Global Village

The generations living today are the first to experience earth as a planet. Pictures taken from a spacecraft of this immensely beautiful, but surprisingly fragile, planet have had a profound effect on our worldview. But even before these first pictures flashed back from space, in 1962 the Canadian Marshall McLuhan had already coined the phrase global village to express the effect of technological advances in electronics on our consciousness: “The human family now exists under conditions of a `global village.’ We live in a single constricted space resonant with tribal drums” (p. 31). We feel the world has shrunk to a single town in which everyone knows each other’s business. Everyday life is now a global matter. We eat, play, think, work and pray globally, even when we are not conscious of it. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Before you finish eating breakfast this morning, you’ve depended on more than half the world” (quoted in “Who Are Our Suppliers?”).

Understanding Globalization

Globalize (as an active verb) is “to make worldwide in scope and application.” This definition hints that human beings have a part in creating a global consciousness, that we are world makers—something which the Bible affirms. In this article globalization will refer to consciousness of one earth, one world and one church and our response to that in living as responsible stewards of one earth and one world and as members of one church. There are several dimensions of this global-village experience (Snyder, pp. 24-25).

First, the environment is a global issue. Toxic chemicals used on a grand scale in North America can affect the quality of the shield around the earth that protects all human beings from harmful radiation. Second, transfer of technology from country to country and global cooperation in major projects, such as space travel and medical research projects, have led to one world of scientific expertise. Third, communication is globalized. The information superhighway allows us to access information from computers worldwide. Fourth, we are moving toward a global culture. Popular music, dress styles, soft drinks, equal roles for women and more egalitarian social relationships are becoming increasingly “the same” worldwide. Fifth, the economies of all nations are linked in one giant system. A Time article noted, “The world’s financial markets are so intertwined that when one itches, the others scratch” (“They’re All Connected”). Sixth, the whole world is viewed as a single market with a global business culture. Seventh, politics is being globalized in the worldwide trend toward democracy, though this trend lacks a unified ideological or philosophical basis. We are witnessing the relativizing of everything, including values, morals and faith. Eight, travel is not merely the means of getting somewhere to do business or experience leisure. It is a way of life, a global lifestyle. Ninth, urbanization is a global phenomenon with people moving from rural areas to cities. But there is a sameness in all cities, especially their slums. These nine trends seem to be irresistible directions, but they are not welcomed by everyone and are possibly not as omnipotent as is sometimes claimed.

Paradoxically, on the edge of realizing one-earth and one-world consciousness, we are finding the village breaking down into warring neighborhoods, cliques, ghettos and clans—possibly out of the need for survival culturally and economically. When you belong to everyone, you belong to no one. And you do not know who you are. Tribalism is on the rise, as is ethnic consciousness. There is a resurgence of religious fundamentalism, especially in Islam. Smaller political units, based on race, language or clan, are emerging in the struggle to find identity in one world culture, as evidenced in Canada and the Balkans. Poverty, far from being eradicated, is on the increase with threatening possibilities. Tad Homer-Dixon says,

Think of a stretch limo in the potholed streets of New York City, where homeless beggars live. Inside the limo are the air-conditioned post-industrial regions of North America, Europe, the emerging Pacific Rim, and a few other isolated places, with their trade summitry and computer-information highways. Outside is the rest of mankind, going in a completely different direction. (quoted in Kaplan, p. 60)

Is it really true, as Ted Turner stated in a CNN (Cable News Network) memo to his staff, that “there are no foreigners in a global world”?

Thinking Christianly and Globally

Biblically, we have global work to do. Our basic human vocation in Genesis 1-2 is a threefold call to commune with God, to build community on earth and to be cocreators with God as we take care of God’s world. This involves not only creating a global consciousness but developing the earth and the world as responsible stewards. The computer technician’s work is as holy as the ministry of the pioneer cross-cultural church-planter.

We also have a global mission. Fundamental to the idea of mission is “to be sent” or “to be on the go.” The earth cannot be “filled” (Genesis 1:28) without moving. The Great Commission (the “go” of the gospel) does not replace or even subordinate the cultural commission; it rather creates the context for its fulfillment and, by reconciling us to God, empowers people to become fully human and to humanize the world as world makers. Much of the Christian mission in the first century was undertaken in the context of movement: Lydia, a textile merchant from Thyatira whom Paul met at Philippi; the planting of churches along the trade routes in Asia, such as Colosse; through the conversion of people in the Hall of Tyrannus during Paul’s two-year marketplace mission in Ephesus. Today we should expect international travelers, people on overseas assignment, people doing business with multinationals, to be frontline people in God’s mission of both humanizing the world and sharing the gospel.

We are also called to develop a global unity. The command to “fill the earth,” as we have already noted, required movement, the scattering of people. Genesis 11 then must be understood as both judgment and fulfillment. The people of Babel refused to scatter under God to populate and develop the world. Instead they attempted to solidify their autonomous life apart from God by building a tower that symbolized their identity, forging a “community” that was uniform and homogenous. This bland sameness is not unlike much of what is happening today in the globalization of culture and spirituality. But God judged this experiment in unity and forced the Babelites to scatter. Not until Pentecost do we see what God is really after: a richly diverse community of people who are more one, rather than less one, because of their diversities, but united in their love of God and each other.

Global unity is not, however, a “mashed potato unity” in which peoples lose their identity, culture, spiritual gift and personality in one merged communalism. Rather it is the rich social complex for which Jesus prayed (John 17:18,21-22), resembling community in the triune God. In this richly diverse unity there is a need for nations (Acts 17:26) and for cultural diversity. Neither monoculturalism (the celebration of unity without diversity) nor multiculturalism as commonly promoted (the celebration of diversity without unity) fulfills God’s intent.

In this matter the church of Jesus Christ is positioned to do a most exemplary thing: to demonstrate how believers in the developing world and in the developed world, believers from different races and cultures, can be truly one in a way that celebrates, rather than blurs, the differences. Paul’s great missionary passion was not simply to win converts but to build a great interdependent, international and transcultural church of Jews and Gentiles, one new humanity (Ephes. 2:15), in which there would be both unity and equality (2 Cor. 8:14). It is only “together with all the saints” (Ephes. 3:18) that we can know Christ fully or even be fully human. So what can we do to realize this vision?

Acting Christianly and Globally

It has been said that we should think globally but act locally. That comment can be questioned both descriptively (our neighbors are now global neighbors) and theologically (God’s mission is both local and global). Much can be done both locally and globally to be world makers in a fully Christian sense.

First, we can become consciously aware of our global interdependence every time we eat a meal or go shopping. We should find out where things came from, express our gratitude to God for the gift of international labor (perhaps during a grace) and do what we can to exercise Christian justice when we make purchases.

Second, we can learn from the global experience in microcosm in the diversity we experience in our schools, colleges, businesses, churches and neighborhoods. To do this, we must address our own ethnocentrism, confront our prejudices and learn to prize the contribution of people who are different from us. We need to go and listen before we go and tell.

Third, we can educate ourselves on the systemic nature of globalization: how political, economic and social structures and systems are so interdependent that all the elements in the world “mobile” are interconnected. This will keep us from assuming that our unemployed neighbor is simply lazy. It will also help us pray for, vote for and lobby for global justice and peace. To deal with one world today, one must understand the complexity of the principalities and powers.

Fourth, we should seek opportunities to experience other cultures, preferably in situations that take us beyond our own comfort zones. Better than roaring through Cairo on an air-conditioned tour bus is returning to the same village or business enterprise annually to build relationships and learn interpersonally. Local churches in the West can be linked with local churches overseas. Both will be transformed by the connection.

Fifth, we can find ways to express stewardship on a global basis. What would it mean, for example, (heeding Paul’s request in 2 Cor. 8:13) to achieve equality between the poorer churches of the developing world and the richer churches of the developed world? What spiritual growth would come to a family that engaged in practical sharing to alleviate world poverty, including alms giving, development and confronting the powers?

Sixth, some Christian people can serve globally without becoming traditional missionaries. They can gain a marketable skill and be tentmakers, supporting themselves in a short-term or long-term mission cross-culturally.

Seventh, we should regard global business (largely through multinationals), global education (with the great learning exchanges), global technology and global travel as opportunities to engage in mission that is equally important to the traditional church-planting missionary. People doing this should be prayerfully supported in their local churches and treated as tentmaking missionaries. The world will never be reached or humanized by traditional missionaries that are fully supported financially.

Eighth, we must confront our own religious imperialism and colonialism. An African once commented that most church-growth specialists come from the part of the world where the church is not growing! Western theological education, church technology and spirituality should not be marketed globally with colonizing intent but shared in a true dialogue in which all are enriched. The center of the Christian world has undoubtedly shifted from Europe to North America and now to Africa and Asia. Will Singapore, or in a few years Bejing, become the new Antioch?

However threatening or exciting we take globalization to be, the new consciousness and the practical opportunities afforded by the global village offer Christian people an unparalleled opportunity to know God better and fulfill God’s mission on earth. If the church does not take up its global mission, perhaps God will raise up business to do it. Cynthia Barnum’s challenge to business-people is worth repeating to Christians: “Are you ready, able and willing to do what you do anytime, anywhere, with anyone?” (p. 144).

» See also: Ethnocentrism

» See also: Mission

» See also: Missions

» See also: Multiculturalism

» See also: Stewardship

» See also: Traveling

References and Resources

C. F. Barnum, “Effective Membership in the Global Business Community,” in New Traditions in Business, ed. J. Renesch (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1992) 141-56; R. D. Kaplan, “The Coming Anarchy,” Atlantic Monthly, February 1994, 44-76; M. McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962); B. Nicholls, Contextualization: A Theology of Gospel and Culture (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1979); H. A. Snyder, Earth Currents: The Struggle for the World’s Soul (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995); M. L. Stackhouse, Apologia: Contextualization, Globalization and Mission in Theological Education (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988); R. P. Stevens, “Marketing the Faith: A Reflection on the Importing and Exporting of Western Theological Education,” Crux 28, no. 2 (1992) 6-18; “They’re All Connected,” Time 140, no. 5 (3 August 1992) 25; “Who Are Our Suppliers?” Marketplace, March/April 1991, 11; L. Wilkinson, “One Earth, One World, One Church,” Crux 28, no. 1 (1992) 28-36.

—R. Paul Stevens