Glocalization: How Followers of Jesus Engage the New Flat World

The best way for a local church to conduct missions today is to send the whole church, according to Bob Roberts in this remarkable book. Ordinary church members with skills in agriculture, water treatment, medicine, small business, law and other areas need to become involved and connect internationally. We need to go and live out the kingdom, and lives will be transformed, leading to the establishment of churches, rather than the other way round. We also need to re-think missions trips. The current purpose of most missions trips is to make the team members feel good, not to maximise the value to the recipients. Instead of going and constructing houses, we should be using the funds as seed money for new businesses which enable employees to afford to purchase houses by monthly payments over a period of time. This creates sustainable economic improvement in the community, rather than inadvertently increasing dependence. The author advocates a policy of "knocking on the front door"; that is, approaching the leadership of a country and offering to serve, rather than going into the country as "secret missionaries". He writes extensively about his experience in Afghanistan, Vietnam and other countries which are typically regarded as "closed" to mission work. The book is filled with fresh and challenging ideas. I highly recommend it.

If the church would follow these principles we would effectivelly reach the world for Christ.

I truly enjoyed this book. It is not a typical "how to" missions book that merely confirms what probably you are already doing in your church. Bob Roberts pushes the boundaries. His perspective and approach to short-term missions is different from anything that I have ever read. From cover to cover, I felt as if my missiological practises and leadership as a pastor were being tested and refined.

This book is for you only if in you fit into one of the domains of society (i.e. government, art, education, business, etc.). If you are a pastor, you cannot help but be motivated at your revised job description, namely, "to get the people sitting in our pews to use their vocations in a natural way to connect locally and internationally". Your new gauge of effectiveness is "How many laypeople am I mobilizing?" If you are a Westerner, then you will be pointedly asked if you can "see and submit to what God is doing and be a servant to the East instead of a leader". If you are a Western professional, you will be challenged to go engage emerging nations and seek the stability of those around it. You will get a crash course in being glocal, and seeing this not as a clever church program/strategy/platform, but a legitimate mindset for the integration of your faith in God and practice of your trade. Finally, Bob is a student of Friedman, Zakaria, Jones, Ghandi, Bono and Capra. This atypical pastor is providing leadership into an atypical, but extraordinary, societal/global transformation. Take your leaders through this book, whoever you are.

Glocalization opened my eyes to the world of the new millennium. The barriers and boundries that once existed have been erased. Whether you are a business leader or in ministry, this book is a must read. This book gives us the tools to successfully engage this new era. Roberts also wrote Transformation. That book was great too.