Jerusalem, Judea, and the Uttermost Parts

Pastors are always wrestling with an international and a local focus as they think through ministry emphasis. I asked David Platt about this in my weekly interview for Leadership Journal. He’s written a new book, Counter Culture, challenging Christians to think soberly about how the gospel compels them to think critically about pressing social issues.

How would you encourage church leaders to think through both reaching the nations and also thinking through their responsibility here in America?

We are always tempted to turn a both/and into an either/or when it comes to the local and global components of the Great Commission. But the beauty of this commission is that we don’t have to choose between reaching our communities and reaching the nations. Instead, we lead the church to reach our communities and the nations. As we make disciples where we live, teaching them to obey everything Christ has commanded us, we realize that he has commanded us to spread the gospel to every people group on the planet. Therefore, a fundamental part of our local disciple-making must be a focus on global disciple-making. Pastors and church leaders, then, have a responsibility to fan a flame for God’s global glory in every local church.

Read the entire interview here: