The Voices of the Global Church

By Jairus Robb,
NZCMS Communications Officer

When I was sev­en­teen, my twin brother and I were helping Dad move our house. After getting a ques­tion from Dad I said, “Muskie that”.

He glanced at me in amuse­ment. “It’s so funny you guys still say that.”

“Say what?” I asked.

“Muskie that,” he said. “That Pidgin phrase.”

My brother and looked at each other in con­fu­sion. “What? Doesn’t it mean ‘no problem’ or ‘never mind’?”

“It does,” Dad respon­ded. “But it’s not English. It’s a phrase you learned as tod­dlers in Papua New Guinea. It’s a word in Pidgin. Spelt M‑A-S-K-I‑E.” We were com­pletely shocked. My parents had served as mis­sion­ar­ies in Papua New Guinea for over ten years before coming back over to New Zealand per­man­ently when we were two. We didn’t remem­ber much but our whole family had grown up using the phrase ‘Maskie that’ and we had never real­ised – or been told! – that it wasn’t English until that con­ver­sa­tion at 17 years old! To this day saying “maskie that” is still as natural to say as any English word or phrase.

The Global Church Connecting

When I think about mission I all too easily grav­it­ate to the tan­gible and the prac­tical. Sim­il­arly phrases like ‘enga­ging in mission’, often conjure up pic­tures of over­seas tasks and the ways I could help­fully con­trib­ute. It’s a classic New Zealand atti­tude, isn’t it? We con­stantly ask ques­tions like “How can I help?” or say “Just give me some­thing to do!” This atti­tude is a mani­fest­a­tion of our world­view and what we value. We’re a prag­matic people and yes this is some­thing we should cel­eb­rate. But what I’ve been reminded of over the last couple of years has been that element of mission that so often goes unre­cog­nised – The Global Church connecting.

Having grown up as a toddler in Papua New Guinea and then later as a teen­ager in Cam­bodia, I built exper­i­ences and formed friend­ships with those who had a vastly dif­fer­ent per­spect­ive of the world than I did. These seasons instilled in me a deep under­stand­ing that my western view of God and the world was only one small lens within a kal­eido­scope of per­spect­ives that make up the Global Church. It’s easy to acknow­ledge this when I grow up think­ing a word like ‘maskie’ is English for sev­en­teen years and, not only that but find out that there is no English equi­val­ent that can ever fully encap­su­late what it means.

What if it is this con­nec­tion that is pre­cisely the mis­sions engage­ment God is calling fol­low­ers of Jesus to today? What if He is asking each of us to not be so quick to jump into the ‘doing’ and take time to dwell in the ‘being’? To still our hands and feet and turn our heads and hearts to each other.

Kenyans and Camps

Back in 2019 my wife, Jasmine, and I got a call from our Pastor invit­ing us to a trip to Kenya to attend a con­fer­ence for leaders and pastors. He also said one gen­er­ous con­greg­a­tion member had offered to pay for all our flights! Well, why wouldn’t we go!?

We had some incred­ible exper­i­ences and learnt much from the teach­ing and worship. But when I think back on those two weeks that we visited, the memor­ies that stand out to me were the meals and hot drinks we had with the couple who hosted us in their home. I was par­tic­u­larly impressed by Jasmine who asked plenty of curious and power­ful ques­tions about Kenyan life and culture. She invited the voices of this Kenyan brother and sister in Christ into our lives and they equally invited our voices into theirs.

Later that same year, a then acquaint­ance (and now friend) who pastors a Chinese Young Adults Church invited me and Jasmine to speak at their camp. The Spirit moved in some power­ful ways in the lives of the young people, but we were sur­prised at what God was doing in our hearts as well. We came away from that camp in awe at the passion and com­mit­ment these young people had for Christ. I was con­tinu­ally encour­aged and chal­lenged by the con­ver­sa­tions and stories from many of them who had such an ‘all in’ atti­tude to serving Jesus and their local church. Feel­ings of com­pla­cency that had dampened my own engage­ment began to burn away by simply listen­ing to and observing the fire in their lives.

In both of these exper­i­ences, it was the moments of con­nec­tion and deep rela­tion­ship, it was the voices heard and the stories shared that were the stand-out memor­ies. Jasmine and I came away from that place with a fresh per­spect­ive on God and His work in the world and I heard the Spirit remind me ‘Jairus, connect with the Global Church’.

The Power of Connection 

When we imme­di­ately jump to the actions, all too easily, God’s call for us to “make dis­ciples of all people” turns into social justice. Or running a church service. Or fin­an­cial support. Or paint­ing a house. There is nothing wrong with those things. Let’s con­tinue to do them! But let’s do them together, bring­ing God’s Kingdom to earth with servant hands held and guided by hearts and lives that are ‘weaved’ together!

I believe there is a call from God for the Global Church to sit down together again to share and receive the gifts that are uniquely ours to give. The gifts of our exper­i­ences. The gifts of our world­views and values. The gifts of our per­spect­ive of God and His mission. The gifts that have been formed in us by God himself.

By listen­ing to the voices from around the world, by build­ing deep con­nec­tions with the Global Church, our know­ledge, per­spect­ive and char­ac­ter are deepened, sharpened, and enriched. Just like the Pidgin word ‘Maskie’ gives me access to a concept that my native English lan­guage will never be able to fully convey, the Global Church can give each of us new oppor­tun­it­ies to under­stand and exper­i­ence God’s love and will for us and for the world. Together, through humil­ity and reci­pro­city, we can grow as ‘Global Dis­ciples’, not limited by our own per­spect­ives and isol­ated in our ‘get on with it’ atti­tudes but with our hearts and minds fla­voured with the under­stand­ing of others and sup­por­ted by deep rela­tion­ship. That sounds like the Church trans­formed by the work of His Spirit. That sounds like mission!

Growing Global Disciples

Some­times, one of the hardest ques­tions to answer when it comes to mission is “Where do I start!?” Luckily we have a fant­astic option for you! NZCMS has put out a free, small group resource called “Growing Global Dis­ciples” that aims to turn our heads and hearts to God’s work and to the world. If you’re won­der­ing what the next step is in your mis­sional journey, I strongly encour­age you to grab some like-minded people and engage with this resource.

Learn more about Growing Global Disciples