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Church
Glocalization: Engaging A Flat World
by
Dr. Bob Roberts Jr.
The big question is:
how
will Christians engage this glocal world? Here’s what we’ve learned.
PRINCIPLE #1: GLOCAL CHRISTIANS WILL BE INTENTIONAL
To make a difference, there has to be focus. Generally churches are in several places all at once doing many things, but without an overall strategy. We spread things all over the place, without a point of concentration. It’s about more than simply going; it’s about impact and credibility.
Several years ago, a small group at our church began to think and pray about our strategy. Over time, we came to the conclusion that God calls a church like he does an individual. He has a specific, strategic call for each church to answer. For our church, through a series of conversations and experiences, we determined that we were called specifically to Vietnam.
We’ve now been involved in Vietnam for 12 years. Vietnam is a country previously labeled “closed” in missiological terms. After years of working there, the government helped us become an NGO that focuses on humanitarian and development issues. A church being invited to work with an atheist government is unheard of. But our intentional long-term engagement and relationships have opened doors previously thought closed. “Closed” is theologically inaccurate. There are no closed countries. If you engage society and start with society, you can go anywhere in the world and still be a Christian! The world doesn’t care about your religion – they care about where they are hurting and if you can help them. The world is not turned off to Jesus and Christianity – they are turned off by the church and more often than not our religious methods. It’s what I’ve come to call stupid evangelism vs. intelligent evangelism. One focuses on religion – the other focuses on society. We must stop thinking about how to spread religion and instead focus on how to show the love of Christ like Matthew 25 says. Which leads to the next principle.
PRINCIPLE #2: GLOCALIZATION STARTS WITH THE WHOLE OF SOCIETY AND SENDS THE WHOLE CHURCH.
Intelligent evangelism starts with society. I sit at the table with various global leaders not because they download my sermons, agree with my theology, or like the fact that I’m a pastor, but because we mutually care about the human condition and what we can do to bring hope to it.
In order to start with society, we first must understand that God’s Kingdom is a force within, not a force from without. Sadly, many view the Kingdom of God as a club to bully people, something that can be forced upon others from the outside. It is not. The Kingdom of God is in us, a force within giving us the power to bring love, light, and hope into the world around us. If God does the saving, then it’s not about us, but about him. If God does the saving, then I am serving not because I’m trying to convert, but because I have been converted. But God is establishing a Kingdom. So it is about all of society, all of humanity, and all structures and domains coming under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It means it’s not “us against them” and “my religion against their religion” but my faith at work through society.
The second key to this principle is to help everyone engage. Their vocation and/or passion is the chief area they should engage. This makes faith viral and it enables a church to engage society strategically and to fulfill the great commission. This is what moves engagement from a few short mission trips to people developing their own ministries.
At NorthWood, we had a group of special education teachers meet with the Vietnamese special education department at the National University. Vietnam passed a law mainstreaming all special education students in their public schools, but they had no curriculum. Our members wound up writing that curriculum and then teaching it to the special education professors. This is just one of numerous stories about how people are using their jobs and vocations to fulfill God’s Kingdom purposes.
Glocal leaders understand that there are many different domains of society: economics, family, government, agriculture, education, medical, technology, arts, and more.
Notice, however, that religion is not one of the domains. My premise is that faith lies over all the domains as believers engage in their domain. The result is faith emerges in all domains, as well as the church, and pushes back in on society as opposed to being a force outside society pushing it or bullying it. That’s transformative.
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