A Doxological Reflection on Global Christianity

Global Christianity connotes one faith, in one Lord, expressing itself in a myriad of forms and expressions. No greater display of diversity in unity or unity in diversity exists or can exist. The world church is a multi-cultural koinonia, an emerging omni-ethnic people for God, a kingdom without borders. The redeeming blood and regenerating Spirit of Christ unite men and women from every socio-cultural, economic, and geographic location, reconciling them to God and to one another in one new humanity, a “hundred-fold and forever family,” a household of faith with no cousins only siblings. The world’s geopolitical realities, other religious identities, and “the lesser loyalties of men” are significant but penultimate staging and backstory for this divine drama.

I’ve come to conclude, from a study of “history and hermeneutics” as well as personal experience, that the climax of the storyline of the Bible, the meaning of world history in this era, and a theological definition of Christian missions can all be succinctly stated the same way: The resurrected, reigning, and returning king Jesus is building his glocal church to his Father’s manifold glory by his Spirit’s use of his Word proclaimed and put into practice by his suffering yet satisfied people among every tribe and tongue on his good but groaning earth. Of course this definition, like any, necessarily omits many wonderful facets of the Christian’s “great salvation.”

As a follower of Jesus Christ I have experienced a sense of supra-national and supernatural solidarity and fraternity with other born-again believers from the Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, Laos, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, India, New Zealand, Canada, England, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Romania, Moldova, Poland, Ukraine, Greece, Croatia, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Zimbabwe (I may have forgotten a few). The triune God is certainly fashioning for himself a worldwide temple, or dwelling place, hewed of living stones of every hue. God is fulfilling his great three-part covenant promise to call a people to himself, to be their God, and to dwell among them. This is the global, eternal, terrestrial, and cosmic missio Dei.

The world church is a third race that is both at home in this broken world and merely passing through it until it inherits a better version of it. The church is the salt, the light, the prophetic voice that is needed but not always welcome. Followers of the slain Messiah live as his disciples among the nations in an ever increasingly interconnected world. Populations are more intermingled than ever before in this age of unprecedented migration. Representatives of many far away nations are my neighbors and fellow citizens. Some of them are my brothers and sisters in Christ. But am I even their “neighbor”?! Local churches and denominations in the United States and elsewhere are wrestling with the passé nature of the old “foreign” versus “domestic” ministry paradigm. New partnerships are emerging and the pain is felt as the joints and sinews develop.

Travis Myers
PhD Candidate in Missiology, School of Theology and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

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