One of the truly unique experiences I have as host of an internet-based church community is the interaction with people from all over the world. It continually challenges my “set ways” of thinking about how I operate and interact with the world around me.
On any given Sunday, it is not unusual for people from several different countries, and just as many time zones, to be joining us for worship. I have finally gotten used to thinking of time as plus or minus UMT. And let’s not even get into trying to figure out how to call internationally the first time…
So, as I started thinking about the upcoming Fourth of July weekend, I started to realize how irrelevant it will be to our members and friends living in Trinidad and Tobago, or South Africa, or any of the multiplied countries that we receive people from.
Being global used to be such a badge of ministry expansion… Today it means simply using the tools that are provided to us.
Engaging people in countries and cultures other than your own really exposes the “set ways” of operating and thinking.
What has leveraging the web for ministry or being in multi-national ministry work exposed in your organization? What have you done to become more neutral?
P.S. Rec’d an email today saying that they have the Fourth of July in other countries. They just don’t celebrate it in England…
Filed under: Church Innovation | Tagged: campus, culture, global, internet, ministry, multiculture, multinational
