Living Incarnationally

I have been thinking really deeply lately about how we as a movement,church and me individually can connect deeper and more powerfully with the community in which we live. This is the age old question I suppose for the church "how can we link with the community, be in the world but not of the world". The answer that keeps coming back to me is we need to be Incarnational. I look at the successful things happening at Reservoir, Melbourne 614 and Urban Heart and they are all based on models of living incarnationally.

I read the following from an article by C.Michael Johnson " Everything has a unique design and purpose;individuals do, families do, organisations do, even whole communities carry the seeds of a divine destiny. Think of it this way; In God's design, people and things could be viewed as a vacancy for a purpose, a specific place that is designed for and waiting to be filled with God's purpose. God wants to incarnate himself and his perfect will through us into those vacancies, that like the stable in Bethlehem, await their fulfilling purpose."

For a mission to become incarnational the focus has to be on its redeeming purpose. So the question is what purpose are we trying to fulfill? It could be the God dreams of individuals, the destiny of a family or group, or God's purposes for a neighbourhood or culture. Just being active in ministry and mission is not sufficient. It's like just being out for a drive, which though it may be fun and kills time, is not good enough and may even be counter productive, when there's a destiny to be reached. And boy, do we have destinies !

It's also important to understand that community service alone is not incarnational. We cannot serve God without serving His specific purposes in people and communities, incarnational ministry pushes all the way through to empower purpose.

We give our heart to Jesus, but then we fail to live out of it. We should heed the advice of the old warrior in Braveheart, who told young Wallace, "Your heart is now free, have the courage to follow it." We don't have desire , we are desire ! Which ever way we choose to look at it the search for meaning,purpose,significance,and direction is an ever present driving force. It is also the strongest thing we have in common with our community, to know who we are,why we are here,and where we are going; and to know how to live out of our heart- that place where our dreams can become one with the dreams of God.

I could go on and on, but in reality I am searching for how best I can live Incarnationally in my community, and where I can have the greatest impact for God. I will continue to search for answers and hope that God will show me where and how this can best be done.