Recently we’ve become aware of a new word: glocal.
A glocal mindset is the combination of thinking and living in both a local and a global reality.
A good example of this is Applebee’s.
Every Applebee’s restaurant is the same in lokk (its branding, logo, furniture, food, menus and overall style).
However, the decorations on the walls of each restaurant is different and unique to its local context (i.e. helmets from the local football team, a basketball jersey of the local high school team, a frame picture of a landmark in the region, etc). Applebee’s is both glocal: the same Applebee’s experience you’d expect whether you were in Des Moines or Detroit. And yet, each restaurant is unique to its current context.

Local.
Global.
Glocal.

We serve a glocal God. God is a missionary God who is deeply passionate about what happens in our local contexts – and about every nation, tribe and tongue.
And we desire to make God’s agenda our agenda, too.
Therefore, we desire to have cultivate and embrace a glocal mindset in our approach to living on mission.

Here’s our glocal philosophy at Renew.

(a) Local:
We can’t do everything but we can do something.
And we want to some things really well rather than a bunch of things are mediocre. We want to be be focused in our approach so that we can be the most effective in living out the ways of Jesus and in bearing much fruit (John 15).

We have officially partnered with three organizations in our region.
-Boys and Girls Club
-Manna on Main: the man soup kitchen and food pantry in our region
-Community Housing Services: an organization that works mostly with women and children who are victims of domestic violence and helps the underprivileged with transitional housing.

We feel as though after spending a lot of time asking the question “How can we help renew our region?” these organizations work towards that end.
We like the fact that these organizations:
-are diverse in their expression of accomplishing community renewal
-represent the heart of God (caring for the oppressed, the poor and children)
-are already established and recognized in the community
-have glaring and apparent needs that we have already begun to help meet in the first few months of our existence
-give us the best chance to most effectively work to renew Lansdale holistically
-are probably where Jesus would be involved if he lived in our region.

There are many more needs and many more good organizations we could partner with.
But we feel like these organizations fit with our glocal philosophy of renewal very well.
We have to say no to the good things to say yes to the best things.

These are our official partnerships. This does not mean that other organizations are bad or don’t like them or we don’t want people at Renew to serve there. Not at all! We want people serving officially and unofficially, directly and indirectly in our communities. But we feel that if we are disciplined and focused in where we serve we can have the best opportunity for effectiveness and building relationships with the people who are in great need.

(b) Global:
God cares for every people group, culture, nation and person in every country of the world (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8)
And there are many countries and people groups in such incredible need!

But we wonder if God might be calling us to adopt a country.
We probably can’t imact the entire country with the gospel, but we probably can be focused and making an impact in one region of that country.

We have begun to dream and ask questions like:
-What if we could we embrace a country and focus our global attention on that country through our time, schedule, serving, prayer, leadership, energy, finances and trips?
-What if we directed our prayers towards the government leaders, towards the needs of the people and towards the advance of the gospel in that country?
-What if we could officially partner with one pastor/missionary who serves in one village/city in a specific country?
-What if we could build bridges to that pastor/missionary in their culture and maintain an ongoing and consistent relationship?
-What if our faith community could go on several trips each year to visit, partner with, serve alongside of and encourage them?
-What if they could come over to Lansdale each year to visit, parnter with, serve alongside of and and encourage us?
-What impact could we have holistically on a community outside of our own country with the gospel message?

Our launch team is in the process of discussing and praying and discerning which country to adopt – a daunting task!
You can pray for us as we attempt to discern that country!

God is a glocal God.
And we desire to be a glocal communty.

As we think about our oikos (our sphere of influence) here’s something else to think about.  Kennon Callahan said that we all live in five neighborhoods.

(1) Relational: our network of friendships and acquaintances.
(2) Sociological: those in our demographic/psychographic category (single, 20something, divorced, senior citizen, etc)
(3) Vocational: those we work with every day.
(4) Geographical: those who live in physical proximity to us (i.e. our neighbors)
(5) Genealogical: our extended family

One of the most important questions we can ask at Renew is “Who is my neighbor?”  As we think about our neighbors in our five “neighborhoods” how intentional are we being?   What else could we do to be strategic in loving, reaching out and caring for our neighborhoods?  Do we see ourselves as missionaries in these five different neighborhoods?