“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in£ the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”
- Matthew 28:18-20
Normally when I think about how to explain living out our faith, I like to look for analogies and metaphors that portray positive images. I like to stay away from using descriptions that can have a negative connotation. But sometimes it fits.
The theme for our 2009 Annual Gathering was “Going Glocal”. We spent a lot of time at the Gathering explaining this term, the idea that as Baptists we are called to do mission not just globally, but locally, and we want to devote this month’s devotionals to further fleshing out this idea. So what does “Going Glocal” really mean?
One way to understand it is to compare the living out of our faith to the effects of a virus on our bodies. Few of us go out looking to “catch” a virus—it just happens as we live our lives in and among other people. So too our faith. Our faith really is “caught not taught”. While we have tried to filter down our faith to certain propositional truths, the reality is that a living faith defies being quantified. While it does not “mutate” like a virus, the depths and aspects of it seem to be continually changing because we continually see new aspects of what it means to be a follower of this man, Jesus and the Truth He Proclaimed.
Even more important, just like our faith is caught, once we have been “infected”, we become carriers of our faith. It has been interesting this last year to watch the spread of the H1N1 virus. We saw numbers beginning to increase where a case is reported and then spreading out and occasionally jumping areas because of human travel and interaction. If we could map the spread of our faith, it should follow similar patterns. In fact, we often try to “make” this happen rather than just allowing it to happen through the natural sharing and living out of our faith. But if we are truly “Going Glocal”, living our faith out wherever we are, our faith becomes infectious and the spread is viral!
Perhaps we need to learn from the virus to which we are comparing our faith. You see, the way viruses stay alive is their mutability. And while the essence of our faith must not change, perhaps in order to keep the faith alive, the carrier must change. We must become capable of sharing our faith as we go into the world, not just by our intentional evangelizing of other, but by the very nature of how we live our lives. In other words, we must change how we live. “Going Glocal” is not so much about programs and mission trips. “Going Glocal” is about living our lives with an eye and a heart for people who are in need and being willing to be used to meet those needs, wherever we encounter them. It is changing the way we live our faith from seeing what we can get from our faith, to seeing what we can give to others. Of course, that is part of the essence of the faith as well. That our life will continually change to better reflect and imitate Christ’s.
In this new year, I hope you will see new mission fields open before you. You might have to travel to another state or another country, but I doubt it. Because as Jesus said – “the Fields are ripe for the harvest!”
Prayer: Lord, help me to allow my life to infect others with your Love and your grace wherever you may lead me. Amen.
Steve Van Ostran
ABCRM
Executive Minister
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