Well, week 10 is over and week 11 has begun.  It's been an interesting ride, and the last "official" week of BE looks like it'll keep up that trend.

In many ways, week 10 is the lesson that ties the whole movement together.  It takes the focus for the other BE distinctives (Mighty Acts Of God, Ethical Uniqueness, Insurmountable Perseverance) and pours them into this last distinctive, the Image of Christ.  Really, that's where it all comes down to - if folks don't see Jesus through us then all those other distinctives don't really mean all that much in terms of evangelism.  Ultimately, God needs to be seen in Jesus Christ for evangelism to really happen (we're talking  post-incarnation here).

A video that corresponds to week ten's work out can be downloaded here . 

One of the passages we used this week was Romans 6:1-11.  This is very important  passage that talks about the nature of what it means to be united with Christ in his death and resurrection through baptism.  The more I read the New Testament, the more I'm convinced that the world of the early Church would have never understood the phrase, "just a symbol."  Symbols, in that world, were real.  When Paul talks about dying through baptism, he meant dying - there was nothing "just a symbol" about it.  Paul really felt that the life he lived, was actually the life of Christ.  Now, Paul also knew that the struggle to live that life in Christ was going to be difficult - but that made it no less a reality to him.

The idea that symbols are real is something that I truly feel that the Protestant branch of Christianity needs to recapture.  If we're to claim to image Jesus in this world we need to see that as being something real, and not something that could be true - depending on the moment or our mood.  A fundamental shift in how we think about ourselves in Christ is really the key to unlocking an awareness of the constant presence of the Kingdom in our lives.

What's more, our culture is now prepared to accept symbols as real in a way that wasn't typically present throughout much of modernity.  We send e-mail, click on icons, and talk about "files" and "folders," on our computers just about every day - none of which are "real," and yet we treat them as such each and every day.  The Church should be now be striving to connect this acceptance of "symbol as real" and reapply it to the practice of our faith.

At least, that's what I think - it's also where I think Biblical Evangelism becomes truly incarnational.

One more week, and then the follow up.  The question I'm still left with is, "Do I have my 10?" 

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