the “sent” church: a missional people 8

June 10, 2008

Series recap: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

So if the church – God’s people, not a building – is primarily “on mission” during the week, what does that look like? Again, Alan Hirsch provides a helpful framework from his book, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church, emphasizing an “incarnational” lifestyle that echoes the very Incarnation of Jesus Christ. To act incarnationally means in part that in our mission to those outside of the faith – i.e. the Great Commission – one will need to exercise a genuine identification and affinity with those we are attempting to reach. Hirsch says:

At the very least, it will probably mean moving into common geography/space and so set up a real and abiding presence among the group…incarnational ministry essentially means taking the church to the people, rather than bringing people to the church. [italics mine] [1]

By living incarnationally, one creates room for mission to take place in organic ways. In this way, mission becomes something that fits effortlessly in the “98.2 %” of life; the regular “cadence” of friendships and community are thus, contextualized. The clear effect of these diverse expressions of incarnational mission is to sow the gospel into local areas or people groups and make it part of the essential makeup of that culture.

Further, sincere incarnational presence gives a acutely personal feel to mission as well as creating trustworthiness for declaration of the Gospel and response to it. By acting incarnationally, missionaries make certain that the people of any particular tribe embrace the gospel and live it out in ways that are meaningful to their tribe.

My conclusion tomorrow…
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1) Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2006), 133-135.

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