'Incarnational' - adjective or noun?

I'm totally not a fan of the current trend of using 'incarnational' as a descriptive; the idea that Christianity is something which can be, at times and by specific people, described as incarnational seems to me to be totally misleading.

If Christianity is anything it is incarnational! Far from being a 'style' or ministry option for church leaders, incarnation is the very stuff of the Christian life on an individual and corporate level.

The incarnation or enfleshing of Jesus was a one time occurance sure, but it was an one time for all time event. In becoming Christians we are incorporated into Christ, and are made sons of God and parts of Christ's body; as a result we become little incarnations of Christ in this world. As individuals we cannot choose to follow Christ but avoid Christ incarnate in us; his only method of discipleship is to move in, to inhabit your flesh by the Holy Spirit. Its the only hope for our redemption, extreme yes but nothing else can overcome our sin.

'Incarnational ministry' has come to carry numerous connotations; an endorsement of the material world and human culture, a desire to meet people where they are and a strategy to participate in shared human life with them. I really love this but I'd far prefer to hear it called Christian ministry - its such a mistake to think that we can be a Christian and still avoid the incarnation of Christ in us affecting the world around us. A Christian life without incarnation is simply no Christian life at all!

Is the Holy Spirit the mob mentality of God?

I've just been reading C.S. Lewis's Beyond Personality in which he tries to describe God. He arrives at a necessarily relational, super-personal being consisting of Father and Son co-eternal and of the same substance. So far so good!

He then introduces the idea of the Holy Spirit by way of the 'corporate personality' created by a close community such as a family. In such a close gathering the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts and a kind of personality is produced - a mob mentality! Lewis concludes that for God this corporate personality is infinitely more real than anything cultivated by human communities and actually constitutes a Person - the Holy Spirit.

I really like this idea of the Holy Spirit as God's mob mentality, it totally fits the pattern which seems to pervade Christianity of the unity of parts consistently creating some new and unexpected whole.

The most obvious echo is that of the Church as the 'body of Christ'; as we are individually incorporated into Christ at salvation we become a part not just of a particular interest group or club, not even a slightly odd brand of social activism but a fully functioning (for better or for worse) part of Christ's body, his manifestation in the world and his primary mode of activity. The Church therefore is not merely social or material but its every action and priority is profoundly spiritual, connected to and dependant upon the intimate participation in Christ of every believer. It adds an interesting dimension to daily prayer times.