GlocalNet

Yesterday I was on a quick trip to Orlando and flying back I was sitting beside a man who was working on numbers - his letterhead said Ernst & Young.  I was reading my Bible and doing some study in the book of Romans - I also had some “global” stuff on my tray, articles, etc.,  I asked what he did, he told me all of the Western Hemisphere of Ernst & Young execs, 3,000, had been meeting in Orlando and he was in from Vancouver to attend.  He asked what I did - I told him I was a pastor but also involved in global stuff.  He started talking so fast.  He said, man do you realize how the world is changing?  We had these globalists speak at our conference and I’m concerned in the West we are not realizing what’s going on in the world.  The next 10 years are going to be pretty wild and the change pretty dramatic and it’s going to hit us like a ton of bricks.  He sounded like me!  I asked him why all the passion - he was telling me about some of the speakers, how it’s going to change how they do business based on where markets are entering.  It was also challenging them to work with every international that comes to their city that the way to connect with the world would be through people coming from other nations with ties to those nations, particularly China, India, Indonesia, etc., he then proceeded to tell me, you have to wake your church members up to this because the church has the ability to help people make the transition in society.  Otherwise he said there is going to be a lot of conflict and fear. 

We talked about the way forward for the U.S.  Three key things we both agreed on - first this isn’t a time to ignore new immigrants from the world, but embrace them realizing they are one of the keys to our future development - and if we isolate ourselves from them, or come across as financial colonialist then they will resent us and not want to do business with us.  The second key is innovation - that’s what we’ve always done in the past, but we don’t seem to be doing it now nearly as much.  The third key is to wake up our youth and help them realize now is the time to move forward because the old idea of “take your time” and “don’t get in a hurry” until you’re in your 30’s is dangerous.  There are 300 MILLION engineers in training in the rest of the world - that sounds wrong I know - I questioned it - but was told and read it twice.  The way the world moves forward is by those engineers - they build and create.  We need that more than ever before, and we are way behind the curve in that. 

I would say the most critical thing a pastor must do is prepare his church for the world that already exists.  The pastor won’t do that without reading global affairs, understanding the issues, and how they impact us back home. 

Many pastors read books about the world by people who want to and do “missions” - they will not help you understand the world.  Many pastors travel and visit churches and ministries globally - those do not necessarily help you understand the world - we go and connect with people we already agree with and who need us and don’t challenge us.  The challenge I would give people is to go to secular conferences on global affairs, read people like Sachs, Prahalad, Zacharias - people who get the state of the world. 

The most critical thing I’ve done that’s helped the most - in addition to connecting with the world beyond “religion” - is personal relationships with people who are not necessarily my faith, but get the world and give me different perspectives. 

If we understand the world, we will know how to share the love of Jesus with all men and we will see opportunities that would have been missed.  I view the church from the West, viewing the world as seeing it through one lens and engage through a single door - there are hundreds of doors - but to find them, you’ll probably have to leave the pack.