Children of the Incarnation
There is hope for the rebirth of the church in the children of the incarnation…
I am witnessing it at Pershing Park now, as some local pastors are bringing their high school and junior high students. Last night there was a circle of young people around Gator as he entertained them with the guitar, jokes, and card tricks. Gator is the central attraction of the park for sure, and now I hear his name in new circles throughout Santa Barbara.
I am witnessing it as well as Westmont University wakes up to its missional potential as well, and students begin to come down to the West Side to do a regular prayer walk, staff the community center, and plan a spring break week down at the the Village apartments in 2009.
Perhaps the hope of the church is as much in the grass roots as the pulpit. Since beginning this incarnational movement in Santa Barbara, I have rarely been invited to preach - for the most part the door to the congregations has been shut. I am still hopeful for open doors, but my strategy has moved to facebook.
Facebook can become the agent for change, and for finding “cause.” In many ways, it has taken the Uffizi Mission to its next level, because it exists under the pulpit, communicating on a mass scale an “Obamic” message of change. The children of the incarnation are being born under a new paradigm, where we are not hindered by boards or waiting for masters of divinity.
I still press for partnership, meaning I still believe that God is at work in the church as it is, but our hierchachal structure has killed the potential of rapid, missional movement.
I once shared the message of change with a pastor, who told me that the Titanic could not be turned in a moment, but would take a few years. (He chose the picture of the Titanic, not me!) The children of the incarnation see no need to head straight into the iceberg.
The children of the incarnation will be there with preemptive love, helping our friends in culture before their ship sinks I believe.
Last night I had a disturbing conversation with a street kid. A 15 year old girl who is hanging out with the wrong crowd with no idea of their real intentions. A new friend of mine, a mom on the streets, was trying to convince her to find shelter and not head where she was going. I don’t know how it will turn out. She was on her way to her iceberg and crash.
While I am 44 years old, and am just learning what it is to be compassionate, street wise, and friendship oriented, the junior high students, high school students, and college students who are with us will be ahead of the game. They will be at least 50/50 in the building and out of the building, and hopefully there will less of my friends on the streets crashing.
Last night, at Pershing Park, there were probably 100 friends from the streets, and I could feel the compassion God had upon them. Last Saturday we carved 48 pumpkins with kids in the Village and God was with them. And we have not even touched the cultures of Haley Street yet, or the 500 block of State Street with bars and clubs…
Pray for the children of the incarnation, who will flood the city with the love of God. They will go to places we have been afraid to visit.