Incarnation 2010 Year End Report

I wanted to share my reflections as we head into a new year.

Starting anything in New York can be difficult.  Whether it’s a $60 million dollar Broadway spectacular or a new restaurant - getting something off the ground can be tough.  The same goes for new communities like Incarnation.  We don’t sell anything.  Unlike a Broadway play, we don’t draw tourists.  Unlike a restaurant, we can’t bank on the fact that “everyone” needs to eat.  People can and do, of course, get by without churches, synagogues, and mosques.

Yet over the course of a little more than a year, Incarnation has drawn together an interesting community of people who are becoming friends.  We’re different ages and different colors.  We grew up in different places with different traditions, religious and otherwise.  What brings us together?  My guess is that we all recognize, on some level, that we need help living a meaningful and satisfying life.  Some of us grew up with the assumption that we live our lives before God.  Others of us have come round to this conviction later in life.  But most of us agree that living with a group of people you can trust is an indispensable tool for living well with God.  

I have been going to the gym and working out for a long time (appearance notwithstanding!).  I lift weights and do cardio.  Last week, I caved to Steph’s pleas and joined her for a “total body conditioning” class.  For the next two mornings, I was almost unable to get out of bed.  I was sore in places I didn’t know I had muscles.  This reminded me that the individualistic spirituality practiced by so many does not do a very good job getting us into spiritual shape.  For that you need a class, and a community of persons “working out” with you.

2010 was Incarnation’s first full calendar year as a new congregation.  There were challenges, of course.  The first five months we gathered in apartments for brunch and prayed and sang with children running underneath our legs.  Then we spent the summer in Lerner Hall before finally landing at Union Theological Seminary this Fall.  Despite all this change, the community is deepening and growing.  Yes, the numbers are good.  Our attendance for services is up 11% over the previous December.  Financial giving is up 66% over the previous December.  The number of people who serve meals together, who gather to learn and laugh midweek is up significantly.  

Just as important are intangibles -- things like energy, momentum, leadership.  On this front, we are onto something really good here.  Incarnation works because there are so many of you committed to helping the congregation grow and flourish.  And those who have joined us this Fall have injected us with a new energy.  You can see this momentum in the ways we are inviting our friends into the community and in the warm hospitality practiced when visitors join us.  In short, we have found a life-giving community, and want others to benefit.  

Incarnation is a community designed to foster a spirituality organized around Jesus Christ.  We are deliberate about creating a community that is both nurturing and challenging.  Growing into maturity, we aim not for easy answers but for curious and creative conversation that takes us deeper into the love of God and neighbor.  You will notice that we do not make lists of what you have to believe.  Rather, we are creating a community that is living together before the reality of God in a dynamic relationship to Scripture and the practices of the Christian tradition.  This is very different from intellectual agreement with a list of “beliefs”.  

We want to give people space and time to explore and test and experiment.  We encourage a gracious interaction with our friends and neighbors who aren’t religious or who practice a religion other than Christianity.  We do not feel compelled to issue proclamations on their status before God.  Rather, we live with them as friends and identify deeply with their doubts, questions, and struggles - even when they come to different conclusions about God and the meaning of life.  Our focus is to live and work with gladness here in the city.  In that way, we recommend the Christian faith as a way of life for all.