There's a new church, recently planted near my own field of harvest. They are meeting in a night club, renting some cool, trendy riverside office space. They have an art gallery and an incredible worship service with candles, mood lights, incense, fog machines, a rock band, etc. They are drawing quite a crowd and are about to add a second Sunday morning service to accomodate the crowd they are drawing. They have four pastors, none of whom live in the city they are admittedly attempting to reach. They drive in on Sunday mornings, do there 2 hour gig and then drive out, along with most of their twenty/thirty something congregation, the rest are either college students or do actually live in this city. They do spend time in their offices during the week planning and strategizing how they will grow their church.
Let me say here that I love these guys and what they are doing. However, what they are doing, in my opinion, is not missional/incarnational but attractional. They are merely doing the same thing the church has always done, except with a modern, contemporary twist. Again, that is not necessarily bad, but they're not being as missional as they think and say they are.
My picture of missional and incarnational is living in and engaging the culture, by being who I am in the place God has called me to. This means putting my kids in (God forbid) public school. Enrolling my kids in community activities such as little league baseball, scouting, 4H, etc. and then participating with them on a volunteer basis and meeting other families who live in the same community, send their kids to public school, and sign them up for these same community activities. This isn't an agenda or a program or any attempt to be something I'm not, so that I can hone in on them with the gospel. It is a process, by which I am living in this world, but not of this world; living amongst my neighbors in such a way that they are drawn to what I have, which is peace and joy. It's about developing relationships and friendships and loving my neighbor as myself, so that as Christ lives in me, transforming my life, He also lives and works through me, drawing lost people to Himself and transforming their lives.
For me, that's what it's all about--knowing Christ and making Him known.
