Sometimes going global just means opening yourself up to the world that comes to your door. There is a sizable Chin population in Oklahoma City. The Chin are an ethnic group from Myanmar. I believe the largest Christian community in Myanmar is among the Chin people. The Chin in Oklahoma City are refugees who fled Myanmar due to persecution by the government. First Baptist Church (FBC), Oklahoma City, has been working with Catholic Charities to help resettle and minister to the Chin people. On Sunday, more than fifty Chin Christians gathered to worship in a location provided by FBC. They started the worship service with the FBC congregation. After greetings were exchanged, the Chin people sang a song in Chin. Next, the Chin congregation was presented a rough hewn cross that had been made by one of the teachers who helps teach them English during the week. Then all the Chin marched out behind the cross to begin worshiping as a Chin congregation in their own language.
In a way, this was not all that special. All across Oklahoma different ethnolinguistic groups meet for worship. What is instructive to me about this situation is that FBC got to be a part of it simply because the congregation said yes to going global locally. The Chin group came to FBC after being asked to leave another church where they were meeting. Apparently the other church thought they were too much trouble. I also imagine the other church, an evangelical church, found it a little disturbing to be cooperating with Catholic Charities on ministering to the Chin. The Chin sought out FBC because they had heard that it welcomed people from other ethnic groups and languages.
I guess the lesson to me is that I better not get so wrapped up in going global someplace else that I forget that sometimes God might want me to go global locally.
dr.j.
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Frank,
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing about this special day in the life of our congregation. I do not think I will ever forget the look on many of the Chin's faces when they prepared to move toward claiming their own place of worship. Those who had been rejected in their homeland, rejected in the nation where they fled, and rejected by fellow believers in the US, finally had a place and a worshipping community to call their own. I join you in the hope that more congregations will discover what it is to go global locally.
Grace and Peace, Tom Ogburn
Senior Pastor, FBC OKC