"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
-Acts 1:8
Jesus calls us to be generous global Christian disciples because we worship a generous, loving, global God.
The church is now a global, multicultural reality, and there will always be room for and need of a multi-ethnic witness to the reconciliation that has come in Jesus Christ. If we from North America faithfully carry the good news as we have experienced it, then our initiatives must be carried out with great sensitivity to local culture, local context, and interpretation of Scripture.
My colleague, James Krabill, would say, "People of other cultures are hungry for the Bread of Life, but they may choke on the Eurocentric plastic bag we have sometimes wrapped it in!"
The power of the gospel has moved south. Research by Professor Dana Robert of Boston University indicates that the average Christian today is a 24-year-old woman from Africa or Latin America. We have much to learn from our sisters in these parts of the world about what it means to have abundant life in Jesus. For many, the church is the one stable institution. A theologian remarking on the faithfulness of Christians in Democratic Republic of Congo once stated, "If prayer could be traded on the economic market, Congo would be the richest nation in the world."
God’s presence of healing and hope carries the church through all the challenges of daily life. Small mustard seed gifts can grow into great works of holistic witness.
Read more from Paula in the newest issue in our Missio Dei series, The "M" Word.
