Day 24: Think Glocal Welcome to Day 24 as you Take the Missional Challenge! Take the Missional Challenge is a 31 Day experience designed to help align believers with Jesus' mission. Each day's post includes missional concepts and activities. For more information - click here.   The Church is glocal. It is not just global, which sounds like it is "over there somewhere." It is not just local, which sounds like it is only here. The Church is glocal and the mission is glocal, because the kingdom of God is glocal. My friend Paul Kaak first introduced me to the word "glocal" - it describes the convergence of the global reality with our local reality. In Friedman's The World is Flat, he describes how this convergence is happening at a very rapid pace and he identifies ten forces that have flattened the world. One important observation he makes is the shift from "command and control to collaborate and connect." Christians on mission with Jesus must learn to collaborate more than ever before, yet on a local and global level at the same time. Through advances in technology, missional partnerships will surface all over the place, both in the U.S. and around the world. The Church and Christianity have already been impacted by the flattening of the world. As the world becomes more glocal, what does this mean for believers, for the Church, for missionaries, and for accomplishing Jesus' mission? Bob Roberts observes, Technology and development are only the means that God established long ago to connect us because it is a glocal faith. I am intrigued by what a glocal faith looks like. Not since Acts have we seen the virgin church emerge as it is doing in certain places of the world... Glocalization creates a massive opportunity for the church. The world has changed and opened like never before. North American followers of Jesus have a lot to learn from believers in the East, as well as in the Southern hemisphere. Many Christians in the west have no idea of the church's "growth in modern Africa, where the number of Christians increased, staggeringly, from 10 million in 1900 to 360 million by 2000." (Jenkins, The Next Christendom)   To fully embody the mission of Jesus,  you must embrace the global world  AND  the local context at the same time. DAY 24 ACTION STEP: Start Thinking and Acting Glocally Discover what God is doing through His Church around the world.  Pray for the global church! Explore partnerships with Christians in other parts of the world. Go on a short-term missions trip to serve with the Church in another nation. Partner with a local ethnic or multi-ethnic congregation. Stay informed regarding world news that impacts the Church in other nations. Learn another language. Sponsor a child - then go visit him/her. Connect with international students in your community. Be a blessing to immigrants locally. Support a national church planter in another nation. Day 24 Missional Challenge: Recognize that the world is now flat! Live on mission both locally and globally at the same time. Related Posts: Shift Happens Paul Kaak on Missional Living OC International