Incarnational living?

Thank God for encouraging husbands!

Alec read yesterday's blog entry and suggested I was selling myself short. He reminded me that the emerging ministries in our church had been along time coming, and was often a long and painful journey for those involved. He reminded me too that I did have a passion for those people in the shop to meet Jesus and maybe I just needed to start by getting to know them better. My own 'soapbox' that has characterised my ministry for the past 15 years came back to haunt me through his words! And that particular soapbox is? - That we should get to know people's real needs rather than working on perceived ones. When working with other agencies I am always banging on about identifying what people actually need rather than providing programmes that fit a criteria set by someone who thinks they know what they need (if that makes sense). This is no different. I have identified what I think these ladies need, but do not know them well enough to establish what they themselves want. Working with the group's agenda rather than the church's has marked both the success and the struggle of the groups I mentioned - success being measured in transformed lives. My new challenge is therefore to get to know them better, rather than trying to get them together in a group. One person I do know is the manager, (my lapsed Christian from a previous entry) who wants the project to work because this way of doing church could be beneficial to her.

Similar musings

Having played catchup on everyone else's blogs, I realise much of my reflection and thinking is similar to yours. Like Claire I want to get away from planning events and create something that is alot less formal with alot more ownership. And thinking about what constitutes 'church' is really what this is all about. As I look around me it seems other people in my church are doing emerging church alot better than me. What sets them apart is their passion and ownership for what they are doing. The homeless project, detached work with young people, youth disciplining programme and new children's ministries have all 'emerged' through people who are called by God and do it out of conviction. This passion is contagious and leads to action in others. Although I can take little credit for any of this, a few thoughts have struck me.
Firstly, have my mentoring conversations, many of which have enthusiastically introduced emerging church principles and examples actually led to my church 'emerging' into a new mindset and way of doing things?
Secondly, is my struggle to get my own project right a reflection of a lack of real passion for the people I am trying to reach?
Thirdly, is my project too much of an event and not enough of an incarnational expression?