The Hope and Promise of Global Ministry
By: Mark Hayse
Professor, MidAmerica Nazarene University
“What is global ministry, anyway?”
That’s the question that kept crossing my mind as I read Gary Hartke’s comments in the first issue of The Academy Today. What defines global ministry? Programs and sermons that look alike and sound alike no matter where you go?
As David Gonzalez wrote in the last issue, we live in “a great global village” sustained by transportation and media technologies. Technology truly brings the world closer together. However, those same technologies that can make us one also threaten to make us all the same. For example, Facebook may free us to talk together across cultures, but it also restricts our speech by reducing our creativity to the same format. We make that trade every time that we use media technology. Media technology both sharpens and dulls our communication at the same time. If you would like to read more about this idea, then check out these two books by Shane Hipps: The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Your Faith, and Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith.
Companies like McDonalds, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, and Disney exploit the power of media technology in order to turn the world into a culture of sameness. These companies exist to colonize the world at a profit. They benefit when we all eat the same way, drink the same way, work the same way, and play the same way.
Thankfully, that’s not what the Kingdom of God is like.
The Kingdom of God is a holy mountain where lions and wolves and lambs and cows and children and serpents live together in rich harmony (Isaiah 11). The Kingdom of God is a living body where feet help hands, and where ears serve eyes (1 Corinthians 12). In the Kingdom of God, we are not all the same. Our differences make us stronger, not weaker. The Kingdom of God invites the many to become one … without losing themselves in the process.
Global ministry evokes within me a vision of “border crossings” (Giroux 1992, 28). Educator Henry Giroux describes border crossings as instances of deep listening, thoughtful dialogue, shared critique, and creative dreaming across cultures. Giroux sees tremendous value in a diverse world of many shapes, voices, and perspectives. As far as I know, Giroux does not profess to be a person of historic Christian faith. Nevertheless, his vision of border crossings can help us all toward the hope and promise of global ministry.
Global ministry begins with deep listening and thoughtful dialogue. Through listening and dialogue, all of us become open to receive new perspectives not our own. Without this openness, dialogue cannot occur. Dialogue is different than debate. In debate, one of us tries to persuade others “for their own good.” Ironically, debate often shuts us down instead of opening us up. Instead, Giroux imagines a world in which our differences produce gifts of insight to share with others. In global ministry, listening and dialogue enable us to learn about how different cultures best articulate theology, practice faith, and lead the church.
Global ministry culminates in shared critique and creative dreaming. In other words, listening and dialogue enable us to see ourselves through new eyes and to persevere in our labors for a new dream. Without critique, we may settle for less than God’s best and our fullest potential. However, too often we practice criticism instead of critique. We tear down instead of building up. We blame instead of imagine. We complain instead of encourage. Ironically, criticism often places us on the defensive instead of helping us to dream new dreams. Giroux imagines a world in which receiving the perspectives of others can help us all to see the blind spots that we overlook everyday. In global ministry, critique and dreaming helps us to improve ministry in our home cultures by learning from the ministry strengths of other cultures.
Giroux hopes that “border crossings” will result in positive transformation, personal caring, and democratic freedom around the world. He also hopes that “border crossers” will become “multiaccuentual” in their language and understanding. To be “multiaccentual” is to appreciate many different “accents” and perspectives, to speak with others and not just for others (Giroux 1992, 29).
So … what is global ministry? Could global ministry primarily be about intercultural reflection before it is about centralized action? Could global ministry be a matter of exploring every culture’s best practices rather than uncritically importing and exporting youth ministry programs from North America? Could global ministry sound more like many voices singing in harmony instead of all voices singing exactly the same tune in precisely the same way?
I want to be a global minister in the Kingdom of God. I want to enjoy border crossings where I share what I see and feel and dream with others who respond in kind. Border crossings hold the hope and promise of greater humility, broader vision, deeper care, and fuller freedom in Christ throughout the church.
Thankfully, Youth Ministry Academy invites us into global ministry. The Academy gives us a forum in which global ministry conversations can take wing. Let’s join together in prayer that our “border crossings” here will teach us to listen to one another with generosity and hospitality. By God’s prevenient grace—a grace that goes before us in all that we do—we can learn to trust each other, trust each other’s cultural perspectives, and trust our youth … because God is already at work among us all.
Reference List
Giroux, Henry A. 1992. Border crossings: cultural workers and the politics of education. London: Routledge.
Hipps, Shane. 2006. The hidden power of electronic culture: how media shapes faith, the Gospel, and church. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
__________. 2009. Flickering pixels: how technology shapes your faith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
