Old Crap

Just parousing thourgh some stuff...if you would look at Here I Go Again you can see some frustations. I wrote this to spark some conversation with the elders but I never sent it out. This is just part of it...the rest of it sucks worse than this. Whatever I just thought I would share it with you.


INCARNATIONAL vs. ATTRACTIONAL

The church in it’s infancy only could look to Christ as the example they should follow as a church. God chose to enter into the human condition to usher in the Kingdom of God consequently bringing salvation to all peoples. It is one of the most perplexing and paradoxical events that has ever occurred in history: the God man. Jesus was fully human he was fully contextualized. God could have chosen another way to bring salvation but he didn’t. So we have to reexamine our Christology and let that transform our ecclesiology.

“The missional church is incarnational, not attractional, in its ecclesiology. By incarnation we mean it does not create sanctified spaces into which unbelievers must come to encounter the gospel. Rather, the missional church disassembles itself and seeps into the cracks and crevices of society in order to be Christ to those who don’t yet know him.” Frost pg. 12

Using this as a working definition and with the understanding of the theological implications of The Incarnation: Does the Incarnation shape the way we do church? If we are to look at the 1st c.c. it was purely incarnational in it’s approach to life. Their mission was to further the Kingdom not build or grow the church. They did this by going to the people and planting seeds. They chose to live with the people and the people took notice Act 2:47. Jesus told us to go and make disciples. It was about being with the people, loving, encouraging, being the incarnate Christ to the lost, the sick, the suffering. It is in this Incarnational approach that Kingdom is furthered and God adds (grows) to his church. The incarnational approach to ecclesiology is needed to reach those that have either been raised in a postmodern mindset or those that have developed one. (really to reach people period) This paradigm shift transcends generations; there are people in the 50’s to teens that have a hunger for Kingdom work. They desire to see the Kingdom in action. The incarnational approach is a mindset that must be developed in our ecclesiology.

When we look at our current model it does not reflect the Incarnation. If we look at our Sunday morning as “outreach” then we are blind to the meaning of the incarnation. It has been said that our sign is our biggest tool. What a shame. We try and attract people to the church instead of going to the people. We have a person whose job is strictly to make Sunday morning the best it can be, so it can be attractive to those outside the walls. I realize that it is critical that we do our best for God’s glory. But Sunday morning becomes the focus of “church.” We have separated ourselves from society and are calling people out of their sub-cultures into the church instead of calling people to the feet of the King and to take up citizenship in the Kingdom. There is a huge amount of people in Rockford that we are missing. We are good at “attracting” people from other churches or that have some church background in their history. If we want to reach the people who have no church background or who been burned by the church we have to send people, plant seeds, have a Kingdom focus.


This is obviously very brief. It is meant to spark conversation amongst brothers and to help each other re-think our ecclesiology. I am excited to enter into some conversations, please feel free to call me or email. I like to eat, so lunch or breakfast is always a great option.

Grace and peace

Tim