GlocalNet

This morning, as I am reading through the Bible, as I do every year - I read Psalms 2:8.  “Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance.”  As a follower of Jesus what that simply means is I should be asking God what he already wants to do - see nations get to know who Jesus is.  God gave me that verse when I arrived at NorthWood and at the time I didn’t understand why - I do now.  God came down to earth in a manger and defeated a cross - as we think of Easter - and the global faith - what does it mean for the church you pastor? 

We are living in an age of rapid globalization.  In the past, that meant for us in the West, the exportation of economics and our culture - but that’s really not globalization.  Globalization only happens when there is a connection between here and there - or as I would say glocal.  The boundaries are indistinguishable. 

What is a global church?  It’s not a church that does missions.  Missions is not the add-on of all the church does - it’s the core of what the church is.  Some people call it missional or incarnational, but it is much more than just me and mine and what I do and where I do it.  A global church is the connection to all that God is doing, in all realms, and all places, and all domains, and all peoples, and living out faithfully in it’s community and the world the message of Jesus, using all of it’s assets, gifts, and people with a global perspective and engagement.  A global church is not a segmented church - everything is global - discipleship, stewardship, worship, pastoral care - all of it. 

I read in an article the CEO of a major corporation said the new local is global - there is no such thing as local anymore.  All business is global.  Zogby recently did a poll and renamed the millennial generation the 1st Globals because they are connected to the world and have a worldview radically different from any American generation heretofore.  How can the church be any less?  If you realize the world is global, business is global, and the Great Commission is global - anything less is short of what God intended for the church.  In the 18th century the global church meant funding a few to do what God had called all of us to do.  It was necessary - the way the world was put together - travel, communication - all of it.  This is no longer our world.  All things are all places.  In my book Realtime - I drive home the point that the Great Commission is us connecting to others and what God is doing - not just us doing it on our own. 

Why should we be a global church?

1.  God is a global God.

2.  The world is global.

3.  The church at Antioch was global.

4.  Early believers were global.  It’s amazing how the Gospel spread in such hard conditions in the early church. 

5.  We’ve been commanded by Jesus to be global.

6.  The church around the world is global.  At NorthWood, I used to think we were unlike any other church.  Not so.  There are churches like us working around the world and planting churches like crazy.  They just aren’t in America, but they’re in India, China, Central Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle-East, all over the world.  Generally these pastors started their churches, engaged their city in the domains, and simultaneously planted churches in their cities and worked globally in the surrounding nations. 

What makes this generation and time in history so radically unique, unlike any other time in the history of humanity, is the ability to truly be a global church.  We are connected and able to do things together like never before. 

What do global churches look like?  The ones I’ve seen around the world:

1.  Are led by Apostolic pastors who started the church and looked beyond a single building, a single worship venue, a single model of ministry, and are constantly pressing forward into the world.

2.  Have laity that has been released and are using their jobs, their spiritual gifts, their talents and abilities with great freedom and fruitfulness.  They drive ministry in their given areas and are free to create.

3.  Because of strong pastoral leadership and aggressive disciples there is a strong understanding of authority and submission.  It’s unlike the West.  It’s not top down - the pastor is the dispenser of vision, direction, teaching, and unique opportunities.  The local disciples are the executors and designers of what that might look like in a specific area and as long as it fits into the vision, is executed with the principles and uniqueness of the church - it happens. 

4.  Generally these churches have national platforms because their laity is so engaged in all the domains. 

5.  These churches are not static - it’s not like they figured out their model and executed it better.  Often, they’ll morph and change and even experiment with different forms of “church” and ministry. 
There’s a lot more than this - but I need to get back on my Easter Sermon . . . . . and it’s the James EXPERIMENT (fakebobroberts)