Kingdom Come!

Fred Paetross does an interview with Alan Hirsch here.

In it Alan says:

“Quite simply because when you adopt an missional-incarnational approach to engaging our world, then you are forced to a go-to-them, hang-out-with-them approach to mission before you ever get to ask the question, “What is church for this people group?” The problem is that we usually frontload our idea of church into the missional equation. And while the reality of the Church as God’s community is a vital, non-negotiable, part of the Christian faith, the forms that the church must take are almost entirely to be guided by the cultural context of the church. If this were not the case, the Paul’s argument in Galatians is flawed and we all should be adopting Jewish forms of church, including circumcision! Ouch! The church follows mission and not the other way around.”

My thought… somehow we have to reset our default swith of “what is church” so as not to always frontload this into every missional equation…

Also my other friend Bill Kinnon has a lot to say about this… and does some linking to David Fitch’s blog… and beyond.

Being a very lazy, overweight poster-boy for consumption myself, I appreciate these smart cerebral guys doing the hard lifting and giving us links.  It makes life easier and gives me more time to get my Christmas shopping done.

But seriously… For those of us who hunger for “incarnational” to become the norm and for us who attempt to live out those things Jesus taught and embodied, the reductionism rips at my very soul.  And my task is to keep my heart soft and my spirit sensitive so that I can hear God speak among the noise and static of our world and consuming church.

Bravo Mark, Bill and David! Pray for me!