GlocalNet

Wherever I speak I’m asked for the most recent sermon series or educational tools that I have and that we use at our local church.  Over the past two months we’ve done a series called “The Cost.”  It’s the idea of the cost of following God.  We did the graphics, videos, interviews, prayer guides, commitment cards, everything.  You can get all of that at northwoodchurch.org.  In addition you can download the sermons.  We taught on domains and had interviews of people using their domains.  We taught on glocal, local, nearby, and global.  We taught on the Kingdom.  We scheduled baptisms and did an evangelistic sermon in the middle of the series to keep the perspective on why we do all of this.  I interviewed a Muslim who works at the U.N. this week.  Illustrating how we respect other religions, and practically, how they are a part of all we do.  It was somewhat surreal yesterday, preaching on the Great Commission with a Muslim from the U.N. present, being mindful of doing it in such a way that respects our tradition and his as well.  It is good modeling, though, for our church, that enables our people to see how we hold on to our faith, yet treat those who differ from us with respect.  I’ll begin next year, January 4th, with a sermon on the Kingdom of God.  It’s not as simple as just preach a sermon on the Kingdom or on glocal, it’s interwoven in all we do.  It’s not a program, it’s a paradigm.