My friend, Bob Roberts, is pastor of the Northwood Church in Ft Worth, Texas. I have recently read a couple of his books including some of his workbook regarding church planting. Bob uses the word “glocal” to describe the work we are to be about. He emphasizes the local and global aspects of ministry working in tandem with each other. We are not to begin in Jerusalem and move to Samaria and then onward to the ends of the earth. Rather we should be engaging all of these fronts at the same time.
 
At Olive, this means we have work to do right here in our own area. Yesterday I dropped in on the ladies at the Charis House. They encourage me every time I am around them. This is a part of our local work. At the same time, we are helping plant churches in San Diego and Cleveland. This week we received word that Dr. Troy Bush is leaving our staff to join the church planting team in Baltimore. We will no doubt be doing some work in that area in the future. Simultaneously we are at work in Romania, Russia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and other points around the world.
 
Another aspect of this endeavor is that as Southern Baptists we are linked with other churches doing work around the globe and at home. Our Cooperative Program gifts allow us to do things with others we could never do alone. Not only are we glocal as an individual church, but we are linked with others in a faith-family relational way that allows us to reach out beyond our own capacity.
 
Olive Baptist has been blessed because God has favored us and given us a greater capability than some other churches. Some people call us a large church and “to whom much is given much is required.” We must not only do the work God has assigned to us but we must also be good encouragers of others as they join in the work. In a day when denominations are not looked upon with a positive eye, I still see being a Southern Baptist as a big plus in achieving glocal ministry.

Pastor Ted Traylor