GlocalNet

It’s been a very wild ride this last week and will continue so for another week.  Having diplomats to Vietnam at our church last weekend, with people at the Common Word at Georgetown in DC this week and all my Muslim friends, today working in the inner-city with Northwood’s extreme home makeover, then praying at a big banquet tonight for Baylor ......So forgive me for not doing more on my blog than posting pictures. 

I see what God is doing around the world, and new ways of engaging and communicating with leaders, countries, communities, and even other religions - and I get excited about the future.  It won’t be easy because of the learning shift necessary by those still in the driver’s seats of big institutions - but many are getting it and beginning to see a new world, a new language, and a new platform for engagement with a powerfully old message - the Gospel of the Kingdom.  The challenging part is that, even though a leader of one of those institutions may get it - all the people beneath him are not always easily “converted” which creates a huge gap. 
The bus has left the station, and while some are still trying to engineer the bus, others have just taken their seats and are moving with the bus towards the final destination, doing what is necessary to get there.  Here are some signs of hope I see. . .

People of all communities, domains, faiths, etc., get that….

1.  There is a new platform on which we all live and communicate and do life which connects all of us and it isn’t institutions, though they are important and have a role - everything is grassroots now.

2.  There is a new conversation about the language we use globally, how we come together, how we hold on to our own values, beliefs, convictions, and yet are able to live together and work together.

3.  There is a new openness to learning.  Some will be bound by old ideas and conversations that are broken and unusable, one example being interfaith vs. multifaith.  They will not carry the conversation of the future, and they are not.

4.  There is a willingness for all of us to collaborate to solve global issues together without giving up our personal beliefs and convictions. This is huge. It will be how we move forward.  If we can’t work together we’re doomed.  If we have to give up our deepest convictions and beliefs, then we have no source of authority in life beyond ourselves.

I really enjoyed you young guys with me at Common Word this week.  I know it was challenging at many points, the ideas you heard, some of the people you met, some of the views some had toward you, but you sat there, you took it, you listened, you learned, and you will be leaders not just now but in the near future, and not just in the church, but in the world. 

Aaron, Don, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, David, Dennis, Steve, Rob, Mitch, Michael, Buddy . .  . . . proud of you - bob