interview about Glocal church
i read Bob Robert's Glocal blog and link to it sometimes. This post is a link to an interview that is extremely stimulating. i don't agree with everything he thinks, but he doesn't make me feel stupid for not thinking that way. he is a mega church pastor who really likes micro churches. here are the quotes that got me cogitating...
Societies are built on several domains:
• The family, from which we get our values.
• The tribe, from which we get our culture.
• The city, from which we get our livelihood.
• The nation, from which we get our security and our trade.
Finally, the world. And all of that is within the realm of the kingdom of God. We use the word glocal, meaning the kingdom encompasses all of this, local and global.
The number one result of God's kingdom is transformation of all the sectors....
So what's your church's role in this transformation?
We're a connection center between believers and all of society's domains. Jesus told his disciples to be his witnesses, to live out and proclaim the gospel, in "Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth."
"Jerusalem" is where we live and work. We train our people to view their vocation as their "Jerusalem" ministry. From there, we teach them to use their vocation and skills to intersect a domain locally ("Judea") and to other nearby cultures—for us, Mexico is our "Samaria"—and globally to the "ends of the earth" (we define that as a hard place in the world, and for us, that's Vietnam and Afghanistan)....
In kingdom work, we make a mistake when we start with ecclesiology. We should start with Christology. Our first approach should be "How can we live out the love of Jesus in this society?" It's not "How can we start a church?"
People living like Jesus: that's what changes a society. Too often, we start with a preacher who tries to gather a church first, thinking that, in time they'll get around to engaging the world. That's backwards. It teaches people to think engaging the world is something we pay people to do after the church is built, or that it's an occasional trip we make.
No, we want people to understand the Great Commission is not the church's project, but it's something we all own personally. "You mean me go and use my job? What in the world can a plumber do over there?" Yes, we want everyone to think mission first. Mission doesn't mean multiplying churches, but finding ways to show God's love and greatness to the world.
If you focus on mission, churches will follow, but if you focus on churches, mission often gets lost.
Is this true of individuals, too? Does focusing on my "standing" in Christ divert the focus from my "calling" in Christ?
It can. Our definition of disciple must move from the celebration of a moment of "conversion" to a focus on transformation over time, seeing that person and their community transformed. We have to move from an evangelism perspective that says, "Here's the prayer you need to pray. If you don't accept my gospel presentation, it's over. I've done my duty" to a radically different expression of faith, which is unabashedly proclaiming the gospel, and serving, and loving.
How does evangelism fit into your understanding of mission?
I see evangelism as introducing a person to Jesus and getting that person to convert. Our mission is engaging the whole of society as agents of God's kingdom. For God's kingdom to be seen on earth, evangelism is a must.
But if we focus on evangelism only, then when we've done evangelism, congratulations, somebody got converted. End of story. But evangelism isn't the endgame. It's just a core competency. If we're trying to see a community transformed, evangelism is just part of it....
What direction do you see things going in the future?
The things I'm learning most about faith today are from Christians in the East. That's who I'm learning from.
As I look at history, every major shift took place when the center of geography of Christianity shifted. We saw that in transitions from Jerusalem to Antioch to Constantinople to Rome to Wittenburg to England to the U.S.
It's time now for another major shift, maybe to Seoul or Nairobi. When that happens, there may be a schism in the church; history proves that. But here's what's going to be cool. We're going to get a whole new set of Calvins and Luthers. They're probably going to be Phuc or Nghi or Akmed. Can you imagine what we're going to learn about God from an Asian Reformer's perspective, or African, or Arab?
We're past due for some brilliant new ways of seeing God, and they're going to bring that to us. That really excites me....
at the end of the article he lists things he is learning and unlearning. it's disappointing to me in that these things aren't opposites. i wish his list was retitled "things i'm re-prioritizing." because i think his lists are not universally correct or incorrect, but locally determined. call me a relativist. none of these things are worth going to the stake for.
Societies are built on several domains:
• The family, from which we get our values.
• The tribe, from which we get our culture.
• The city, from which we get our livelihood.
• The nation, from which we get our security and our trade.
Finally, the world. And all of that is within the realm of the kingdom of God. We use the word glocal, meaning the kingdom encompasses all of this, local and global.
The number one result of God's kingdom is transformation of all the sectors....
So what's your church's role in this transformation?
We're a connection center between believers and all of society's domains. Jesus told his disciples to be his witnesses, to live out and proclaim the gospel, in "Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth."
"Jerusalem" is where we live and work. We train our people to view their vocation as their "Jerusalem" ministry. From there, we teach them to use their vocation and skills to intersect a domain locally ("Judea") and to other nearby cultures—for us, Mexico is our "Samaria"—and globally to the "ends of the earth" (we define that as a hard place in the world, and for us, that's Vietnam and Afghanistan)....
In kingdom work, we make a mistake when we start with ecclesiology. We should start with Christology. Our first approach should be "How can we live out the love of Jesus in this society?" It's not "How can we start a church?"
People living like Jesus: that's what changes a society. Too often, we start with a preacher who tries to gather a church first, thinking that, in time they'll get around to engaging the world. That's backwards. It teaches people to think engaging the world is something we pay people to do after the church is built, or that it's an occasional trip we make.
No, we want people to understand the Great Commission is not the church's project, but it's something we all own personally. "You mean me go and use my job? What in the world can a plumber do over there?" Yes, we want everyone to think mission first. Mission doesn't mean multiplying churches, but finding ways to show God's love and greatness to the world.
If you focus on mission, churches will follow, but if you focus on churches, mission often gets lost.
Is this true of individuals, too? Does focusing on my "standing" in Christ divert the focus from my "calling" in Christ?
It can. Our definition of disciple must move from the celebration of a moment of "conversion" to a focus on transformation over time, seeing that person and their community transformed. We have to move from an evangelism perspective that says, "Here's the prayer you need to pray. If you don't accept my gospel presentation, it's over. I've done my duty" to a radically different expression of faith, which is unabashedly proclaiming the gospel, and serving, and loving.
How does evangelism fit into your understanding of mission?
I see evangelism as introducing a person to Jesus and getting that person to convert. Our mission is engaging the whole of society as agents of God's kingdom. For God's kingdom to be seen on earth, evangelism is a must.
But if we focus on evangelism only, then when we've done evangelism, congratulations, somebody got converted. End of story. But evangelism isn't the endgame. It's just a core competency. If we're trying to see a community transformed, evangelism is just part of it....
What direction do you see things going in the future?
The things I'm learning most about faith today are from Christians in the East. That's who I'm learning from.
As I look at history, every major shift took place when the center of geography of Christianity shifted. We saw that in transitions from Jerusalem to Antioch to Constantinople to Rome to Wittenburg to England to the U.S.
It's time now for another major shift, maybe to Seoul or Nairobi. When that happens, there may be a schism in the church; history proves that. But here's what's going to be cool. We're going to get a whole new set of Calvins and Luthers. They're probably going to be Phuc or Nghi or Akmed. Can you imagine what we're going to learn about God from an Asian Reformer's perspective, or African, or Arab?
We're past due for some brilliant new ways of seeing God, and they're going to bring that to us. That really excites me....
at the end of the article he lists things he is learning and unlearning. it's disappointing to me in that these things aren't opposites. i wish his list was retitled "things i'm re-prioritizing." because i think his lists are not universally correct or incorrect, but locally determined. call me a relativist. none of these things are worth going to the stake for.
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