Friday, June 5, 2009

INCARNATIONAL

In my class today, Mel Ming was saying:

Christ’s mission is redemptive. The mission involves living Christ’s life in front of others. Nearly all the missional literature will talk about being ‘incarnational.’ Here’s the problem. The Evangelical church has had the Gospel but no presence. Some of the Emerging church people have had the presence, but not Gospel. We need both.

If you have presence, but no gospel – nobody knows why you’re there or what you’re doing – you’re just human and caring. But Matthew 5 says we give light among darkness, not among other light.

The mission also has a MESSAGE ... the Gospel. Acts 20:24 in one translation says: “But I don't place any value on my own life. I want to finish the race I'm running. I want to carry out the mission I received from the Lord Jesus — the mission of testifying to the Good News of God's kindness.”

2 Corinthians 5:17-19 says: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

I need a message AND a way to communicate the message. We need both Gospel AND presence.

And be blessed.

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