QUOTE
this congregation seems more focused on feelings than scripture
No, actually that's what they want to combat. Incarnational means being "doers of the word" as it relates to
both personal piety and public service.
Typically, churches labeled "conservative" tend to primarily focus on loving God ("devotions," avoiding immoral behavior) while churches labeled "liberal" tend to primarily focus on loving neighbors (helping the homeless in their midst and working to change their community for the better). Being "incarnational" means working to embrace both at the same time, because Jesus said all the Law was summed up in those two things.
Personally, I'm about as conservative a Christian as they come... but I've gotten fed up with congregations full of Sunday-morning spectators who don't mind if the city rots (because after all, they moved out to the 'burbs
years ago). They've forgotten how God's anger burned at injustice toward the poor an exploited:
QUOTE ("Jeremiah 22:13-16")
"Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar?
Did not your father have food and drink?
He did what was right and just, so all went well with him.
He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well.
Is that not what it means to know me?" declares the LORD.
In James 2:16, the author asks,
"If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?" Inner Metro Green is about being content with less for "us," so we can be freed up to care for the poor and needy in our midst.
That's true religion. (Really, it is! Just look it up.)
