Local and Global

Acts 5:12–16 NRSV

Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high esteem. Yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord, great numbers of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he came by. A great number of people would also gather from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.

When I was somewhere around 10 or 11, my home church and several others determined that a Disciples church was needed in what was then the new town of Coral Springs

Today, it has a population of over 133,000 but in 1970 its population was less than 1,500

I can remember when that new congregation built their first building, I was part of a group that went out to do landscaping around this new facility

My home church took seriously the need to plant new churches throughout Broward County

But just as important to my home church were “Unc” Morton and Mary Light

Two Disciples overseas missionaries who had strong ties to my home church

I grew up with the understanding that Disciples churches had a responsibility to be both locally and globally focused

That not only were local ministries and global ministries not in competition with one another

But that they went hand-in-hand

Indeed, back in the late 1800s, when Disciples churches were being planted at a dizzying rate across the US

Disciples also began sending missionaries to places like Haiti, India and the Congo

Ministries at home and overseas were seen as two sides of the same coin

Disciples took very seriously our responsibility to live out the final instructions Jesus gave to his followers before ascending into heaven

In , we read

Matthew 28:16–20 NRSV

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:

Unfortunately, over the last 30 or 40 years the attitude has changed in many congregations

Rather than seeing local ministries and global ministries as working hand-in-hand

Too many congregations have come to see local and global ministries as competing with one another

Over the course of my career

As churches have struggled with declining membership and financial hardships

I have heard more and more the refrain, we need to take care of our own before we worry about people we don’t know

But what if the notion that we need to focus on ourselves rather than others

Is the cause of the problem our churches are experiencing and not the solution?

As I have said before, I do not fly all that often

But, unlike many other people, when I do fly I tend to listen to the instructions given by the flight attendants

And, of course, they always instruct us that if the oxygen masks come down

We are supposed to put our own mask on before helping others

And the reason, as is farily obvious, is that if we black out we aren’t going to be much help to our loved ones

But what makes sense in depressurizing airline cabins doesn’t necessarily make sense when it comes to ministry

Remember our first scripture reading from the book of Acts

Acts 5:12 NRSV

Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico.

The early church was not rich

The people who were part of it had the least standing in Jerusalem

They were outcast and ostracized

Yet, they focused on others outside the church

Many of those they were ministring to were afraid to join them out of a concern that they might be punished or persecuted

Still, many of the people of Jerusalem held the apostles and other believers in “high esteem”

It wasn’t easy, but the early church kept reaching beyond themselves to minister to those outside the church

It was hard and it took time but tells us

Acts 5:14 NRSV

Yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord, great numbers of both men and women,

In the face of hardship, the early church did not turn inward—they turned outward

They didn’t put their own oxygen masks on first, they helped others with their oxygen masks first

And that is how the early church took root

My question is this, what if early church’s experience is a model for our own time?