William Palma Contemporary Issues in Theology of Missions

2019.10.08 Professor Daniel Kim

Globalization and Mission in the Twenty-first Century

Ogbu Kalu

It is a fact that because of the emergence of modern technological advancements, the

world that we now lived in has become smaller. People seem to be so close one to another,
regardless of race and color, educational and social status, political and religious affiliations.
These advancements re-structured the world into a better place to live in and have brought
the human race much closer to one another. Globalization has brought into this new world a
new set of culture – multicultural – upbringing, modern lifestyles, new meanings and
definitions to many vocabularies that are fitting to the personalities and preferences of the
modern society. The economy has brought a lot of countries reached their highest potentials
that further allows them to explore and strive for more wealth. On the one hand, this
economic growth made the lives of many individuals better, but this also made a lot of people
stressed and depressed, because of the strong competition among the social ladder.

Globalization has also influenced the mission of the church in a variety of ways. On
the good side, it made the mission goes much further compared to the previous endeavors
of the early missionaries. With the use of modern technologies, satellites can make the
broadcasts of many TV and radio stations proclaiming the gospel to reach even those who
are residing in the mountainous areas. Teaching materials, including videos and audios, are
now made easily accessible and available to anyone who would like to enhance their
knowledge at a very affordable price and sometimes can even be accessed freely. Church
members are now better equipped regarding the necessary preparations before going into
the mission field. In the past, there is a strong urgency to go to those remote areas to bring
the gospel of Jesus Christ, but because of globalization, people from the highlands are coming
down in the low land to study, to do their merchandise and to participate in the business
transactions. The law of supply and demand is now being transacted in the common places
accessible to anybody that paved the way for everyone to have their own share of the pie of
development and profit. With these scenarios happening in the common places, those
unreached people groups can now be easily contacted because they have already brought
themselves from among us. The best things that will happen because of this effect is that,
these people who will come to know the gospel because of their exposure in the low-land,
will bring it back to their own people when they return to their homeland, thus bringing the
gospel by one of their own, which I believe will be more effective.

In the context of the Filipino Diasporas, since we are scattered all over the world
because of the necessity of leaving the country and our loved ones because of financial

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William Palma Contemporary Issues in Theology of Missions
2019.10.08 Professor Daniel Kim

necessities, we can bring the gospel to the place that we will be working and will be able to
share it to those people who will be working with us, whether our fellow Filipinos or the local
of that nation.

Modern SNS can be another powerful avenue where the gospel can be shared.
Geographical location will no longer be an issue and hindrance to spreading the good news
wherever they are in the world. Because of this, overseas mission board of the churches can
divert their funding to much more effective usage of their finances instead of buying costly
plane tickets in visiting different countries. Sending religious materials like books can now be
done using electronic copies and can be used and distributed to many more audiences.
Communication has now become much faster and cheaper these days because of modern
technologies. Decisions can now be made faster so that immediate actions can also be
implemented sooner.

On the negative side of the effect of globalization, the influence and spread of many
other groups with their teachings, which are mostly contradicting to what the Bible is
teaching, are also everywhere. They are also using modern technologies to propagate their
agenda, much enthusiastic than the Christian groups, more financial resources and aggressive
in proclaiming what they believe. These are just some of the threats that the mission of the
church is facing. It cannot be denied that many have succumbed to these groups away from
the church. Because of the access to knowledge, each individual is now free in exploring and
expressing what they believe is true according to what they feel and to what can make them
happy.

Globalization has both positive and negative effects on the mission of the church. The
church now should be more united even more on how we can reach more souls for Jesus. Let
us uphold the urgency of reaching more for the kingdom in the midst of the modern
advancement, those things that we used for our advantage should be taken into
consideration and be prepared on how we can counter those things that are posing a threat
to our Christian faith. Another thing that the effect of globalization should affect the church
as well as that, since globalization has made the world smaller by the connection that it has
brought to mankind, I believe that the churches, regardless of the denominational affiliation
should embrace this same effect, to make all the churches closer in having a common goal of
proclaiming the same message of salvation. If we combine all the available resources, I
believe that we will have a better impact on our society in bringing the love and salvation of
Jesus Christ to the lost.

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