The fruit of the Spirit is a transformed society. Love, peace, patience, and all those things are evident when the Holy Spirit has his way in you. When the Holy Spirit brings those fruits to bear across humanity, we will see a society that is wholly different.
I’ve begun to take a keen interest in a Pastor/author named Bob Roberts, Jr. I quoted him a couple posts back. He’s been talking and writing a lot about the term “glocal” and what it means for the church. In a 21st century, interconnected world, what was once global, becomes local. Hence, “glocal”.
I recently listened to an address Roberts gave at a conference for church professionals. At the beginning of his speech he shared some interesting facts (I never checked the facts, I took him at his word). He named America as the third largest unreached nation in the world. Apparently, though the last twelve years have seen the number of Megachurches (2000 members or more) in America climb from 350 to over 2,000, total church attendance in America has gone down in the last ten years. The Church is faring similarly in Europe and Australia as well.
At the same time that Christianity is on the decline in the West, however, there is a global revival around the world. Roberts tells us that Iran is being forced to create new legislation as they see an unprecedented number of Christian converts in their young adult population. China’s underground church is thriving under an Atheist Communist government. What is true for the American Church is not true for the Global Church.
Roberts claims that the American Church has been focused on the preacher and the church, but we need now to be focused on the disciple and the society. We have been thinking that we can build a building, put a smart guy up front and watch people come to be converted. Instead we need to take the people we have, disciple them to be transformed by the Holy Spirit, and send them to penetrate all spheres of society. If we can make Disciples in all segments of society — arts, education, business, etc. — then we can begin to see transformation.
Roberts made the interesting point that while a Glocal society is marked by interconnectedness through the internet and air travel, it is not this technology that will deliver the Gospel. The Gospel will still be delivered most effectively through the Disciple.
My work in missions over the past couple of years helps to make some of this glocal philosophy make so much more sense. If we are waiting for our pastors to build the Global Church, it will never get done. It is the job of the entire Church to make disciples and bring transformation. That’s you and me. Our passion for the Lord must be contagious. We must learn how to live the Kingdom of God day by day. We must learn how to manifest His covenant in our work and in our play so that His Truth will penetrate all of society. Then we will see Transformation. Then we will see the Kingdom come.
