The mission mandate of the great commission given to the church by the Lord Jesus instructs us to go make disciples of all the nations in our world. This fact brings us to the 2^nd major challenge of the 21^st century we have to face, the reality of Globalization. We live, and even more importantly, we minister and share the gospel in a world where there is an ever increasing interdependency among peoples, societies, and governments.

One of the main struggles with globalization, and a source of its many complexities, is that at the same time of the developing interdependency the global context is increasingly torn by ethnic, cultural, and economic tensions. An added radical Islam in the ethnic and cultural tensions increases the complexity. In these global tensions we find clans of ethnic definitions and differentiation dominating some nation-states and the thinking of many. There are fears of cultural and economic survival by many. Such is our emerging global society, that we are called to take the Gospel into all of its parts.

I don’t want to get too “wonky” as the politicians and “talking heads” say, but, to understand this emerging global society, we need to differentiate between philosophical globalization verses business globalization trends.

• Philosophical globalization is a comprehensive consciousness of one earth, and one world, and one planet and people. This definition is used in various cultures in understanding socio-political trends, especially in post-modern Europe, European and American liberalism, and those involved in the New Age eastern philosophical religions.
• Business globalization, in its various dimensions is a comprehensive consciousness of interdependency and codependency in shared economies, currencies, and business markets now being brought together by new technological paradigms of travel and communication.

The reality today, is that rather than 3-6 month ocean voyage, I can be on the other side of the world to do business, and see people in 16 hours. Internet communication allows me to do business and personal conversations, print communications by email, have meetings with others in various locations globally by teleconferencing, all at no special costs. We are just beginning to see just how much impact in missions can be had by the changing paradigms in business and communication. We are just now starting to visualize how we can use social networking sites, digital documents and videos, and online training to accomplish the task of making disciples globally.

Back in the 1950’s a very famous teacher of evangelism concepts and methods wrote a book called “Every Member Evangelism.” His premise was that the great commission meant that every member of the local church was to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone their lives touched. That was true then and it is true now, but now it has global implications. The business person who now travels internationally is a missionary wherever they go, rather than just in the town where they live, and work. I guess it’s true, with the changes in travel and communication; it really isn’t such a small world after all.

As for the missions of the Great Commission, the two aspects of globalism, philosophical and business globalism, present both a threat and an opportunity. Philosophical globalism with its absolute lack of absolutes and demanded inclusiveness, argues directly with the exclusivity of the gospel, as seen in John 14:6. “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” (ESV) Business globalism on the other hand is a source of great opportunity to take the gospel into all nations, even allowing entry into the so called “closed nations” to missions.

It seems that globalism is a reality of the 21^st century. It is not just a political opinion, political option, or a cultural issue. It is a fact that humankind today lives in a world of globalism. Yet, this 21^st century needs the unchanging Gospel of Jesus Christ just as all previous generations have. Globalism is the world view you and I live in today, and the fact is, that it’s not your father’s world anymore. But, it is ours!!! Let’s be in it with the Gospel it needs so desperately.