Whole World Has Gone Glocal, How About Your Worship?

Reprinted with permission from WEA Connections, Vol 9, No. 2-3, 2010
World Evangelical Alliance, www.weaconnections.com 

The Whole World Has Gone Glocal, How About Your Worship?

by Jaewoo Kim

Jaewoo Kim is a director of King’s Region Worship Ministry, which assists Korean missionaries and church leaders in implementing worship-arts in missions.  www.kingsregion.org

The Whole World Has Gone Glocal

The word glocalization refers to integration between “local” and “global” matters. The word was developed by Japanese businessmen but is now used among Christian leaders as they set the direction and strategies for their ministries.[i]

Times are increasingly challenging for churches, as more neighborhoods become global communities. Due to glocalization, Christian congregations worldwide are more likely to embrace diverse cultures and people groups as part of their fellowships.

Some churches may react to the changes of glocalization as a threat and try to isolate themselves in order to preserve their cultural identity. Others will embrace diverse groups of people into their church fellowships simply to grow in number, but not to share leadership roles.  Some churches will hopefully see glocalization as a God-given opportunity to advance the work of mission and will gladly share their leadership roles.

Unity in diversity brings greater glory to God. When Christ is recognized and celebrated by worldwide communities, people will recognize that Christ is not a God who favors a specific region or culture but a global Savior and the Lord of all.[ii]

Glocal Worship in its direction and design 

Glocal worship involves the missional nature of God. [iii] Until the day when people from every tribe, nation and tongue come to know Christ, our worship will fuel the work of missions. Whole-hearted worship by the whole world is the goal of missions.

Congregations experiencing glocal worship on a regular basis will have an accurate and natural understanding of missional character of God. They will be learning about the missional nature of God throughout the year, instead of hearing about it through sporadic mission events. This will result in a vibrant, dynamic move toward missions in the local church in general.

How can a congregation learn and experience the missional nature of God in typical church services? Glocal worship can be designed by a collaborative team of pastors, artists, musicians, and missionaries, using resources provided by specialists in ethnic worship-arts.[iv] Through glocal worship, people will be able to celebrate the decentralized presence of Jesus in diverse cultures.

On a practical level, some elements to include are: prayer for the nations using updates on world news, prayer for missionaries, national church leaders and persecuted churches,[v] and learning and singing global worship songs. When we bring worldwide music and practices into our worship service, congregations will not always feel comfortable with those ideas and practices. However, many are open to such innovation when done slowly and with the purpose stated clearly and often. Also, it is not always easy to draw a clear line between contextualization and syncretism. In such cases, the planning team can consult with experts in this area and practice “critical contextualization.” [vi]

Another practical suggestion is playing video clips from missionaries and churches from other parts of the world in the church service. This creates the sense that your local congregation is part of the larger Body.[vii] Video clips are often more effective, lively and powerful than exchanging prayer and praise reports in text format. Glocalization has opened up many new possibilities, especially in the area of communications. In a glocal world people can be connected without being in the same geographical location. Prayers, songs, and the use of media are only a few suggestions; there are many other creative approaches for worldwide Christian communities to use, according to their resources and context.

Glocal worship is not merely a method to mobilize more people into missions but a direction of worship that reflects the current era and also the vision of a missional God. The goal of designing glocal worship is to help local congregations see the inseparable connection between Psalm 96:3, Matthew 24:14 and Revelation 7:9.