Author and Gordon H. Girod Research Professor of Reformed Theology J. Todd Billings presents a challenge to Christians using the term “incarnational ministry”. If the term is not fully understood from a Biblical view, the assumption can be made that our presence – rather than that of Christ – is redemptive. Billings warns that too often “incarnational ministry” is reduced to merely identifying with another culture, and not to testifying to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Additionally, burnout can occur when the focus is on what we as believers can do in the name of Christ, rather than what only Christ can do. The divine act of the Word becoming incarnate in Christ is not a “method for ministry” because this act cannot be repeated in our lives; therefore, ministry in union with Christ by the Spirit is a more accurate depiction of the New Testament ministry we are to model.
Fleshed Out: The False Dilemma of Union with Christ versus Incarnational Ministry
In response to J. Todd Billing’s piece, “On Moving Beyond “Incarnational Ministry,” Dr. Paul Louis Metzger concurs that there are common misunderstandings of the New Testament teaching on the subject. Metzger agrees with Billings that we are not “Jesus to People” – only Jesus is Jesus to people.
However, Metzger avers that it is not immersing oneself in the lives of those around us that is the problem, it is only when we stop there – not fully understanding why we are immersing ourselves – that problems arise. Rather than shying away from the term, we should embrace it as it is meant to be – understanding that to do the work of Christ we must be participants in an incarnate ministry – or else we stop short and simply move into the neighborhood, or we experience burn out by attempting to do the work of Christ without the power of an incarnate God.
On Moving Beyond “Incarnational Ministry”: A Response to Paul Louis Metzger
Responding to Dr. Metzger’s feedback, Todd Billings states the both he and Metzger agree that the term “incarnational ministry” can be problematic if the definition is not fully understood. Billings states that where he and Metzger disagree is on using the term at all. He goes on to say that by changing a noun (“Incarnation”) into an adjective describing a ministry (“incarnational ministry”) an entirely unique act in history is made to seem like something we are to imitate today. Believing that it is rare for someone using the term to have Metzger’s depth of understanding and study, Billings considers it most prudent to describe one’s ministry as a “union with Christ” and avoid using the term “incarnational ministry” altogether.
The American Experience of a Darkening and Receding Providence: The Civil War and the Unmaking of an American Religious Synthesis
Recent studies of religion during the Civil War period have revealed an underlying theme: a widespread belief in both North and South in a particular and deterministic divine providence. In this essay, and drawing especially upon George C. Rable’s God’s Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War, Dr. Bender outlines the details of this doctrine and argues that its intrinsic weaknesses and problems played a part in the unraveling of a Christian understanding of history in the post-war period in America. The Civil War thus stands as an important marker and event in the history of the secularization of American culture and the receding of Christian witness within and influence upon it.