16. The Opportunities of Serving the Globally Mobile V (MICN Missiology Series by Andrew Lupton)
Ministry to the Host Nation
Story after story could be told about the unique reach international churches have toward the nations, but what about locally? Can international churches and their congregants attach locally for kingdom investment? Can international churches make a missional impact locally on their host city and country? The answer is a resounding yes.
God converted one diplomatic couple in my office during couples’ counseling. It was amazing. They went on to not only resource other marriages in the diplomatic community, but they were sent to a muslim country for their next posting to impact a closed nation. But before they left, that same couple had started a foundation for at-risk kids in one of Colombia’s most devastated and narco-trafficked cities. One spouse was even invited to the presidential palace and given medals of recognition of service for his impact on Colombia. That is the sort of impact on the host nation that the international church gets to facilitate and champion!
As Warren Reeve notes, congregants within international churches are well-connected politically and among local influencers. He compares this mission of influencing influencers to the Acts 13 description of the original international church in Antioch. Part of the strategy in Antioch was to utilize influencers like Manaen, who is described as “a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch,” and had himself apparently been the result of influencing influencers. 1
In addition to the local impact through individual congregants, international churches can corporately make a missional impact on their host city and country. Reeve points out that international churches have a strategic advantage of being in the right place at the right time when crisis strikes. In crisis, these churches are positioned to leverage the resources of their members and network to provide relief.2
The Covid-19 crisis has wreaked insurmountable havoc on our disadvantaged neighbors in Bogotá. Many found themselves desperate, unemployed, and struggling to feed their families. As a church community we have been able to rally around our neighbors with whom we have an ongoing discipleship relationship to feed hundreds of families by leveraging the resources and the connections of the nations. Nearing the end of the crisis, UCB has been able to provide tens of thousands of dollars of relief to disadvantaged families we know and love. At one point were were feeding over six hundred families every month.
We were eager to see the inroads for the gospel, potential for church planting, and longterm impact of being in the right place at the right time for this community. Sure enough, God showed us that impact a few months ago when local leaders of one of the communities asked us to disciple them in the gospel. Roman Catholicism and the prosperity gospel were their only reference points for Christianity, but they noticed something different in the international church down the street. Today, God is building a new reference point (and new disciples) every Saturday as these community leaders meet with our leaders to learn about Jesus.
How is your international church uniquely positioned and leveraged to impact its host nation? Are their ways the local, national church faces roadblocks that your church can easily overcome? Tune in next week as we discuss how international churches can invest in local missionaries, thus multiplying the existing impact of mission sending agencies.
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: Influencing Influencers.
2 Ibid., section: Crisis Response.
