We live in a globalised world. The internet and social media has made it possible to communicate with people across the whole world at the speed of light. Relatively cheap air transport has made international travel more accessible more than ever before. Contemporary globalisation is the result of this international accessibility. People and ideas from across the world – especially from areas which used to be far away, therefore 'foreign' and different, 'exotic' – are now nearby and accessible. The 'other' has become our 'neighbour' – physically, electronically, or both. We may even speak of the situation of 'globality' – the mindset and expectation, brought on by the processes of globalisation, of having access to the apparently limitless options offered by the whole world.
This barrage of information can be exciting, exhausting, or frightening. It can be exciting because we can learn from different sources, and get different perspectives on events, like never before. But evaluating that variety of perspectives can be exhausting. How can I work out who to believe, and why? And how can I do it quickly enough to stay current? And the question of evaluation can be frightening. How do I figure out who and what to believe within this flood of conflicting information? Can I have a basis for this discernment which is deeper than my subjective preference? And if there’s no basis deeper than my personal preference… what’s the point of listening to these various voices? I might as well tune out and drop out from the internet shouting factory.
Biblical Christianity has a basis for living in a complex, varied, chaotic world which is deeper than our subjective preferences. That basis is found by understanding this world, and our selves within this world, as creatures of the Triune God.
We who call ourselves Christians discover the 'good life' in being unconditionally loved and redeemed by Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, who died and rose for us. By his death and resurrection, Christ forgives us for the insult we inflict upon God when we turn away from God and ignore him. He also forgives us for the harm we perpetrate upon each other – which happens because, having turned away from God, we become selfish and inconsiderate. Both of these are what the Bible calls 'sin.' And they drove Jesus Christ, God the Son incarnate and the only truly good, upright, reliable human being in the universe, to a lonely, shameful death on the cross.
In his death, Jesus bore the penalty we deserve for our sin – our insulting God and damaging each other. In his resurrection, Jesus achieved eternal life – the ongoing quality of life with God that God always intended for humanity. Jesus, being the only truly good, upright, reliable human being in the universe, deserves this kind of eternal life. But in his kindness, he offers this kind of life to everyone who puts their trust in him.
Christians are people who have accepted Christ’s life-and-death offer – his offer of eternal life in him, if we accept that he died the death we deserve. We who put our trust in him spend the rest of our life seeking to live for him in the particular situation God has put us in – our particular family, school, work, society, ethnicity, culture etc.
And this good life, for God, with reference to Christ, forms the basis whereby we evaluate everything the world offers us. We understand the good life to be the opposite to sin – seeking to love, honour, worship and obey the Triune God, in Jesus Christ who died and rose for us – for me! And, seeking to reflect that kind of sacrificial, other-oriented love, we try to care for people – to “love our neighbour” – instead of being self-absorbed, self-advancing, self-determining, and self-everything-else in this selfish age.
But this good life is not easy. Not only do we have to work against our continuing tendencies to reject God and use each other – our continuing sin – but also, we have to work out what it means to live for Jesus in our particular situation within this complex, option-filled, chaotic world. What does it mean to live for Jesus and love our neighbours in our particular family, school, work, society, ethnicity, culture etc.? And to do so under conditions of globality, in the midst of the noise of incessant options?
This is why multicultural ministry still matters. One aspect of contemporary globality is the global church and polycentric mission. It is now common knowledge that the strength of Christianity, and its probable future, lies in the 'global south' – in Africa, Asia, and South America. Global evangelicalism is now mature enough to create long-term movements like the Lausanne Movement. Their State Of The Great Commission 2024 Report is an impressive, well-researched, thought-provoking document [1] which I'm confident will achieve its goal of informing and encouraging outreach in the coming decades. The Langham Partnership was set up in 1969 by evangelical Anglican minister John Stott, and continues to train Christian leaders for the majority world. Its publishing arm Langham Literature has provided the global church with resources like the Africa Bible Commentary and South Asia Bible Commentary. The Gospel Coalition is a well-known international, interdenominational Calvinist fellowship. It has 20 regional sites, many of them in languages other than English. I'm a minister of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. As a denomination, Presbyterianism originated in Scotland. But globally, Presbyterianism is now strongest in South Korea.
The global church is a microcosm of the opportunities and challenges of globalisation. Its existence contradicts the caricature of Christianity being a 'white,' 'western' religion, by demonstrating the relevance of the Christian gospel to every people and nation. I've certainly benefited from Australian Christianity, but I am originally a product of Sri Lankan Christianity. I have happy memories of growing up in the Sri Lankan Methodist church, and of being educated in an Anglican church school in Sri Lanka. The Methodists urged me to personally trust Jesus as they evangelised me through the bridge to life tract. The Anglicans taught me the historic faith through the Lord's Prayer and the Nicene Creed. So I guess it's no surprise that I ended up an evangelical Presbyterian.
Globalisation has brought migrant churches to the 'western' world. My own church, Gracepoint, is of Australian-born Chinese ('ABC') background, but is seeking to minister (in English) to Sydney in general. Australian Presbyterianism includes churches of Arabic, Korean, Chinese, and Indonesian background, ministering both in their native languages and in English. These churches engage with many of the intercultural and intergenerational issues of globalisation: how to live well, not just for ourselves, but for Jesus, in the midst of increasing, confusing, 'foreign' diversity. And we shouldn't only celebrate migrant-background churches. Long-established 'local' 'Australian' churches have engaged with these issues for decades. One reason that Presbyterian (and Anglican, Baptist and Congregational) Chinese churches exist is because Christians (of all denominations) took the gospel to Chinese migrants decades ago. I now have the privilege of ministering the gospel to many of their descendants.
This why, in today's globalised world, multicultural ministry still matters. We have the opportunity to show this diversified, but increasingly conflicted, world, how Jesus really is good, both for this life, and for eternity.
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[1] For the sake of full disclosure: my mother, Dr Patricia Weerakoon, was one of three authors who contributed to the SOTGC 2024 Report's section on sexuality and gender.
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