Why Being a GLOCAL Church Matters

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Participants in the LWF Consultation on Contemporary
Mission in Global Christianity, Geneva, 16-18 November 2016
I just returned from Geneva, Switzerland, where I had the profound opportunity to gather with over 75 representatives of member churches of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) to explore how the various parts of our global Lutheran Communion understand and live out the call to participate in God’s mission in the world today. It couldn’t have come at a better time as we in the Rocky Mountain Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America step into our own vision to together proclaim and embody the unconditional love of God for the sake of the world.

I am convinced that one of the distinct gifts we possess as this part of the Body of Christ we call the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is our commitment to understand church as always being GLOCAL – that it to say, globally related and locally relevant. My time with members of our Lutheran Communion re-enforced that truth. How amazing to realize that each of our ELCA congregations and ministries is organically connected to an expression of Christ’s Church that engages in witness, service, advocacy and dialogue in 145 church bodies in 98 countries! Our local engagements are never separated from these global relationships – we are part of a world-wide family of faith, and when we invite people to join us in our local context we are welcoming them into an understanding and expression of church that literally spans the globe.


Members of this consultation conversation
 group came from Lutheran churches in
Sweden, India, the Netherlands, Germany, 
Madagascar, France, the USA and Finland.
Our network of global relationships is a rich resource for ministry in our local context. Our international companion churches can offer important perspective on what is common and what is unique about the call to follow Jesus in our own particular settings. Insights shared can renew and re-energize us for ministry. At the same time, being part of a global church means that we can never limit our vision to what is needful or appropriate only in our own immediate neighborhood. Our words and action locally have significance for members of our church family around the world. GLOCAL names this important truth: that in God’s world, what is global and what is local are always interconnected. What a timely reminder.

Participants representing the church in Latin America included LWF 
General Secretary, Martin Junge (Argentina) and ELCA Global
Mission Director, Rafael Malpica-Padilla (Puerto Rico)
During this recent Consultation on Contemporary Mission in Global Christianity we heard about opportunities and challenges for the church’s mission in each region of the world – from areas where the church is struggling to survive, to places where the institutions of the church can’t keep up with the numerical growth, to parts of the world where the church faces serious obstacles including persecution. We then divided into twelve working groups to dig deeper into questions and topics that can help shape our vision for the church’s call as we move forward together.


The chapel cross at the 
Ecumenical Center,
Geneva Switzerland
While the report has not yet been compiled, several themes stood out to me. We all agreed that the question of Lutheran identity – claiming our distinctive gifts as a church rooted in a reformation-inspired movement within the church catholic – provides a significant opportunity for witness to the gospel at this particular moment in history when that Reformation movement commemorates its 500th anniversary.

We also recognized the importance of our engagement as a global church with the current migration crisis that impacts nearly every country in our world. The church’s commitment to address this crisis must reach across boundaries of country, denomination, and religion. I was grateful that while I was meeting in Geneva, a team from our Rocky Mountain Synod and other Region Two synods were gathered in El Paso, Texas, for a Border immersion and discussion of this very topic as it applies to our own context.


Holiharifetra Rakotondramiadana is Coordinator 
for the South-South program of the Malagasy
 Lutheran Church, overseeing Malagasy missionaries 
serving abroad. Her home synod is Mahajanga, 
companion to the Rocky Mountain Synod.
A third theme noted how a life of faith shaped by the fullness of God’s grace in Christ – so central to our witness as Lutheran Christians – is as much a way of being in the world as a reason for doing in the world. This is an area of spiritual understanding into which all our churches can grow.

Being a GLOCAL church matters. Living as part of a global family that shares key values and perspectives on faith while also gaining insight on how to engage in ministry in a manner that is locally relevant – this is a powerful gift of the Holy Spirit, and it is a gift that is ours as congregations and ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America within our Communion as the Lutheran World Federation. May this gift of being a GLOCAL church continue to shape how we proclaim and embody God’s unconditional love for the sake of the world here in the Rocky Mountain Synod.

Truly we are Christ’s Church, Better Together!

Yours in faith,
Bishop Jim

For more information on the recent LWF Consultation, visit this website.

Photos left to right (1) Rev. Ashraf Tannous (Palestine)
(2) ELCA Team at Consultation
(3) Rev. Dr Elieshi Mungura (Tanzania)
(4) Seminarian Piotr Sztwiertnika (Poland)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Thanks for these insights and raising up this emphasis! This is why we are catholic as well as evangelical!
Fred Schott, Santa Fe NM
11:20 AM
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