Local Pathways that Lead to Global Partnerships

It doesn’t take long to see the nations around you today. Step out of your front door, into your kids’ classroom, or in your local grocery store and they will be before you. In northwest Arkansas where I live, 36 new people move into the area every day, which puts this region as one of the top 100 metropolitan areas. [1] As I take a closer look at who lives and works among us, it’s the nations of the world. Reports reflect that with the growth in population, we are becoming increasingly diverse. Just more than a decade ago, northwest Arkansas was a predominantly white/Caucasian community (76%), but now we see that number declining with an increase of ethnic diversity, including 17% Hispanic Latino, among others. [2] The world is at our doorstep here in northwest Arkansas, and probably at yours, too.

As the Lord has determined the locations and times for the nations to exist (Acts 17:26), we have a unique opportunity to develop a strategy for reaching our nations locally that can lead towards engaging them globally. I want to challenge you and your church to consider not only how you can do this, but also why you should do this.

How to Develop Pathways

Spiritual Mapping

Having been led by the Holy Spirit to engage the people in your city with the Gospel, one of the first things you need to do is survey and record the ‘lay of the land.’ This is done best through “mapping,” which is compiling a multi-layer graphical representation of the area and people in which you propose to reach with the Gospel.

As you study your city, you begin to understand its people. This is the first step in incarnation—putting yourself in the shoes of those to whom you want to minister. Your mapping report will change naturally as you gain insight. It also will need to be amended to show where God is obviously at work and where there are opportunities for ministry.

There are three layers to mapping:

1. Geographic mapping considers the space and locations in which people travel, gather, and live. Consider the pathways different population segments take to work and to carry out their daily activities. Where do they gather to hang out, to play, to celebrate? Do various pockets of ethnicities live in different segments of town, and if so, where are those population segments?

2. Social mapping is assessing the story of the people and the city. What is the narrative of where you live and who lives there? As the nations have streamed into your neighborhood, why have they come, what are their needs, and how can you engage them?

3. Spiritual mapping is finding God’s story. Where is God at work and where has He opened a door for finding people of peace and Gospel receptivity (Luke 10:1-12)?

As you compile this information, you will be able to develop a strategy for outreach.

Strategic Outreach

Having developed a framework for who lives in your city, you can then design a strategy for reaching them through evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. This could take place through block parties, local ESL classes, sports camps, medical clinics, engaging in local school events, or meeting temporal and physical needs. Each of these serves as a pathway for Gospel proclamation. We must demonstrate the Gospel, but not without a declaration of the Gospel that has saved us and called us to serve Jesus.

One way that our local church has sought to develop strategic outreach is through developing a comprehensive church planting residency that focuses specifically on planting ethnic churches throughout our region. We have identified seven major ethnic blocs throughout northwest Arkansas that need a contextualized Gospel witness. These include Hispanics, South Asians, Asian Americans, and Marshallese. We designed a church planting residency that raises up future national pastors (of these affinities) to plant Biblically faithful and contextually appropriate churches to reach their people with the Gospel.

Why Develop Pathways

Knowing how to develop such pathways, we should consider why this strategy is key in global partnerships and cross-cultural engagement.

Training: A strategy to reach the unique ethnicities that the Lord has brought to your community creates a training ground for cross-cultural ministry. Whether training up a short-term mission team or a long-term missionary unit, there is no better arena to foster faithful cross-cultural engagement than your own backyard. If a future missionary can learn to share the Gospel with a South Asian shopkeeper in their neighborhood, they are likely to be effective when they land in Nepal.

Synergy: The bridging of local and global missions strategy provides synergy for your church. You don’t have to wonder where to serve and can easily develop an Acts 1:8 missions strategy that focuses on similar nations at home and abroad. Church members can pray more fervently, give more sacrificially, and go with urgency because they have a heart for reaching people across the street and around the world. There is no “out of sight, out of mind” mentality because they see them every day.

Access and Gospel Advance: Many unreached peoples and places are hard to reach as Americans, and governments are tightening the access of missionaries to certain countries. By raising up laborers who are from these places, we can send them back to their home countries, villages, and native peoples with the message of the Gospel. Whether it’s an international student graduating from the University of Arkansas, or it’s a Hmong church planter who is raised up and sent to the hill tribes of Southeast Asia, the Gospel can go further and deeper as we invest in the nations here and there.

So, discover who is in your community, develop a plan for reaching them, and then deploy your members to engage the nations and even send from among the nations to make disciples to the ends of the earth.