Since we have lived in our current home in the Midwestern U.S., several of our neighbors have moved in and out of the county for work. It seemed those who had returned from the Middle East were the only long-time church goers. However, they had lived their entire time in near total isolation from the unreached people group around them. They went to do a job and get out as quickly as possible.
What if the church expanded its idea of missions to make that story turn out differently?
The global economy is on the move. Is the church?
If you look for it, many in The Wesleyan Church (TWC) are. They are moving to new places and living as global marketplace multipliers as the Spirit leads.
Multipliers in the global marketplace could change everything.
If you look for it, many in The Wesleyan Church (TWC) are. They are moving to new places and living as global marketplace multipliers as the Spirit leads.
The Drapers* realized the husband could do his work anywhere. Their heart for the nations and desire to expose their kids to the enriching experience of living in another culture made them wonder what God might do. Now affirmed by Global Partners, they are figuring out where to move as global marketplace multipliers.
Sometimes called “digital nomads,” those in this category doubled in the year before COVID in the U.S. alone. Pandemic and permanent work policy shifts expand the opportunity. A “Talent Mobility 2020” survey cited by Andrew Scott in “Scatter” found that “… 42 percent of employees want to use their company’s remote working policy to work from abroad,” and others find that more than half of Millennials aspire to work abroad. “If only 0.01 percent of these were followers of Jesus taking a job among the unreached ... we would more than double ... (those) focused on sharing the gospel with those who have never heard” (2016, 17).
It's all about those who see things differently.
SEE the work you now do as important. Work itself is worship and stewardship. Where you work, study, live and play can all be places for redemptive relationships. Starting a Marketplace Multiplier chapter can be a great way to enhance workplace intentionality.
SEE the gospel access problem for humanity. Four in 10 people in the world still don't have access to the gospel. Believers are finding ways to intentionally reach out cross-culturally to build relationships, share their faith and engage in global disciple making in response to this need.
SEE the global connections you already have. I made a false presumption when talking with someone in the healthcare field recently, assuming she only did business in her country. She mentioned to me that her company had manufacturing facilities in several other countries among people groups that don't have access to the gospel. The brainstorming began.
SEE your profession as a mission opportunity. Evan Maxwell is a Wesleyan higher education graduate who plays professional basketball in Europe. “I didn’t see myself as a missionary and didn’t think I would want to live cross-culturally,” Evan reported as he pursued basketball all the way to the professional level. “I didn’t see this life beforehand and wouldn’t have chosen it originally, but if my main calling is to Christ … then wherever I am, I need to respond to that calling.”
It means seeing how God might be sending you!
Your presence might make you the only potential disciple maker your neighbors or co-workers will ever meet.
Dr. Ben Paulsen* felt God sending him to be a physician, to use medicine as a bridge of friendship with people so that I could tell them about Jesus even in a place where traditional missionaries couldn’t go. Many thousands have come to know God through Jesus because of the use of a practical global marketplace multiplier skill.
Perhaps God is ordering events to help you figure out how your practical skills could be used globally. Your presence might make you the only potential disciple maker your neighbors or co-workers will ever meet.
Evan Maxwell said it this way: “If I’m friends with someone for a long time and never bring up God, then what am I doing? God’s given me size and abilities to have influence and relationships. ... There is one Slovakian I have been intentionally reaching out to. He is a super nice guy, but he isn’t religious and doesn’t believe in God. We went to lunch and just began the conversation of faith, God, afterlife, and relationship versus religion. It was really cool. He is a smart guy and has a really bad taste in his mouth about Christians, but he is open to talking and learning.”
What doors are opening for you?
*Name changed.
**Quotations from “Marketplace Multipliers: Stories of faith and influence in the workplace” with David Drury, 2021, used by the permission of Wesleyan Publishing House: Fishers, Indiana.