A Global Vision of the Church

“I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.” ~Romans 15:25-27

First-century Christians were known for their support and love for one another. Paul tells the church in Rome that he longs to visit them so they might “be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith” (Rom 1:12). Elsewhere, Scripture mentions majority Gentile churches contributing financial support for the predominately Jewish church in Jerusalem (1 Cor 16:1-4; Gal 2:10; Acts 11:27-30). In Romans 15 we read that the saints in Greece had a deep affection for the believers in Jerusalem, which led to them providing financial support for them. The Church in Jerusalem was both geographically and ethnically distant from the Christians in Macedonia and Achaia. It’s remarkable that in spite of these natural differences (geography and ethnicity), Christians have a love and concern for each other that transcends these differences.

When you imagine a local church, does it look remarkably like your own? Is it rather mono-chromatic, similar in socio-economic status, and made up of people who are steeped in the same cultural traditions in which you were raised? We need to remember that the Church of Jesus Christ is a global church. It is made up of local churches where no one looks like you, where no one has the same cultural influences with which you grew up, and where no one sings songs you may have been familiar with for decades. If you’ve never worshipped at a church in an international setting, I can tell you it’s a wonderfully humbling experience! It demonstrates the reality that God has people in every city (Acts 18:10), and that His people worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), even if their songs and liturgy sound different than yours.

These realities ought to change the way we think. The fact that all God’s people are God’s people should encourage us to consider the Church in a more global context. But these realities should do more than change the way we think — they should change the way we act!

Notice that the first-century Christians principally did two things for one another: they prayed (Rom 15:30-32) and they gave. Are you praying regularly for churches in foreign places? Imagine the blessing it would be to Christians in Iran to know that believers in America pray for them daily! Or consider what a comfort it would be for a church in China to hear that a church in America was committed to praying for them regularly. And we also ought to be thinking about how we can give to support the work Jesus is doing in other places. Do you intentionally plan to contribute to the needs of the saints in other parts of the world? It would seem that this was the practice of the early Church, which only makes sense, since Jesus Himself prays that we would all be one, even as He is one with the Father (John 17:22-23).

Rev. Kyle Lockhart, Pastor of Teaching & Spiritual Formation