Small Is The Old Big
I’m in London right now with my wife.
I continue to be embarrassed by how small and insular my perspective of this world has been. I travel a lot, but until several months ago I never traveled outside of North America. I have to confess, I did not even have a passport until a year ago. That may not be a big surprise to those of you in the US…it’s reported that about 80% of US citizens do not have a passport. It’s a shame, but many of you likely unknowingly share a similar narrow view of this world.
So why does it matter to me now? Why should you care?
We have an unprecedented opportunity to share the Gospel with more people than at any time since Jesus first commanded us to “go”. There are about 6.5 billion people alive and we are more connected to each other than ever before in history! I no longer see it as just a HUGE opportunity that God is revealing…it’s now a HUGE responsibility. That compels me to think about radically new approaches to reaching this highly-connected global population. Not because our current methods don’t reach people, many of them do…but because the “responsibility” demands a bigger perspective/a bigger goal. I believe it will also require believers to be much more united…which I think technology can help with too. In a small way, this blog already demonstrates that.
Now, I know that the Internet makes it possible to “travel the world” with out leaving your home, but I’ve found that getting far outside of my routine and environment helps me detox from my narrow point of view. I never understood how US-centric my perspective was until I was outside of the US.
I certainly don’t know “how” God will use this vision, but I do know my old perspective that once seemed big is now small.
Visit 
I can completely understand — when my husband and I went on mission to Scotland (Edinburgh, specifically but we spent a fair amount of time in Glasgow as well) last fall, it was our first real trip overseas.
We were able to connect with a church plant in Edinburgh all through the internet. We stayed with the pastor and his family for three weeks and had never once met him before that time.
What was incredible was how the UK is so post-church, post-Christian…we did man-on-the-street interviews for a video to help the pastor raise support and did word association with those we interviewed.
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “God”…”Church”…”Christian”…
“God…doesn’t exist. A controlling being. Zeus. (the one that haunts me the most..) ME.”
“Church…weddings. My grandmother. Business. Pubs. Money.”
“Christian”…foolish. Hypocrite. I really don’t know.”
Typical “American” church structures and strategies don’t work there. They are three generations removed from that. If anything, it’s a political structure and church in its struggling form lives in house churches, in those reaching out (truly…GOING out)…I mean, a megachurch there is only a few hundred people…and they are so rare.
Using a church with no walls…this internet we have…these bytes that can cross borders…is so important in spreading the gospel to places we’d never really think of…there’s a whole world out there.
It IS a huge responsibility; one that the Church has overlooked for too long. I am encouraged and strengthened to see people like yourself who are “putting feet to their faith” in the area of missions!
Let us know when you’re ready to come out to South Africa! :-)
this is a huge responsibility.
when people take “mission trips” it seems like those trips change the individual on the trip more than the people they encounter b/c there perspective is changed…and it’s intresting to hear your perspective changed even in an English language city like London, etc.
How do you think we can “go into all the nations” in different ways in 2007 than say in 1977?
RC…thanks for the question.
Let me first clarify that I want to separate what I am saying from the term “missions”. In America, “missions” often implies some sort of time/financial investment impoverished countries. While experiencing that usually does change our perspective about what it really mean to be in need to be hungry…that isn’t really the same thing I am talking about in this post. BUT…please know that those “missions” are important. Anne’s comment captures much of what I mean.
Now on to your question…
I don’t exactly know, but I have several thoughts and I’ll attempt to briefly mention a few.
- web content can provide a “air cover” for the people on the ground that are sharing their faith with others. In becomes a safe way for people to explore what being a follower of Christ is and then get connected to local Christians or the inverse.
- build community…in most parts of the world, Christians are a very small minority that until recently has not been able to benefit from being a regular part of a community of believers. It is already happening, but we should use the Internet to facilitate those relationships.
- The Internet can be used to lead and focus the efforts of the Church. I think that unity is a needed attribute of the worldwide Church and the Internet can enable rapid and wide communication needed to accomplish that.
- It can and will be used to bring more worship/teaching content to explode the international “house church” movement.
- There are several specific projects that we will be discussing in the coming months, but in general they are web tools designed to help believers rapidly spread media and content that connects people to Christ.
Bobby:
While we do have an awesome responsibility, I believe it is incredibly important that we treat non-believers with love (1 Cor. 13) at all times no matter what part of the world we are traveling in. All too many times we see so-called “Christians” pointing their bony fingers at “sinners” and criticizing them for their lack of faith. How heartbreaking this must be to Jesus.
Agape,
steve
ps: Having spent a few days with you last week in San Diego, I can testify that you are one of the few believers I have met in my life whose yoke is easy and whose heart appears to be pure.
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. (Matt 5:8)
May you continue to ripen on His vine and bear His Fruit of the Spirit.
Thanks for the encouraging post Bobby. As I’m reading this I’m wondering about the importance of local context to be the impetus for transformation and I’m wondering how you handle this at Lifechurch.tv… you don’t have to answer here, but it’s just a thought.
It seems colonization occurs when we don’t think properly about context, which can be city to city or country to country.
It seems there are plenty of churches wanting to basically colonize the world with their message, but nobody really wants to be colonized.
Africa is still trying to recover from colonization.
I’m not saying the LC is doing this, I’m just curious what your thoughts are on this….
soak up the UK man. love on your wife!
[...] All this global thinking has me on a quest to learn more. [...]
Mark,
Good question.
I think there are two aspects to how we approach what you are describing.
1. We have local staff who are invested in each of the local communities we serve. The provide both local context inside of our weekend experiences and also a needed local perspective to our central team in regards to content and resources we produce. Our Internet Campus has dedicated staff…they are not local, but they are focused on localizing (in a sense) the content we have to the context of the users participating online.
2. Because of how connected our world is…the amount of things that we have in common is rapidly increasing. I’ve interviewed several people from around the globe as I’ve traveled and I believe there is definitely a global culture emerging where information access has become a great equalizer. It is not a “western culture” that is spreading…it is a global one. Because of this…I believe that it is >>possible<< to be relevant to this “global culture”. This is where our Internet Campus and media efforts can be more effective at connecting with people. It is not an effort to make people adapt to us, but rather for us to connect with others where we have things in common. All of what I just said relates primarily to the general content of what we present. The specifics of localization like translation, etc would be necessary as well.
I don’t know if I’m able to explain it well in writing, but that’s an attempt :)
Well, you know, the internet is not reality. Everything associated with the internet and everything produced by the internet is not reality. Reality is things you can touch and feel and sense. This reality has one exception- God. We cant touch God, but he is there and really real.
I liked this phrase: “helped me detox from my narrow point of view”. I sometimes really need it: to have my narrow point of view detoxed.
Thanks Bobby.