Seeing near, looking afar
This COVID-19 season could cause us to bunker down, lower our eyes, and focus on immediate needs related to our local setting. It could fuel our natural tendency to become so locally-minded that we are blind to global spiritual needs.
Acts 1: 8 encourages us to maintain a global vision. Jesus in His final words prior to the Ascension shares His vision for the apostles to engage locally and in surrounding regions, but also have a global perspective. The ends of the earth for the apostles was not known. However, we are privileged to actually know the needs and can visualise geographic regions. A holistic perspective towards mission should therefore emerge.
So, in this COVID-19 pandemic with so much change and local needs, I am deeply encouraged that many of God’s people in the Baptist community are still thinking holistically around both local and global engagement. Four events, past and future, bring great joy.
The May Mission Month total for Global Interaction reached the desired target of $700,000. We praise God for this wonderful provision for workers. Many thanks to our donors and supporters for ensuring the work can continue.
In August I attended two churches, Clovercrest Baptist Church and Andrews Farm Community Church, who had set aside the month to focus on their global mission engagement. It is encouraging to see the way these churches recognize the contribution that global missional engagement makes to their local missional practice and can maintain a healthy between the two foci of mission.
In July, Strategic Mission Week which is normally a week-long face-to-face course, went online due to COVID-19. Over 100 people joined for a day or more exploring mission. Going online lead to a revision of the program to embrace more application in the local context. One positive example of the connection between the two foci was evident when Derek Bradshaw shared how his social enterprise café in Victoria was inspired through his reflection upon Global Interaction’s approaches amongst the least reached people groups. To explore the videos from the Week, click here.
Global Interaction is pleased to be invited to contribute to Inspire SA from 19 to 21 October 2020 concerning the theme, ‘Uncontainable’. This event recognizes the mutuality of task, acknowledges the global perspective as a dialogue partner for local mission, and reinforces a holistic perspective towards mission.
May each of us take some encouragement into the future to foster an Acts 1:8 perspective towards mission despite the cultural and global factors threatening to affect its sustainability.
