What is incarnational

What is incarnational ministry? There are probably a lot of ways to answer this question. There are also probably many subtleties to the full implications of what it might mean to be incarnational in any number of different contexts. Lately I have heard it discussed as the pastors role. Eugine Peterson in his book the contemplative pastor shares something of this idea with his commitment to not pastor a church larger than he can learn all the names. I have also heard of pastors criticizing video venues because there is not a live teacher pastor present. These two opinions of the way church should be or not be certainly have merit and should be considered for different reasons, but is that what it means to be incarnation? I think these ideas make one main mistake Which is underestimating the role of the entirety of the church. If we limit the continual in-fleshing of Christ to the world to the job of pastors than the world is not only going to get a very incomplete picture of Christ's love, we are also going to need way more pastors. It makes more sense that it is the priesthood of all believers living among all the world that will be the way in which the world might meet a picture of Christs love in fleshy for.

The end of the debate

the newly formed and long debated choice between being a missional or attractional church is dead. chances are that you are both, and that is good. further more the discussion has and is shifting, and it is landing on the realization that we are to be more incarnational in our understanding and praxis of church. the church is to be the person of the Church where they are and in so doing being Christ, or part of the body of Christ, or a representative of Christ,... to the people that exist within that persons influence. that does not meant he church should stop doing what it is doing but only continue to look forward with this understanding.

maybe?

new life !

Seems like the celebration of Easter is to short. It should continue on for more than just a weekend, I mean we did spend forty days getting ourselfs ready dident we? Bedsides celebrating new life should be the type of event that marks us in some way. Even new years seems to leave a more lasting effect on us when really make decisions to live differently should happen on Easter. Not just giving up somthing, that's lent, but maybe adding some good stuff as well.
any way somthing to think about.

shhh!

How is this for a Quote?
"The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. the purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits when the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. the purpose of the word is to convey ideas. when the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. where can i find a man who has forgotten words? he is the one i would like to talk to."

Nar·cis·sism

1.excessive self-admiration and self-centeredness
2.in psychiatry, a personality disorder characterized by the patient’s overestimation of his or her own appearance and abilities and an excessive need for admiration.

In Greek mythology Narcissus was a youth who was punished for repulsing Echo’s love by being made to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool

Twitter/FaceBook:
social networking services that allows its users to post pictures, updates and thoughts about themselves for the world to see.

Trying Twitter

so i am trying twitter and apparently twitter can sink with blogger...? so... i am going to give blogging another shot as well. supposedly there is community and conversation to be found online and i am curious to see what it is all about. 

What the artist gets.

After a night observing art that was of a more abstract nature, I reflected on what I saw and experienced and decided that one of the most interesting aspects of the night was listening to the conversations taking place. You have probably seen the paintings similar to the ones I was viewing and heard someone remark with a statement similar to "I think I could do that, it looks like splatter painting..." which I did hear, but I also heard other, more interesting conversations. Some of the people were walking around telling each other what they saw, others were describing an emotion, others were talking about how much they were worth or which one they would like in their home. Still some just sat and let the paintings sink in. some people knew the history of the artist and what made him important while others had never heard of him. All were there experiencing the art for different reasons and from different starting points.
Art is a funny thing it seems to me that it is often misunderstood and sometimes overly valued to a point of worship. But some where in the middle we see that artist gets things that we need to understand. C.S. Lewis when talking about his journey toward finding and understanding God uses the word Joy as describing a longing or a wonderment that draws us to something more, he describes the first time that he experienced this joy when looking at something his older brother had created. This longing or “Joy” is often captured by artists in different ways, using paint and canvas an artist has the ability to make observations of the world and push the viewer to rethink, to dream, or just to enjoy in a new way. The artist gets in some way what Lewis described as Joy.