I think we should stop using “incarnational.”  

Incarnation is a great word.  It conveys a great truth: the Son of God became man.  John 3:16 and Colossians 1 stuff.  Heady and profound all at once, the incarnation is the cornerstone of Christianity.  Without it we’d be fools.  No doubt that incarnation is great.

And if I were choosing between “missional” and “incarnational,” incarnational would win.

But #sacramental is better.  

#sacramental covers everything incarnational does and more.  #sacramental conveys the simple mysterious acts of God celebrated in the mainline, reformation-seeded church.  It stretches back to the Passover itself, with the warmed wine.  It speaks of mysterious, divine work taking place in ordinary, natural substance.  It reminds us how simple water poured on a head or surrounding a body unites my history with God’s history through God’s promise of God’s Spirit, all centered on God’s Son.

#sacramental is never divorced from God’s Word. Rather it flows from that Word, depositing forgiveness into the life of the receiver, reminding the observer there is more going on than meets the eye.  #sacramental means holy and sacred but never divorced from profane and sin-filled.  

#sacramental embodies the mysterious worship rituals much of the Church holds dear.

But #sacramental does more than that.  In a large sense it embodies the everyday Christian.  Christians, in the truest sense, are #sacramental.  God is doing a mysterious work in us, a work that is more hidden than not.  Forgiveness reigns in our hearts yet infrequently lives out in our words.  God’s Spirit courses through our veins yet he is absent from our hands.  Christians remain natural, broken sinners, yet are gifted to be #sacramental.  We are the very embodiment of Christ to the world, offering God’s forgiveness to God’s lost people.

If you are part of Jesus’ family, then you, my friend, are #sacramental.  You are the profane bringing the sacred, the natural offering the supernatural.  You’re mysterious.  In a Godly way.  Which is kind of cool.

So, use #sacramental.  Reclaim the rich history of the early Church.  And reclaim your mysterious role in blessing this world today.