Breaking the Code - Continued

The Emerging Glocal Context (Chapter 1)

The word “glocal” is the combination of the words “global” and “local.” It describes the world we live in. It does not take much to connect our local communities the world at large.

One of the duties of communities seeking to “break the code” is the recognition that there are visible and invisible characteristics within a community that will make its people resistant to or responsive to the church and its gospel message. Our goal is to discover those barriers to the gospel and ask, can we remove those barriers and still remain faithful to the gospel. And also, can we find areas of spiritual awareness in the communities we are seeking to impact and capitalize on those areas.

One of those areas where a team seeking to impact a college campus for the Kingdom of God is social justice and global awareness issues. College students have a strong passion for global concerns, social justice and advocating for the poor. As I walked around Mizzou last week, I saw a table set up trying to recruit students for the “One Campaign”, which seeks involvement to wipe out poverty and AIDS in developing nations. I also saw a student with a “Stand – Against Genocide” t-shirt. So that it is pretty apparent on Mizzou’s campus. How can we convey the message that the gospel speaks to those issues and getting “on mission” with the Church can impact these concerns for good?

I think we can learn from Jaeson Ma. Jaeson is the founder of the campus church network. [Link to Jaeson's website.] His desire was to impact campuses for Jesus. After studying the Chinese model of underground house church, “he realized that a church could be planted on a college campus if a trained missionary could pray and win a student of peace or natural leader for Christ”. (This is one of the major things I am praying for to happen at Mizzou.) The missionary would then teach the student leader to win his network of friends and from that network of friends start a small church.

In order for a community to truly impact the community for Christ, they need to truly love their community. Loving people means understanding and communicating with them. We do this with the goal of removing the cultural barriers that keep people from responding to the gospel yet presenting the gospel in a clear and faithful manner in the language of our target community.