A Global Perspective
A few weeks ago I met with my spiritual director and reflected on the spiritual hunger I was experiencing. I was longing for more and Jesus was inviting me deeper. I realized a big reason for this renewed hunger was this gospel focus, and being inspired by so many of you each morning as I finish my cave time with my Novo gospel devo. So thank you for sharing your heart, testimony, and insights with me; it has sharpened me and stoked the fire within me.
On this note, I have been so thankful for all of the voices. Each one of your voices has brought something fresh to the table. In our work at Novo, we as a lead team are keenly aware that it will require many voices to accomplish our mission. In order to have a healthy team, you need multiple voices with a diversity of gifts and perspectives. In order to reach a city, you need multiple voices with a diversity of backgrounds, connections, and perspectives.
Lord, we look to you as the Lord of the Harvest to raise up more workers and we commit to looking for these voices, listening to these voices, and emboldening and developing them when needed.
On a recent call, one of our Novo teammates reminded me of a word I have been sitting with since that time, and that word is “Glocal” (Global and Local). Now, I can’t decide if this word is cheesy or profound, but I love its meaning and I do have the sense that there might be something in this word for us in this season.
When we read these gospel devotionals, we get a global perspective by hearing about your local learnings.
This morning I am writing from the UK. I feel so lucky that I was able to bring my family on a two week trip visiting many of our teams in Europe. One of the many reasons for this trip is for us to learn from these teams—about what God is doing in these contexts, and where these teams are finding fruit and breakthrough—so that we can bring these lessons back to our local ministry context. And guess what? Each one of the teams we have visited “globally” is hyper focused on their “local” context.
Last summer we took some team leaders to Egypt to learn some of the best practices of those teams and what God is doing “globally.” These team leaders could then take those learnings back and apply them “locally.”
I am seeing this glocal perspective be most profound as we are working to raise up an army of everyday practitioners in the US. We are casting vision for these lay leaders to pursue the five components and gospel movements in their local context, but we are able to give them a global perspective and connect what they are doing locally to what God is doing around the world. This has been compelling and inspiring for these everyday practitioners.
While I’m unsure if we should get glocal put on a t-shirt or hat, I am confident and humbled that we at Novo have a unique privilege to have this glocal perspective on God’s Kingdom work among the nations.
Questions for Reflection:
Have you leveraged Novo’s global perspective, stories, learning, and best practices for your local ministry team? If so, what has the fruit been? If not, what could that look like?
What are the voices currently on your team? Is there anything those voices need? What are the voices that are missing? Discuss these things with Jesus.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Thrash is the President of Novo-US. He and his wife Jamie and their three kids live in San Juan Capistrano, CA and they love country music, dance parties, and road trips. Their family motto is “With God; Invest in People; Laugh, Play, Dance, and Celebrate” and they do their best to live that out with joy and passion.
