When my family arrived on the mission field in Central Asia in the ‘90s, we left every scrap of our home culture behind. There was no internet, no Western entertainment. Local Russian programming was the only television we had. Except for the occasional bottle of Coca-Cola, we never encountered American products.
Then things changed.
Handwritten letters became instantaneous emails. Satellite television brought us the news from Minneapolis, as well as Moscow. One day we were shocked to discover that our city had a new McDonald’s restaurant – McDonald’s! In Central Asia!
Our mission field had changed. It had become globalized. And missions would never be the same.
Globalization and the Gospel
“Globalization” is the term missiologists and sociologists use to describe our increasingly interconnected world. New technologies, for instance, allow us to communicate faster and further than ever before. With online learning platforms, students in Idaho can now attend colleges in Florida. With smartphones, children in the States can now chat in real time with their grandparents in Korea.
Globalization has also brought cultural changes. As different cultures become acquainted with one other, our distinct ways of life begin to evolve. One of my Indian students recently pointed out to me that, a generation ago, Indian families were much larger. But, they explained, as more Indians have been exposed to Western culture through news and entertainment, more families are choosing to have fewer children. Globalization has affected beliefs as basic as appropriate family size. And whether you live in New Delhi or New York, there’s a good chance that your world is nearly unrecognizable from the one your grandparents grew up in.
This world of rapid change presents an exciting challenge to us as Christians. Our God and his Word are the same yesterday, today, and forever, and we have both the privilege and the responsibility of bringing this unchanging Gospel to an ever-changing world. Pursuing this task will require us to rethink our tactics and reimagine our strategies. Here are just four examples of missiological categories that have been altered by globalization.
Which Language to Learn
One of the first questions any cross-cultural missionary asks is, “Which language do I learn?” Our Central Asian people group spoke two languages: Russian (the trade language), and a tribal tongue (their heart language). Our team chose to learn the tribal language, so as to better speak to the hearts of our people group.
Before long, though, we found ourselves speaking far more Russian than we expected. Knowing the language of trade allowed us to speak to everyone in town, not just our target people group, and that actually made it easier to find and communicate with the people group we were seeking. Before long, our host government complicated things further by declaring English the country’s third official language, in order to make international business easier and more efficient. More and more of our people group wanted to learn and speak English, in addition to their tribal language.
Suddenly, the conventional wisdom of only learning the people’s “heart language” didn’t make sense. So we adapted. Instead of an entire missionary team learning a single language, we diversified – all of us spoke English, some of us learned Russian, and some of us learned the tribal language. We were a linguistically globalized team reaching a linguistically globalized community.
Cities vs. Villages
For decades, missions strategies were built with a laser focus on particular tribes. We sought to hone in on these distinct people groups, developing strategies to reach them in particular, and to plant churches for them in particular. In a world where most people lived in mono-ethnic villages surrounded only by people of their own tribe, that made sense. But that’s not the world we live in anymore.
Today, the world’s population is moving very quickly to the cities in a process called “urbanization.” Young people in particular, don’t see a future for themselves in their villages, so as quickly as they can, they move to the big city for work and education. Many large cities develop what’s called a “global culture,” where dozens and dozens of ethnic groups, languages, religions, and nationalities mingle in the same community.
Take Dubai, for instance. This megacity is located in the United Arab Emirates, but only about twenty percent of its population is Arabic. If we want to plant a church in Dubai, then, what should it look like? It will be a church in an Arabic nation, but if it’s an Arabic church, it will only reach twenty percent of the community. Should services be held in English, then? Should we have church in both English and Arabic? Do we then translate the sermon from English to Arabic or from Arabic to English? Again, the conventional wisdom of “one people group, one church” is no longer a workable approach.
Many believers are therefore planting “international churches” in global cities like Dubai, Beijing, Bangkok, and Lagos. These congregations adopt trade languages (often English) and foster a multicultural atmosphere which welcomes as many people groups as possible. They are global churches, designed to reach the global cultures of their globalized cities.
Business as Missions
Another strategy that’s on the rise is what’s known a BAM, “business as missions.” This is particularly popular in countries where missions and evangelism are unwelcome or even illegal. Some countries won’t issue visas to missionaries, but they’re open to entrepreneurs, doctors, electricians, engineers, or fitness trainers. So, many missionaries are taking their cues from Paul (who worked as a tentmaker) and Jesus (who worked as a carpenter), gaining entry to these nations through business strategies that offer value to those countries.
A key feature of successful BAM strategies is national partners: local believers who are willing to work alongside missionaries to do kingdom work, but also to help us foreigners understand how to do business and navigate the host culture well. Missiological strategies built around a business-as-missions approach will look different than traditional missions strategies – you have to run a real business, after all. But when executed well, and with much wisdom and guidance from national partners, these strategies can be incredibly effective in gaining access to hard-to-reach communities.
Ministries of Welcoming
Finally, globalization means that we no longer have to cross a geopolitical border in order to work cross-culturally. Where I live in Fort Worth, I can drive to my local Walmart and greet people from India, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Ghana, and Brazil. People from around the world are flocking to our cities, and we have the incredible opportunity to minister to the nations without even leaving our neighborhoods.
Many churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are developing ministries of welcoming for the immigrants, refugees, and international students making their home in this country. We, as believers, can take the initiative to show hospitality to our new neighbors. When immigrants need citizenship classes, or refugees need housing, or international students need a home for the holiday break, we can share the Gospel in both word and deed through our service and friendship.
Globalization has certainly complicated our world, but with those complications come opportunities. I can get on my laptop and witness to a friend in Kenya. My students can cook a meal and serve it to an Afghani family next door. Muslims in closed countries can engage anonymously in Gospel conversations…over Facebook! I’m excited to see the new and innovative ways this generation of missionaries will find to share the unchanging Gospel with our ever-changing world.
