February 5, 2007
We Aren't About Weekends
An interview with Bob Roberts
One Sunday Pastor Bob Roberts asked everyone in the congregation at NorthWood Church in Keller, Texas, to invert the collar of the person in front of them, find the label, and call out the nation where the shirt was made. China, India, Vietnam, Mexico, Chile, Kenya, Dominican Republic, and Spain were all mentioned before someone finally said "USA."
The shirts on their backs came from all over the world. It was Bob's way of reinforcing his recurring theme of glocalization, synonymous with Thomas Friedman's "the earth is flat." It describes today's seamless integration between the local and global, a comprehensive connectedness produced by travel, business, and communications.
"Glocal is as important a term to the 21st century as postmodern and seeker were to the 20th century," says Roberts, who has written two books, Transformation: How Glocal Churches Transform Lives and the World (Zondervan, 2006) and Glocalization: How Followers of Jesus Engage a Flat World (Zondervan, 2007).
He has applied the concept in quiet but effective ways at NorthWood, a church of 2,000 in suburban Fort Worth that has helped plant some 89 other churches in the last 15 years. The focus of NorthWood and all the daughter churches is not gathering people inside the sanctuary; it's clearly missional.
"We aren't about weekends," Bob says. "We aren't just trying to get people into church. It's 'kingdom in, kingdom out.'"
This means each church emphasizes weekday ministry in local neighborhoods as well as ongoing ministry with a particular nation overseas. NorthWood, for instance, has continuing ministries in Puebla, Mexico, and sends people several times a year to both Vietnam and Afghanistan to help with orphans, education, clinics, small businesses, water purification, and more.
Over three days, including both a weekend and a weekday, Leadership interviewed Bob about life in a glocal church.
What is the mission of NorthWood Church?
Glocal transformation.
You mean transformation of individuals or of communities or what?
All of it. It starts with individuals. But it can't stop there.
Societies are built on several domains:
• The family, from which we get our values.
• The tribe, from which we get our culture.
• The city, from which we get our livelihood.
• The nation, from which we get our security and our trade.
Finally, the world. And all of that is within the realm of the kingdom of God. We use the word glocal, meaning the kingdom encompasses all of this, local and global.
The number one result of God's kingdom is transformation of all the sectors.
Wow. That's some purpose …
No, that's our mission. Our purpose is to glorify God. I'm still Augustinian in my theology.
Okay. So what's your church's role in this transformation?
We're a connection center between believers and all of society's domains. Jesus told his disciples to be his witnesses, to live out and proclaim the gospel, in "Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth."
"Jerusalem" is where we live and work. We train our people to view their vocation as their "Jerusalem" ministry. From there, we teach them to use their vocation and skills to intersect a domain locally ("Judea") and to other nearby cultures—for us, Mexico is our "Samaria"—and globally to the "ends of the earth" (we define that as a hard place in the world, and for us, that's Vietnam and Afghanistan).
Continue reading the interview with Bob Roberts on our Christian Vision Project webpage.
Posted by UrL on February 5, 2007
Comments
Upper class, suburbia Christianity has entered the realm of overindulgence (a different 'gates of hell'). We all need a major dose of "graceland." No better place than inside of a mission effort - with your entire family, take the kids.
Gas up the SUV (I have one too), and really get your dollar's worth; use it on the off road journey to get to the village of God's perspective. Returning home to suburbia will never be sweeter, especially for the kids who attend the new $45 million high school.
Posted by: Eric Hogue at February 6, 2007
The early church didn't begin to fulfill Christ's command to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth until persecution encouraged them to do so, and then they continued to meet persecution wherever they went...and the church thrived. What will it take to move today's church out of Jerusalem?
What do we not understand about "go"?
Posted by: Kat at February 6, 2007
Many of us don't live in suburbia, never have, and never will choose to. Hearing critiques of this small minority gets old. But we are called to glorify God wherever we can, and to call others to do so wherever we can, whether it's in small towns, among the jet set, among bored wives-of-professionals, shopping, with agency leaders, in the courtroom, campaigning for change, contacting politicians, online, or in offering a cup of cold water.
This well-written tome drives it home.
Posted by: Barbi at February 6, 2007
Indeed, Eric. Western (particularly American) Christianity and consumerism are all too cozy in some manifestations (particularly the upper-middle to upper class varieties). Sometimes I wonder if we've made comfort and status our gods.
That's why I appreciate an approach like that of NorthWoods. I applaud them for what they're doing, focusing on getting people out into the mission field, and aware of what's going on around them. We need a massive wakeup call, and churches like NorthWoods can give it to us.
Posted by: Allie at February 6, 2007
Beautifully stated...what a fascinating and helpful interview. The picture he paints of the word "glocal" is inspiring. As our church reconsiders how we are doing/going to do ministry, we are taking an approach similar to what Roberts articulated. His robust and mature ministry helps me imagine where our church can go.
I am intrigued by his comments on church as a Sunday event or as a sending kind of place. We seem to becoming more of a sending kind of place. And now I have a better understanding of how to view these changes.
Thanks for the interview. Three cheers to Roberts, and I'm looking forward to the coming Reformer of the Far East!
Posted by: Tim Hallman at February 6, 2007
I follow Bob's church and it appears they are really doing it. Their church blog (www.mynorthwood.org) in addition to Bob's personal blog has given me good insights on what i want the church I am involved in to look like.
Posted by: phil jones at February 12, 2007