what's your concept?

lately i have been thinking about the way we conceptualize and define certain aspects of ministry/Christianity. trinitarian. incarnational. sending. take trinitarian for example. john zizioulas sees the trinity as being primarily relational. the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all in communion with one another and therefore the fundamental concept found in the trinity is communion. to exist is to be in communion with another. "being is communion." to be trinitarian means to be relational.

for lesslie newbigin the trinity is primarily a model of "sending" which has implications for mission. the Father sends the Son, both send the Spirit, and all three send the church to the world. to be trinitarian here means to be "sent" - to go out and participate in God's mission to the world.

others (bonk, grigg) conceptualize ministry (and Jesus) in terms of being incarnational. Jesus was rich, but became poor so that we might become rich (2 Cor 8.9). Jesus came to earth as a poor person, and lived with poor people. to be incarnational is to be poor, live with the poor, and evangelize the poor.

i have said all this in order to ask a few questions. what does it mean to be trinitarian? does it mean to be relational? does it mean to be sent/sending? something else? what does it mean to be incarnational? does it mean to live with the poor? does it mean anything else?

is the trinity defined by one over-arching concept, and do we know what that is? is the incarnation of Jesus defined by one over-arching concept, and do we know what that is?

i want to give a word of caution for us as we seek to define our ministries and as we define aspects of Christianity. while it is good to seek to understand the trinity, and while it is good to seek to understand the incarnation and design ministries/concepts around the attributes of God which we understand, we must also realize that our understanding is limited.

if God were speaking for himself he may not say that communion or sending is the core of the trinity. and he may not say that living with the poor is the core of the incarnation. i suggest that we should all be a bit more cautious in designing our theologies.