From Indiana to Singapore: How Worship Transcends Culture and Borders | The Stone Table

Recently, I found myself 10,000 miles from home, and on that trip, God spoke something very profound. I just returned from the Asia Pacific region. We were with about a dozen pastors and some key business guys from their churches. We were there interacting with missionaries and on the ground, kind of on-site, with Insight, connecting with the culture and what God is doing in those parts of the world, and really, ultimately, what still needs to be done.

So, we spent the last few days of that trip in Singapore. Singapore is an incredible Global City. Most of the population is made up of Chinese, Indian, and Malaysians. So, it’s this kind of cross-cultural connection, kind of like a New York City of the Asia-Pacific region. On the last day we were there, we got to go to church, and it was an incredible experience to stand in that congregation with this different culture of people and this collision of cultures, this kind of pluralistic collision of cultures, and to lift our voices in worship to God, to hear the word of God preached, and to be there in that church, in that culture, and community, and to lift our voices with those people.

And then, just a week later, it was a bit of an overwhelming moment for me as I was back in my church here in Indiana, in cornfed, you know, Midwestern, farm country Indiana, and to be there with my people, in my church, in my own culture, and lift my voice to the same Savior that we were worshiping 10,000 miles and 13 time zones away just a week earlier. And it just hit me in that moment that the kingdom of God is every nation, tribe, and tongue. It is a pan-national chorus of worship to our Creator.

But you know, the reason we were on this missions trip, we were on this fundraising Vision trip, was because there are still over 7,000 people groups in the world today that are not part of that chorus of worship to Jesus. About 3.4 billion people, according to the Joshua Project, don’t have a representation of the Gospel in their culture and in their community. Over 7,000 people groups, 3.4 billion people. That is why we do what we do here at the Stone Table, and that is why we want to both encourage and challenge you.

We want to encourage you, if you are a Marketplace believer, who you are and how God made you, and what you put your hands to each and every day, as part of God’s kingdom work in the world. But we also want to challenge you to see that who you are and the skill sets that you have, and how God has wired and made you, has a call to see every nation, tribe, and tongue come to know Jesus, to have an opportunity to know Jesus. So all of us, right, the Luzan Covenant loves to say it’s the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world, and that’s what we want to champion and push here at the Stone Table.

All of us, Marketplace people, pastors, missionaries, we all get on board with this Great Commission call to see that every nation, tribe, and tongue is represented in that pan-national chorus of worship to Jesus. Will you join us in that effort? Hey, thanks for watching. If you like this video, maybe give us a like, a comment, share it with some friends. If you’re interested in more resources from the Stone Table, you can find those at thestonetable.org.