Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.’ – Luke 14:23

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 19, 2014): Luke 14

There is an argument in some Christian circles concerning whether we should use attractional or incarnational methods within our church structures. The argument, employed by incarnational ministry supporters (those who believe that the church needs to leave the protective confines of the church and go into the world to minister Jesus Christ where the people are living), is that the church has depended for too long on their attractional programs (programs designed to attract people outside of the church into the church.) According to the supporters of incarnational ministry, the time has come for the church to move into the world. Incarnational ministers often seem to believe that attractional ministries are simply lazy and an unfortunate echo from the Christian ministries of the past. But the reality would seem to be that the Bible supports both models of ministry. In fact, the biblical model might not be one or the other, but rather both at the same time.

Jesus tells a parable about a wedding feast. But the invited guests all find one reason or another why they cannot attend the feast. The Master of the Feast is offended. The food as already been prepared and now it simply needs to be enjoyed by the guests, but none have come. And so the Master of the Feast sends his servants out to compel the people to come to the feast. The act of being sent out to find the people to attend the wedding feast is exactly the model proposed by incarnational ministry supporters. We are to go, to seek out and find people to be invited to the feast wherever it is that we can find them. But we are also to compel them to come in. The word compel is an interesting word choice. It means to force or necessitate the people to come to the feast; and it implies the necessity of ministry to be attractional in some way. We are to both be sent out and to attract people in at the same time.

Ministry cannot be either incarnational or attractional, it has to be both. We are not designed to hide behind the walls of the church building and wait for people to come to us. We are being sent out to the place where they are – to make a difference in the place where they live. But the going out cannot be the end of the process. We have to also attract them into the church because we are to exist in community together. So as we go out, we also have to gather in. It is only as we are sent out and as we attract people to gather in that God’s Kingdom is able to continue to grow – and to continue to change the world..

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 15