Periodical Review: "Glocal Church Ministry"

As appearing in the Winter 2008 issue of THE PNEUMA REVIEW

Mark Galli, interviewer, "Glocal Church Ministry: Bob Roberts has an idea that may change American congregations, if not the world" Christianity Today (July 2007), pages 42-46.

I have often thought of the concept of glocalzation and questioned myself, "In what ways does a local church become global?" On one hand, the local church does not participate in the reality of the global dimension of God's work: it is not a global church. On the other hand, the church with a global vision and scope should be deeply rooted in its local context. There should be a constant interaction between these two spheres of life: global and local. Any derivative ideas such as global leadership, global ministry, and global Christianity should have the same notion.

Roberts convincingly presents his contention that "a local church must be a global church." He particularly underscores the importance of laity and their talents and skills for global ministry. It is impressive that he and his church have planted over 100 congregations and undertaken impressive social work in various parts of the world. Equally astonishing is that he has mobilized laypeople of his church for global ministry. His reflection, therefore, is based on his experience, thus, field-tested. Many of his practical suggestions have to do with the proper handling of human and financial resources for global mission, and I found them extremely valuable.

He is a reflective practitioner wrestling with a serious fundamental question which every Christian should ask, "When will Jesus be enough for you?" He firmly believes it to be always so, if we have the Holy Spirit, His living Word, and His presence with us. As Paul admonishes in Philippians 4:4, he argues that we should rejoice in the Lord, and do so always. Then he moves to the action level with the following question, "What does it mean for Christ to be enough?" His response to this question has been global church planting.

Roberts' interpretation of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20) is noteworthy: "I want to win the whole world, but I will not win the whole world as an individual or even as a single church" (p. 2). His answer was a corporate concept of "togetherness." The clue was found in Acts 1:8: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." The strategy of the Lord for his disciples was to receive power (how) and start first in Jerusalem (where). Winning the whole world with the whole body of Christ starts within local community.

It is worth noting his view on transformation as the ultimate goal of Christian life: the transformation of "the community or a city somewhere in the world" (p. 3). Roberts well presents the purpose of planting church: not just make church grow in number but to exist for kingdom transformation. It is experientially evident that some Christians in this postmodern society are no different than secular people in their thoughts and way of living. Worse yet, we may be repeating the grave sin that Hosea (4:7) records, "the more the priests increased, the more they sinned against me...." We have more churches than ever before, we have more theological training schools and kingdom workers than ever before. Is our society transformed more than ever before? Finding the transformation formula is not quite hard: real transformation comes from God through power of the Holy Spirit. I am convinced that efforts of social concern are only a small part of real transformation. Foremost social transformation comes from God, because, when the Spirit works, a fundamental and internal change takes place, which continues on to external; hardly the other way around, unless social work deeply includes the living Word. Thus, it should be, "Come and hear the living Word," rather than "come and hear my preaching." Only then people will thirst no more, as experienced the Samaritan woman (John 4).

Roberts contends that churches should participate in the changing of the world by sending people. He points out that biblical teaching is to make disciples for kingdom expansion rather than resulting in church growth from converts. His thought is well aligned with Matthew 28:19. I understand his preference of "kingdom" to "mission." Often the word "mission" is not properly used by churches and even by missionaries. I feel that the meaning of this term must be biblically taught so that the churches and its agencies of mission will no longer do it as "business as usual." As Matthew 28:19 notes, "going" is mandatory in mission, followed by "baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" to ultimately "make disciples." This means that taking an action is essential to telling people what God's kingdom is all about and who the King is in this kingdom. Without going (mission) there is no way telling of the Kingdom of God.

I want to add my thought born out of my experience in regard with the involvement of laity. With their endless resources and willingness, the challenge is how to prepare and deploy them to their best potential. The particular aim is to make them "global people." When one fully understands the meaning of "being global," he or she will be working globally. Often the major problem is that they, like all of us, come with their local orientation. Unless this is brought to the global dimension, they will move from one local to another local setting. This produces the superimposition of one's culture and Christian orientation to another local setting. Moving from one local to another local setting does not make the person involved global. Unfortunately much of "global" mission, or kingdom work is from "local" to "local" under the name of "global." Therefore, it will be critical to prepare this hardly tapped mission resource in the lives of laity, not only with the "how to do's" of mission, but more importantly the global nature of their involvement. It is also necessary to orient them with soul-winning as the core and primary component of this global Christian transformation. If social transformation remains just as social development, how does this differ from social development projects undertaken by secular organizations? This may be what Roberts is fundamentally wrestling with.

Reviewed by Julie C. Ma

Notes

At the time of printing, this article was found online at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/july/30.42.html

For further reading, Leadership journal published a Christian Vision Project interview with Bob Roberts: http://www.christianvisionproject.com/2007/01/we_arent_about_weekends.html

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Julie C. Ma is Research Tutor in Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, Oxford UK. She is the author of When the Spirit Meets the Spirits: Pentecostal Ministry among the Kankana-ey Tribe in the Philippines (Peter Lang, 2000) and Mission Possible: Biblical Strategies for Reaching the Lost (Regnum/Paternoster, 2005), and editor of Asian Church and God's Mission (2003) with her husband Wonsuk Ma. She now preparing her third book, Pentecostal Mission in Asian Context. Her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Intercultural Studies and Theology are from Fuller Theological Seminary.