Mark Sayers on Incarnational Concerns

Despite the rampant heat-wave going on here in beautiful Melbourne town, Mark Sayers is still saying intelligent things.

So when many young adults hear about the idea of incarnational mission, without realizing it they see it as a way of resolving the social isolation they feel as a follower of Christ. The incarnational approach then becomes an excuse or an escape clause in which we can limit the differences between us and those who would not classify themselves as followers of Christ in order to lessen the strain on our social standing. Sadly, often in the process the idea of holiness gets dumped and the missional purpose of the incarnational approach gets neutered.

via The Trouble With Incarnation + The HeatWave Blogging Clause « Mark Sayers.

If the “incarnational question” becomes “where is Jesus in this place”, we’ve got to be ready for the answer to be “not participating”. Incarnational mission has to be motivated by love for the people you are engaging with – and that love has to recognise that sin tears people apart and cracks the image of God in lives.

Have a read of the whole post – Mark says some fantastic things and comes from the position of being someone who is engaged in this stuff – and so is critical in order that we can get this thing to work. I would however, at this point, take the HeatWave blogging clause:

“for the duration of Melbourne’s record heatwave I hold no blame for anything stupid that I write, I encourage other Victorians and South Australians to follow suit. (spelling corrected)”

I’m also blaming the heatwave for the complete inactivity on here this week, and it won’t improve because I’m off camping at the beach for the next three nights.