9. The Challenges of Serving the Globally Mobile III (MICN Missiology Series by Andrew Lupton)

The Challenges of Serving the Globally Mobile

Attaching Locally

In the Pixar world Bob Parr belongs to a family of superheroes, the Incredibles. He and his wife have superpowers, their three children have superpowers. Bob’s incredible family used to make an incredible difference in the world saving lives and fighting against evil. But then Bob got sued. The government could no longer contain growing animosity toward superheroes and instituted the Superhero Relocation Program, forcing all superheroes to cease their contribution to the world. As this incredible family disappeared, evil took root, and the world grew a little grayer.

I’ve been working for a few years with a group of City to City church planters and pastors in the Americas. We often ask ourselves this question, “If you and your church were to disappear tomorrow, would anyone in the community around you notice you were gone? And if the community did notice, would they say ‘we are really glad they are gone,’ or would they say ‘we are really going to miss them’?” 

How about you and your international church? If you disappeared tomorrow, would anyone in your local community notice? Would anyone miss you? Would people say, “without this international church, there’s a lot less justice in our country. There’s a lot less joy in our city. There’s a lot less humility in our community. There are fewer loving children, hardworking employees, innovative thinkers, and loving neighbors.” Would evil take root more easily in your community and would your host culture grow a little grayer? Related to the focus of these articles, would a sending agency say, “without this international church, our local mission would be impossible.” For the answer to be yes, we must attach in healthy ways to our local culture.

Attaching temporarily to one another is a challenge because of diversity and goodbye fatigue, but international churches also face the challenge of motivating their expat congregants to attach to the host culture. As explained earlier, life as an expat can be trying for the expat family system on a number of levels. But the response to the challenges of mobility ought not lead expats to a circling of the wagons in order to survive their time in a country, especially at the expense of investing locally. Pilgriming is nothing new to the people of God in Scripture. While strangers in a strange land, while captive in Babylon, God calls his people in Jeremiah 29:7 to invest locally and to, “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

There is a direct correlation between seeking the welfare (shalom) of the city in which we live and experiencing shalom ourselves. My observation is that Traditional Expats may be particularly enabled to live life separate from the host culture inside its expat bubble. But it is a mistake to live within that bubble, only consuming from the host culture without also contributing to and interacting with the host culture. How can we bless when all our host culture sees is a group of people who arrive, isolate, consume, and then leave having consumed locally more than we invested? 

International church must be a vital bridge from the global to the local, encouraging its expat congregants to learn the language, develop friendships, engage in local conversations, pray for the wellbeing of the country and its leaders, serve the underprivileged, glean and grow from elements of the local culture that are clear echos of Eden. When that happens, all parties flourish. Dignity and welfare are planted along the local paths that global nomads have trod on the way to the next destination.

The international church is an incredible family within the people of God. The gift of mobility is in many ways a superpower. Are we leading our people in a way that makes a difference locally? Is our local investment so significant that if we disappeared tomorrow, our host culture would feel it?

Tune in next week as we begin to unpack some of the strategic ambiguity of the international church.

Andrew Lupton