My mind is brewing an idea. Have you ever had an idea that buzzes around in your head for months--the kind that follows you and steals away a bit of your mental energy all day? I get these little thoughts all the time. Usually, these little ideas grow over time. As I go about my business the idea grabs a hold other thoughts like a snowball tumbling down a hill. And just like a tumbling snowball eventually the idea is so pervasive that it demands my attention. Today I have one of those ideas to share with you. I can’t guarantee that these thoughts are fully mature, but I'll share them anyway. A blog is a great place to write out incomplete ideas, isn't it?

This summer I took a trip to Africa and ever since then I have been thinking about the Global church. Early this year we started using the phrase “unique learning contexts” to describe the differences between Journey Corps locations. Each location will be very different from the next because each cultural context is different. The beauty of this fact is that each culture has a different perspective to offer, which we can then offer our Journeyers.

So what? Why is this still on my mind? When I visited Journey Corps West Africa, I saw one of our unique contexts up close. There was a beautiful meshing of worlds, young American Christians and the young Ivorian Christians learning together what they couldn’t have learned without each other. They both offered a perspective that the other needed. I could give you examples, but Keo does a great job explaining this in this interview video on our site.

Seeing and hearing these stories cause a question to pop in my head.

What if, God never reveals himself completely to any single church? What if the unique elements of the body of Christ around the world were designed by God to manifest or highlight a specific part about who God is? These questions have raised other questions in my mind. What if, God blesses each culture with the ability to understand elements of His nature better than any other culture?

I thought these ideas held some truth, but how much truth? Does scripture speak to this? Some of the answers to these questions have been popping out of the book of Ephesians. I might even be able to make the case that Paul’s primary themes in his book to Ephasis addresses my “little questions.” I am running out of time so I’ll have to finish writing later, but just so I don’t leave you hanging completely, here is a teaser.

Paul talks about how Gentiles are now brought into the family of God for the first several chapters of the book. As his argument develops, Paul he goes even farther by address some of my questions. I will finish this blog soon. Check it out!! Part 2>>

You figure out how this picture relates :)