Lausanne World Pulse – Mission in the Global Village

By Silas A. Pinto

A Global God for a Global Village
The primary purpose and meaning of the universe is to bring into existence, out of all God’s offspring, an eternal Bride for the Lamb. God so loves this rebel planet that he conspires with the world affairs to graft into his body a multitude from every nation, tribe, peoples, and languages.

The high-tech, real-time communication and the global economy have brought the global village into existence. The great metroplex areas of the world serve as magnets to people in the four corners of the planet, creating the largest migration in history. According to the United Nations, about forty million people are constantly migrating around the world.

What does this mean in God’s economy? How does this shape the Christian mission? What should be the face of the Church in this intercultural context?

A Multiethnic International Savior
In paintings from the Renaissance period, Jesus appears with Eurocentric features; however, the historical Jesus was a man born in the Near East, Asia. In order to save Jesus’ life, his parents took him to Egypt, and he became a political refugee in Africa.

Jesus’ roots included several ethnic groups and people with moral issues (i.e., the Canaanite harlot Rahab, and Ruth the Moabite). The Nazarene’s genealogy also included Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite. These women were either foreigners or had an unattractive past. Their presence in Jesus’ genealogy emphasizes his unrestrainable, ongoing love for sinners.

The Gospels narrate Jesus’ extensive ministry in Decapolis. With the exception of Damascus, the Decapolis cities were founded during Judea’s Hellenistic period. They were centers for the diffusion of Greek culture, and Gentiles comprised the majority of the population. In Mark 5 we see emphasized Decapolis’ Gentile character when Jesus encounters a herd of pigs. Tyre was another city populated almost exclusively by Gentiles, and dominated by Greek influence.

The Galilean Jesus spoke Aramaic, was raised in a Hebraic culture, and lived under Roman domination of the Latin language in an area where the current language was popular Greek. Jesus was probably conversant in three or more languages. Likewise, to effectively fulfill the great commission in the global village, the Church must be open to diversity in language and culture.

It was in the “Galilee of the Gentiles” that Jesus performed most of his ministry, and it was from there that he chose eleven of his disciples, the exception being Judas (Matthew 10:2). Jews used the term “Galilean” to signify heathen or sinner. Therefore, they believed “no prophet could come from Galilee” (John 7:52).

Pastor Silas A. Pinto is director of the Brazilian ministry of First Baptist Church of Orlando, Florida, USA. An author and church planter, he is also a member of the Lausanne Committee in Brazil.