I’ve been reading Incarnational Mission by Wells with great admiration. So much wisdom about the difference between knowing what people need and giving it to them and helping them perceive their need and ultimately sharing with them in their need, because so much of what we all really need, is just not available. He takes us through the many different aspects of “being With” the world, attending, partnering, participating, enjoying, even mystery and he has such a perceptive way of understanding the different sorts of people with whom we must incarnate the presence of Jesus. He sees the antagonistic, the indifferent, those from different religions, the seekers, and then he goes on to share remarkable insights about the nature of organizations, as distinct from institutions, and governments. Its all illustrated with remarkable stories from people’s lives, so what’s not to like? Well it just doesn’t seem to be what goes on in the New Testament when believers meet others. Instead of sharing with there seems to be a quick slide to conflict. Confrontation rather than partnership. I am not a quarrelsome person and have no desire to disagree but that seems to be what happens in NT times of witness. I don’t like the sort of teaching which implies that unless we are being persecuted we are not doing it properly, that we must always be ‘contending’ for the faith or we are wasting our time, but unfortunately there does seem to be some truth in such an idea.
Maybe it was because they were in exceptional times, the message was raw in NT days, but more likely its because the emphasis in this book is on Incarnation rather than something else, Gospel or cross or salvation.
The conciliatory answer is to say that we all need both, but then I feel that Wells could have helped us more with something about how to get a challenge across. You can take humility too far, or maybe you just have to be willing to offend at times. ( )