GlocalNet

So much is happening around us right now - it’s hard to take it all in and make sense of it.  How do you keep up with it and how does it affect the whole world?  It’s near impossible. 

GEOPOLITICALLY - Russia continues to withdraw and there’s a chill that’s beginning to be felt more and more towards the West - old competitiveness is emerging.  Brazil is growing fast in every way - and pulling away from the US exerting her own influence.  Mexico in TIME magazine is called the most dangerous place in the world right now.  We may wake up to find that the violence of Afghanistan came to our own backyard without us realizing it.  Pakistan is playing Near Eastern cat and mouse, smile and wink, and disguised transparency.  Islam grows in Europe - and the radicals don’t just scare the West, they scare Muslims as well - and no one has a good solution on how to deal with it.  In our own country, politicians joke, laughing, make fun of the other party, blaming everyone but themselves - while they destroy our country for the sake of power and control. 

ECONOMICALLY - the world is in a mess - and sadly the US helped put it there with all the Wall Street shenanigans.  Many countries are trying to get off the dollar and figure out a new currency that will work - it could have been the Euro - but with all the mess with Greece, now Portugal, and Spain and Italy close behind – it’s doubtful their economics engines are better - but what? 

TECHNOGICALLY we are so connected.  Nothing is local - everything is global.  As people come of age - one nation sees another nation fight for its rights and the power of communication is inspiring the whole world to see a different way of life.  YET, the primary thing connectivity could offer is education and commerce - but that hasn’t happened yet.  I’m dreaming of the day when children all over the world can sign on and get educated.  It’s hard to understand how billions and billions of dollars - no trillions and trillions have been poured into Africa and the state of affairs is in such chaos. 

RELIGION has become the new global tribalism.  It is the one constant - faith in God - that can make …

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Guest Blogger - Brian Hook
Pastor of Church Planting- NorthWood Church
Regional Catalyst - Vision360

The following story is from Kevin Cox, Founding Pastor of Vista Church, a church plant of NorthWood located in Crandall, Texas - a community south of Dallas. Vista has planted five churches in their young 4-year existence as they also engage in Nigeria mobilizing church members to reach the Fulani people.

“Recently I came across a statement that sums up where we are at Vista Church:  “It’s not what you believe that counts; it’s what you believe enough to do.”  We believe in being the church and displaying the kingdom!  We believe in the transformation of people’s lives as well as whole communities and people groups.  That is why we start cell groups where people are built up and encouraged in their faith.  That is why we sent 21 students to a pre-teen camp and four of them made first-time commitments to Christ.  That is why we have eight block parties scheduled in our community over the next 4 months.  That is why we have collaborated with our community association to begin a Neighbors Helping Neighbors program to help the elderly and single mothers of our community.  That is why we partner with Still Waters, a crisis pregnancy center, to encourage teenage mothers who have chosen to keep their babies.  That is why we are looking at partnering with 3-4 church planters next year to help them plant their churches that will see their communities transformed by the love of Christ.  That is why we have scheduled two trips this year to Egbe and Ejiba, Nigeria to engage the Fulani and Hausa-speaking peoples of those cities in order to develop an on-going relationship where we can mutually learn from one another.  In only two trips, trust is being built as evidenced by the photo of two Muslim chiefs with arms around one wet, Christian pastor…me.  We are compelled by the royal law of Jesus, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It is our prayer that each time we leave Nigeria, our new friends will have been loved with the love of Christ.”

Daniel Yang, Guest Blogger
Worship Associate / College & Young Adult Ministries

“But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”  (Jeremiah 29:4-7 ESV)

Israel was the nation chosen by God in the Old Testament to reveal his love to the rest of the world.  God was so committed to his purpose that even when his people were living in a land that wasn’t their own, he commanded them to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you.”  God placed an entire generation in a position of humility and vulnerability and then commissioned them to engage an unfamiliar city by investing into it the lives of the next generation.

Over the last few years this Jeremiah passage has helped me process my family story.  My father was a little older than I am now when he left his homeland to live in a refugee camp for several years.  The conditions in the camp were difficult, but he knew it was only for a season.  At the age of thirty-nine he and my family immigrated to the United States where they learned a completely new way of living and thinking.  They lived as a diaspora community seeking the welfare of the city to which they were brought and in doing so found their own welfare.

There’s something about the diaspora mentality that God wants his people to learn when they are called to engagement.  From my experience this mentality forces us to do two things 1) adapt to the situation around us with humility and openness and 2) commit to the cause of others despite our own needs.

Each year Northwood commissions several teams to serve in the inner-city, Mexico, Vietnam and other places in the world.  This Summer there will be a team of college and young adults serving and loving a country where for the first time many of them will get a glimpse into this Jeremiah passage.  This means for the first time many of them will understand what it means not to be in the majority.  They will have to rely on translators, money-changers, and taxi-drivers.  But they will also experience what it means to passionately care for a people in a country that is not their own.  …

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Matt Robertson, Guest Blogger
Glocal Impact Pastor, NorthWood Church

Last week I met with a surgeon who had just come back from a one week Medical Outreach Trip that NorthWood Church had organized to one of our global impact areas.  He was so excited to tell me about how he was able to use his experience and skills working alongside local doctors, to provide much needed medical care to people in remote villages.  Many lives were impacted during this one week!

He was able to help a lot of people, and learn from and help train several of the local doctors he was with.  He can’t wait to get back.  He’s even talking about wanting to retire earlier so he can spend longer periods of time serving in difficult places.  He’s so thankful for the opportunity to go and serve.

At the same time, we have a woman in our congregation who is a personal fitness trainer.  She feels called to use her skills and passion for health and wellness to serve those who can’t normally afford her coaching.  This has led her to a Section 8 apartment complex that NorthWood Church has recently adopted.  There are a lot of isolated elderly as well as single moms with kids in this complex.
 
She has organized fitness and wellness classes at this complex.  In addition, she has also created several opportunities for the kids in the complex, a lot of them shut-in while the parents are working, to hang out, have ice cream, make crafts and study the Bible.  The kids are so excited to have this positive personal interaction, they keep coming back for more…and now parents are starting to engage more as well.  Not only is she engaging this apartment complex, she is mobilizing other volunteers to show up and hang out with the kids for a few hours each week.

Both examples: one global, the other local (glocal) demonstrate how churches can be releasing and mobilizing their members to engage society.  We believe this is a key ingredient to discipleship.  Understanding and studying the Bible is critical.  A focus on core Biblical principles is critical to having a strong foundation of discipleship in any church.  However, releasing the disciples into society and allowing them to use their vocations / domains, gifts, passions and abilities is also critical to the transformation of the individual …

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Guest blogger:  Brian Hook

I want to invite you to a select training opportunity this Fall sponsored by NorthWood Church. The training is a special cohort experience where church planters can learn from some of the best practitioners in church planting without a long term “onsite” training commitment. The leaders for this cohort are Bob Roberts of NorthWood Church, John Jenkins, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Glenarden and Terry Virgo, leader of New Frontiers in the UK.

The cohort is limited to the first 20 planters that are approved.This process consists of 2 two-day on site training opportunities that include four elements of successful planting which are global in scope and foundational in practice.

MODULE 1 is August 11-12, 2011 and covers:  The Kingdom of God, The Heart Of The Disciple, and The Engagement of Society.
MODULE 2 is November 2-3, 2011 and covers:  Making Disciples, Engaging Your City, and Becoming A Church Multiplication Center.

As a huge bonus for this cohort, the second Module is followed by IMAGINE, November 3-5. IMAGINE is an annual Church Planters Gathering for all previous NorthWood Church Planters. This reunion will allow our planters to share best practices in peer to peer learning,  and also be inspired by some incredible sessions. Terry Virgo will be joining us for the Gathering.

In between Module 1 and Module 2, there will be some great online video training that you can engage in through our closed online site.
If you or somebody you know would like to engage in this cohort, please contact Alecia Ashworth for more information at Aleciaashworth@northwoodchurch.org.

REQUIREMENTS: There is an online pre-assessment. We also reserve the cohort to planters that are in the process of planting. You need to either be no longer than 2 years out or up to 6 months into your plant.

*If you are an existing denominational leader or senior pastor, you may attend this training IF you bring a planter. Our heart is to train planters and pastors to start mulitiplication centers all over the U.S. We would love to serve and empower you to do this.

COST: The cost for this training is $349, but we do have scholarships for those that will be traveling and also those of you that have participated in our 1 day Turbo overview.

LOCATION: Both Modules and IMAGINE …

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It’s rare for me to post a Sunday sermon as a blog - but I want to with this one.  This will wind up being a longer lecture for pastors, church planters, missiologists, etc.  There are some key concepts we are learning in doing our T-life cells.  There is also the question of how evangelism plays into everything.  Thought you might like this . . . I’m off to Mobasa, Kenya - as you read this I should be getting close.  I’ll blog as much as possible but it may be challenging both in terms of internet and schedule, but I will do my best. 

Call to Jesus is a Call to Calling Others and a Call to Community by Pastor Bob Roberts Jr.

ASPIRE Msg: Bob Roberts from Hope Baptist Church, Las Vegas on Vimeo.

The church has discovered the word community and link it from everything from missional to family, etc.  That’s good.  Community is the idea of “common unity.”  We are united by whatever idea, tribe, or clustering factors bring us together.  It carries the idea of intimacy and connectedness.  So, to a large degree, “communities” of faith or “missional” communities are gathering to engage the city in the name of Jesus.  They come as “christian” communities in the name of Jesus serving the braoder city, loving like Jesus and validating the value of the church in the city.

Society is a broader term.  A society has multiple communities that make it up.  Society has domains that it operates on: economics, governance, health, communications, etc.  If you don’t understand both terms, how they are similar and how they are different - you can serve, but still bring no value to the city.  A society is made of of multiple communities of faith, race, backgrounds. 

The grid that all faith communities operate on is the society.  That has some implications that should be understood and create sensitivity towards. 

First, communities of faith should be inclusive when they serve the broader society.  If we serve in the public square - let the public also be a part.  Don’t go as a huddled mass into the big city, world, whatever isolating yourself from others in the name of Jesus.  Instead, broaden those who would want to connect, network, and serve with you.  Part of engaging the city, should be for the church to understand people outside her own tribe.  This is an incredible time to build bridges.  We’ve had other churches, people, and even other faiths wind up getting involved in some of our projects.  It’s good for all of us. 

Second, we are bringing value to more than just our own.  When a missional community or faith community serves the city and the broader society if they are not careful, what they want to be perceived as service is instead perceived as arrogance and superiority.  Be careful about how you celebrate, praise, and talk about your story.  Motivate, encourage, praise those that serve with you - but in a humble sort of way.  Think of how what you say in the public square is perceived by the public.  I’m always thinking how does a Jew, a Muslim, an atheist - or …

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I just returned from Mongolia – where, if you follow me on twitter, @bobrobertsjr, you saw and heard some of the conversations between me and many of the Mongolian people.  It was one of the most incredible trips I’ve been on in my life.  There is not, to my knowledge, another place in all the world like it.  First, they are about to celebrate 20 years of Christianity.  I was told by them that 19 years ago, there were no believers, then 6, and now today 150,000 spread out in over 600 various forms of the church.  So it is a place where the gospel is growing very fast – you could legitimately call it a movement. Second, it is also a place where there is religious freedom.  Mongolia was the first country to be absorbed into the former Soviet Union.  When the Soviet Union fell, Mongolia opened.  Third, the church works in unity and harmony there – despite the fact that several denominations, missions, and other organizations have all gone there.  There is a sense that there is a stronger commitment to one another than there is to the “foreign” missions and organizations that came.  I like that and believe it’s very helpful. 

There is a huge desire and searching for what it means to be the “Mongolian” church.  There is gratitude from those in the West who helped, but also a powerful sense of creating a Mongol Church – not a Mongolian version of the Western church.  It is both confusing for them, frustrating, and exciting.  It is an opportunity and a responsibility.  They realize well that what they do will be a blessing or a curse to the next generation so they don’t want to mess it up.  My heart goes out to them. 

The thing that stood out to me most – is their unquestioned commitment and passion to fulfill the Great Commission.  They believe that they are going to be key players in that – more than most nations.  They want to get “church” right there so they can get it right as they go global.  These are not thoughtless & uneducated people.  In the short time they’ve been in leadership, …

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I love this quote from Richard Foster.

“If worship does not propel us into greater obedience, it has not been worship.”

The metric for successful worship has always been obedience.  It is has never been cutting edge songs, media, or tech gear. Those are all great tools but not the goal. 

As you plan worship, make sure you are focusing on the end goal of obedience and not all the tools you can use. Then, once you have focused on the end goal of obedience, use every tool at your disposal to get people there.

As you attend a worship services, make sure you are concerned with walking out of the service with a deeper heart to follow and obey Christ, and not fixate on if your preferences of songs, media, etc were met.

Brent is the Worship Pastor at NorthWood Church.  You can follow him on his blog Worshiply.com or twitter.  You can also check out the Music of NorthWood at the official site of NorthWood Worship.

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