GlocalNet

All the money and degrees in the world couldn’t make President Obama the global President that he is.  Having a Kenyan father who was a Muslim and mid-western mom and being raised in Indonesia for years gives a global perspective to things that are desperately needed in our world right now.  For those Christians who want to have conversations and work with Muslims, Buddhist, and other kinds of people in the world - he is good for us.  No, I don’t agree with all his policies - but as a person there’s not a single person who would be better suited to represent us on the world stage and provide a positive image of America than him. 

Sometimes he gets it wrong, like when he spoke at Georgetown and had the religious symbols behind his podium covered - that was not good.  If he doesn’t want to speak at a Christian University - so be it - but for a Christian University to have to hide who it is or what it believes - that’s not very global.  That’s old school - maybe some old school secularist person did that who still believes religion will fade away and should not be in the public square did that.  I can’t conceive of President Obama doing that - he wouldn’t ask a mosque or synagogue to cover up its symbols - and I wouldn’t want him to.  His view of the world and how to communicate is going to move some things forward- I wish I had as much confidence in faith leaders in the U.S. being global.  When evangelicals think global, they think missions - we desperately need a new definition for that. 

I watched my daughter and a bunch of her new Vietnamese friends on YouTube having fun, acting stupid, and enjoying life.  I’m so grateful that for a large part of her life she was able to travel with me and now travels on her own.  She’s blogging at glocalventures.org - you can follow some of her blogs.  Her perspective is very unique and good.  She still has a lot to learn, but she’s ahead of most people I know, in terms of seeing the world as a whole and faith in a civil public square. 
I get sad sometimes when I’m with groups of leaders across America - they are making decisions on life, ministry, and work - as if they are in a silo of American dominance and cultural expansion and that simply is not the world.  I’m amazed when I’m with young pastors sometimes at how creative, open, and willing to try to new things they are here in the west when it comes to church.  But they default globally to a yester century view of the world and engagement. 

I’ve been in some meetings where we are studying our organizations and NorthWood and how we communicate and what we communicate and everything - web, blogs, events - all have to center around the concept of a naked public square globally thus impacting how we communicate and how we engage.  You pastors that are starting out, do this from the beginning and you’ll be ready for the next phase of the church in the world - do your stuff in isolation looking only to “us or the west” as the keys to how we do faith and your church is going to have a very short life span. 

OK, Bob, I get that so, what can I do to keep myself up to speed?

1.  Read the Economist, and other magazines that are global in scope.  Fareed Zacharia, is good on global issues.

2.  Travel to a different culture on the other side of the world for 2 weeks.  Go to listen and learn.  Go alone if you are a pastor - don’t lead a group, just submerge yourself in the culture with the people and don’t meet with your own faith leaders - if anything, meet with faith leaders of the dominant faith in the place you are visiting.  Don’t stay in touristy hotels, stay close to the people and eat in their restaurants, listen to their music read their papers, most will have English.  Vietnam is a great place you can do all this in. 

3. Befriend a 1st generation immigrant and take them out to eat or have them over and listen as they talk about their worldview - don’t argue or debate - just listen - and ask questions when you don’t understand.  They’ll love it that you have taken an interest in them and what they think matters to you.

4.  Watch foreign movies, listen to foreign music, look at foreign art, read foreign literature - much has been translated into English.  Vietnam has incredible poets and writers. 

5.  Watch foreign news channels!  They’re biased you say?  They would say the same of ours - and what is news and what makes it?  You have a potential revolution going on in Iran and we pretty much stop all coverage for 10 days to talk about an entertainer’s life and drug use and death - while there are tens of thousands risking their lives? . . . Come one now what kind of press is that? 

Being global isn’t something you “achieve” its something you strive to do your whole life.  I believe the Gospel has a chance globally of doing what it was intended to - but it will be done by believers who see it from a global perspective - not a missions paradigm - only then will the Great Commission be fulfilled.