, and shared their faith (Acts 11:19-22). They were not missionaries or apostles. Just faithful disciples, following Jesus into the marketplace and living out their faith in their neighborhood.

Incarnational churches communicate differently too. Because their primary focus is engaging society and seeking the common good, they try not to speak Christian jargon (“Christian-ese”) like most churches. Because they have a great respect for all people, their private conversations don’t sound different than their public conversations. Because they recognize their own sinfulness and need of Christ, they speak with humility. They don’t use adversarial “us vs. them” language.

The Columbus Vineyard, led by Rich Nathan, is another example of an incarnational church. If you drive on to the Columbus Vineyard campus you will see a huge community center that offers free health services, education, and sports and exercise programs. As you get into the parking lot, you'll drive by a large sign with Jeremiah 29:7 inscribed on it: “Seek the peace of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its peace you will have peace.” When you walk into the community center, you'll find three languages on the wall giving directions: English, Spanish and Somali. The Columbus Vineyard is seeking to transform the City of Columbus “one life at a time.”

You may ask, “Rick, why do you write about incarnational churches like this? You’re a peacemaker, not a pastor. What’s the big deal?” The big deal is this: the more truly incarnational a church is, the more they will want to engage in peacemaking. An incarnational church, by its very nature, seeks the peace of the city (Jeremiah 29:7).

by: Rick Love | Categories: Theology & Church Issues