There is a complexity in the third major challenge of the 21^st century evangelical church to complete the task of the Great Commission. We must learn to cope with materialistic, high tech cultures in economically dynamic regions, like East Asia and parts of South America. To cope with this challenging reality, you must see things in light of five impacts on our world of the 21^st century that capture the essence and magnitude of change we are experiencing today.

The first impact to understand is that of the impact on communication. A Christian humorist once described this challenge as “being an 8-track guy in an iPod world.” It is a fact that developing communication technologies are creating a real generation gap between the old and the young. We are finding that there is not an overlap and sharing of the generations, without the conscious choice to choose to communicate. To choose to communicate with the other generation, you may have to choose to use the technology they use. You will probably never find you 92 year old grandmother communicate with you on Facebook, although there are notable exceptions. A 69 year old grandmother told me she is now never without her QWERTY keyboard messaging cell phone because she now has communication with her grandchildren almost every day.

The second impact to understand is that on media. We live in a time of an explosion of entertainment opportunities. This has brought an explosion of competition for people’s attention and sharing of ideas. In terms of the mission of the church, this impact on media gives us an expanded marketplace for ideas in our culture. We have to choose to take the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ into this entire expanded marketplace of ideas.

This impact of media leads to the third impact, the impact of entertainment. Because of the impact of technology and media we have more options than can be imagined, including an ever-expanding development of escapism through virtual realities.

Again, the impact of changes in mass media and entertainment, leads to the fourth area of impact: political interaction. Political ideas and philosophies can now be shared all throughout the mass population more quickly and extensively then anyone could of ever imagined. The last presidential election was profoundly impacted by the use of mass messaging through President Obama’s “Blackberry” to his supporters daily. People now turn to Facebook as much as they do to websites to learn about things. A video showing a gaff by a politician can be uploaded to YouTube and within hours millions nationwide have seen it. Things are really changing on how we share and learn information. Even I am now on Facebook and about to start Twittering my tweets all over the place.

The final area of impact to be aware of and understand is the impact on socio-economic issues. Today we find the entire world caught in a tension of things verses people. In order to get things, people become insensitive to other people. Then when they get things, they realize that the satisfaction they expected is missing. People are torn between the two ways of measuring success in our world today. Some look to things and power accumulation as proof of success. Others look for their satisfaction in life to come from their relationships and stable lives.

Globally, cultures around the world are struggling, often in dramatic ways, to learn to cope with some or all of these impact areas. Developing nations such as China have moved rapidly into the status of a developed nation, and the tension for example, between things and power vs. people and relationships, is now seen to dominate the Chinese culture. The growth of new car owners, who have never had a car before, is the greatest in the nations of East Asia.

It seems that the world today as never before is struggling with how to have meaning and purpose in life. It is time for you and I to take the purposeful message of new and eternal life in Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. It is a world waiting for the good news and real change that is only given by Jesus.

Hey, that sounds like the mission of the Great Commission, doesn’t it?