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Global Church
The Global Church: Diversity Central
As a Christian, you are not just part of a local community of believers. You are not just a member of a synod or a district or a diocese. You are part of a Global Church.
As 21st century Christians, we are part of the most ethnically, racially, economically and culturally diverse Body that ever was. The Western secular intelligentsia jabbers about cultural diversity. The Church of Jesus Christ lives it.
It’s time we embraced it.
This naturally means learning more about the makeup of our Global Church and how we fit into it. Readers of this publication hail from the United States, Canada, Australia, the Philippines, Germany, China, Sweden, Mali, Denmark, the Netherlands, Kenya, and many other nations. The cultures represented by just those few countries—how people work, worship, communicate and spend their lives—are staggeringly different.
In the U.S., worshipers at megachurches sip gourmet coffee while listening to world-class teaching via live video cafe or DVDs. In urban China, believers worship in apartments in groups of no more than 15 or 20 so as not to arouse the suspicion of neighbors who might snitch to the authorities. In the Philippines on Sunday morning, you might find yourself worshiping with former drug addicts in a cinder block shack.
We have a lot to learn from each other.
We also embrace our globalness, if you will, by studying the strengths and weaknesses of the different cultures the Church lives in and using both to our advantage.
Exhibit A: Once the primary sending nation in the world, the U.S. now is, as a general rule, shifting its role in missions. Acknowledging their limited access to many countries, U.S.-based missionaries and agencies are seeking to capitalize (a great American byword) on their innate strengths—training, funding, building and supplying. The smart ones are learning to do this as the minor partner in the relationships they form. That task is endlessly complex, especially when it comes to money. Overall, but especially in volatile regions, the front lines belong to indigenous workers doing what is referred to as E-1 evangelism—one member of a culture witnessing to another member of the same.
Every nation and people group, and every individual believer within them, brings unique strengths and weaknesses. It’s been like this from the beginning of the Church: “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? (1 Corinthians 12:17-19)”
In a way, missions has never been harder. The world’s population has exploded and so has the number of unreached people. On the other hand, technology and the ease of information transfer makes the task that much easier. That technology has created a global economy connected by incredible transportation and communications networks.
As the world has become more globally oriented, so has the Church. The task for us, as that Global Church, is to use today’s interconnectedness to our advantage—to keep up on ourselves so we can function as a true Body.
In his wonderful book, The New Global Mission: The Gospel from Everywhere to Everyone, Samuel Escobar writes, “With its unprecedented technological and economic dynamism, the globalization process in our time places before us burning issues of race and culture, ethnicity and multiculturalism, justice and peace. A global church developing new partnerships for mission faces an impossible task, but God is the God of the impossible.”
The task, then, is to rely on God to do the impossible task of connecting a vastly diverse Body for the increase of His Kingdom and His glory. That is, to introduce a lost, confused world to His love and support each other in that mission, no matter where, no matter what.
In his vision on the rooftop in Acts 10, the apostle Peter received a loud and clear message: God’s family includes all. In other words, the Church is a Global Church—get used to the idea.
The Church has spent 2,000 years trying to get used to the idea. As 21st century Christians, we have the best tools we’ve ever had to wrap our heads and hearts around it.
For more information on the church worldwide, visit Operation World at http://www.gmi.org/ow/.
As 21st century Christians, we are part of the most ethnically, racially, economically and culturally diverse Body that ever was. The Western secular intelligentsia jabbers about cultural diversity. The Church of Jesus Christ lives it.
It’s time we embraced it.
This naturally means learning more about the makeup of our Global Church and how we fit into it. Readers of this publication hail from the United States, Canada, Australia, the Philippines, Germany, China, Sweden, Mali, Denmark, the Netherlands, Kenya, and many other nations. The cultures represented by just those few countries—how people work, worship, communicate and spend their lives—are staggeringly different.
In the U.S., worshipers at megachurches sip gourmet coffee while listening to world-class teaching via live video cafe or DVDs. In urban China, believers worship in apartments in groups of no more than 15 or 20 so as not to arouse the suspicion of neighbors who might snitch to the authorities. In the Philippines on Sunday morning, you might find yourself worshiping with former drug addicts in a cinder block shack.
We have a lot to learn from each other.
We also embrace our globalness, if you will, by studying the strengths and weaknesses of the different cultures the Church lives in and using both to our advantage.
Exhibit A: Once the primary sending nation in the world, the U.S. now is, as a general rule, shifting its role in missions. Acknowledging their limited access to many countries, U.S.-based missionaries and agencies are seeking to capitalize (a great American byword) on their innate strengths—training, funding, building and supplying. The smart ones are learning to do this as the minor partner in the relationships they form. That task is endlessly complex, especially when it comes to money. Overall, but especially in volatile regions, the front lines belong to indigenous workers doing what is referred to as E-1 evangelism—one member of a culture witnessing to another member of the same.
Every nation and people group, and every individual believer within them, brings unique strengths and weaknesses. It’s been like this from the beginning of the Church: “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? (1 Corinthians 12:17-19)”
In a way, missions has never been harder. The world’s population has exploded and so has the number of unreached people. On the other hand, technology and the ease of information transfer makes the task that much easier. That technology has created a global economy connected by incredible transportation and communications networks.
As the world has become more globally oriented, so has the Church. The task for us, as that Global Church, is to use today’s interconnectedness to our advantage—to keep up on ourselves so we can function as a true Body.
In his wonderful book, The New Global Mission: The Gospel from Everywhere to Everyone, Samuel Escobar writes, “With its unprecedented technological and economic dynamism, the globalization process in our time places before us burning issues of race and culture, ethnicity and multiculturalism, justice and peace. A global church developing new partnerships for mission faces an impossible task, but God is the God of the impossible.”
The task, then, is to rely on God to do the impossible task of connecting a vastly diverse Body for the increase of His Kingdom and His glory. That is, to introduce a lost, confused world to His love and support each other in that mission, no matter where, no matter what.
In his vision on the rooftop in Acts 10, the apostle Peter received a loud and clear message: God’s family includes all. In other words, the Church is a Global Church—get used to the idea.
The Church has spent 2,000 years trying to get used to the idea. As 21st century Christians, we have the best tools we’ve ever had to wrap our heads and hearts around it.
For more information on the church worldwide, visit Operation World at http://www.gmi.org/ow/.