13. The Opportunities of Serving the Globally Mobile II (MICN Missiology Series by Andrew Lupton)
Discipleship
In addition to evangelistic opportunities, international churches have the opportunity to minister the grace of God at life’s key discipleship moments. Part of this opportunity comes by way of the trauma of transition. When life is in upheaval, we become more aware of our problems, idols, and sin patterns. The pressure cooker of global mobility presents our people with a strategic moment to identify and invest in their growth areas.
I often invite members of our church family who are about to move away to build David Pollock and Ruth Van Reken’s RAFT (Reconciliation Affirmation Farewells Think Destination) before they go. To Think Destination includes dreaming about how to reinvent ourselves in our new country and community once we land. Mobility presents our people with that opportunity over and over again and we, the international church, get to facilitate this sort of regeneration moment. There is safety in a new community where we are unknown. Newly arriving families think, “why not invest in our marriage, jump into service to the disadvantaged, enhance our devotional practices, or join a small group?” You and I get to steward those moments as we disciple the globally mobile.
Similarly, healthy, globally mobile Christians are accustomed to quickly forming deep relationships in order to maximize their spiritual growth during a brief stay at their new international church. I am regularly reminded of my years working at a summer camp and the way lifelong change or friendship can be birthed during short, intensive spurts in life. It is a risk to invest relationally, but one that often yields much spiritual fruit. The international church has given my family some of our closest friendships. These friendships, though we are now separated by thousands of miles, are built for a lifetime and are God’s redemptive tools in our own discipleship process.
It is a privilege to serve and disciple mobile families during these tender moments of life. A notable exception to strategic discipleship moments is the end of life. It is common for international church pastors to perform very few funerals because international churches often lack the older generation.1 I average two funerals per year, which is low given the 400 people who regularly attended our church pre-Covid. Sadly, two-thirds of the funerals are in light of tragedy, not old age.
On the other hand, it is not unusual that I perform numerous baptisms, dedications, and around 10 weddings in a normal year. This latter figure means I’m constantly engaged in two to three individual premarital counseling courses of four to five sessions. These sessions are always fertile ground for evangelism and discipleship. The same is true for baptisms and baby dedications.
Another key discipleship moment comes through our membership process. I estimate that we receive 60-70 new members in a normal year. At least half of our new and existing church members have never been members of a church previously. This reality is partially due to the number of new converts we welcome into membership. However, many of our incoming members have never belonged to a church, Colombian or otherwise, where meaningful membership was practiced. In other words, international churches like ours that practice meaningful membership have a unique opportunity to introduce believers to a healthy relationship with Christ’s church that they and their future churches may benefit from for the rest of their lives.
There’s so much more we could say about multiplying disciples through the international church. Thankfully, we’ll do just that at next year’s Global Gathering in Bangkok. At the end of the day, belonging to God’s church in a meaningful way is how people grow in God’s grace through the Word, sacrament, community, and prayer. You and I have the strategic opportunity to broker that relationship between the globally mobile and God’s church as we disciple the nations and the next generation.
By now you’ve noticed that I use the language of the nations and the next generation a lot. I intentionally do so. Tune in next week as we discuss the unique opportunity the international church has to disciple the next generation.
Andrew Lupton
1 Sadiri Joy Tira & Tetsunao Yamamori, Scattered and Gathered: A Global Compendium of Diaspora Missiology (Chapter 11: Unleashing Great Commission Potential through International Churches by Warren Reeve, section: Turnover and Demographic.
