A Man on a Bike ...

One of the questions I have heard asked in the last few months in thinkin and talking about emerging expressions of the body of Christ is - "what will it look like?" What will an incarnational/missional expression of the body of Christ look like?

If you want to read an amazing book that does that question serious justice - then check out "The Shaping of Things to Come" by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. If you wanna check it out - here's the Amazon link:

The Shaping of Things to Come

Anyhow - with the thought of what a missional/incarnational body of Christ look like - on my mind - we as a family were on our way to attend church a couple of Sunday mornings ago. It was a church that we had not been to before but we had arranged to meet some of our family there this particular morning. As has happened before on this Sabbatical - I/We got lost. We had promised to meet our family there and now we couldn't find the place. I wanted to use the intuitive approach (ie - just drive around aimlessly until we stumbled across the church) but my wife wouldn't allow it - so as we stopped at an intersection waiting for the light to change - she noticed a man riding up beside us on a bike. She rolled down the window and said we were lost and could he help us with directions to the particular street that the church was on.

After putting his head down to think and trying to come up with the location for us - he let out a frustrated sigh and said that he had had a rough morning and a tough week and for that matter a tough life and and that he really wasn't sure where the road was. In fact he wasn't sure about much of anything as he said he felt so discouraged and frustrated that he was thinking about ending his life.

That's a little awkward for first thing on a Sunday morning now isn't it. What would you have done? What would you have thought about?

Now - here's what happened at that poignant intersection. I wanted so much to "be the church" for this man and the thought came into my mind immediately that we could offer to take him to breakfast and love him like Jesus would love him for a while that morning. But as soon as that desire came in - the corresponding thought also came in that we had commitments/expectations and people were counting on us to join them at "church". So as he peddled away to who knows where - we drove away and I sat in a stunned and nummed silence. Les, Travis, Leah and Grace (for once!) all sat silently trying to make sense of what had just happened. We all knew that something had indeed happened, we just couldn't put words to it yet. At that point "going to church" seemed about as ridiculous as wearing a parkha here in 100 degree heat.

As I have reflected on that moment - and what felt so awkward about going to church - wasn't that church was bad - in fact the gathering was really good. The sermon was good and as part of our time in prayer we gathered around a young 19 year old marine who's unit had been called up and was heading to Iraq the next morning. That gathered community would mean everything to him as he shipped out. I thought how important and beautiful these people were to him. The time of musical worship was great too - and I thought perhaps how this community's fragrance would be pleasing to God.

No - it wasn't that there was anything wrong with the place or the people and I'm sure some of you are asking - why didn't I just invite him to church with us? It certainly seemed like it could have made a difference to him. I guess I'm wondering why I felt as though I couldn't just drop every plan I had and go with him and "be the body" and why I felt like inviting him to church wasn't an option either? In short - why did I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place?

Most likely because for most of my life I have lived with the "unspoken rules" of an attractional model of church. The attractional model asks the question what can I do to help "attract" people to church? What ideas, programs and events will make it possible for people to come and get connected to the church? At that moment with someone I didn't know - I had nothing but my attractional model and asking him to join me on "my turf" so to speak, just didn't seem to make much sense - wasn't there another way to let this man meet Jesus?

But what if I had simply just invited him to breakfast and been the incarnate body of Christ to him that way? What if I lived every moment of every day with that outlook?

In considering that moment and trying to answer the question what will a missional/incarnational body of Christ look like - I guess it will be one in which people have the freedom to seize the moment and love radically, joining God in the moment and change plans and traditions in order to be a cup of cold water to someone in need. Even if it means having to swim against the "unspoken rules" of "attendance" or "expectations" to be at a place the priority over giving the gospel hands and feet. Here's an example to perhaps its most extreme - wouldn't it be cool to be gathered on a Sunday morning and have someone come and anounce that the speaker/teacher that morning was not able to be there because they were living in a moment of incarnational love - responding to the need of someone they pulled up next to in their car on their way to the building that morning?! That kind of community freedom would be amazing and radical and yes, annoying for some who have come to expect certain things at certain times. I'm sure - that God would not be caught off guard as a servant obeyed His spirit and He would take care of His gathered bride as they met. That's the kind of community - I long for the church to be. Is it different? Does it defy norms and expectations? Absolutely! Is it messy? Definitley - but what a testimony of radical love and grace!

The story here also helps to illustrate what I think is one difference between the missional/incarnational body - which looks for and is given the freedom to respond immediately if prompted by God's spirit to the needs around, and the attractional model which works diligently to get people to "church". It's about location - one asks how can we be the church in the world - the other asks how can we get people to church. I envision the church being a "people who" are loved by God and who practice His love in dynamic and out of the norm ways, and that characteristic makes the "place where" a much more attractive place to be.

Peace.