Of course, when my family and I visited Mouse-Land over Spring Break, we had to ride “It’s a Small World”–twice.  My socio-anthropological tendencies helped make this attraction worth the $50,000 price tag to visit the Magic Kingdom.  “It’s a Small World” satisfied my multicultural desires for the day.

While I am not certain that Disney was intentionally prophetic in predicting the “shrinking” of the world brought about by globalization, inexpensive and rapid international travel, global commerce, and advancements in telecommunications when he created this ride, the reality is that the world is smaller today–metaphorically speaking–than when the ride was developed decades ago.

For example, the other day I was looking at an orange, banana, and a lemon in my kitchen.  The labels on each item revealed a different country of origin.  Today, I am able to have such international representatives in my house with little thought given to such a matter.  In fact, if I run out of such fruit, I can jump in my Japanese car–built in the U.S.–filled with petroleum products from the Middle East, be at the grocery store in a matter of minutes, and get my fruit from three other countries of the world.  And not even give it a second thought.

Do you think my grandparents were able to do this when they were my age?  No way.

What about my parents?  Maybe.

So, while the expression, “It’s a Small World” is now a cliché, such is an ever-present reality.

Think about it this way:  We can now be anywhere on the planet in 48 hours.  Yes, in two days!

Do you think my grandparents were able to do this when they were my age?  No way.

What about my parents?  Again, no way.

So, What’s the Big Idea about a Small World?

We now live in a time of unprecedented change politically, educationally, technologically, economically, and medically.  Consider any discipline and you are likely to find that great developments have occurred in that field over the past twenty years.

And while the eyes of mankind see progress and advancement, the eyes of Kingdom Citizens should see enormous Great Commission opportunities–opportunities that have never before been available to the Church!

Can such innovation and development simply be a blessing to the Church for her to consume upon Herself, while four billion people in  the world are not Kingdom Citizens–with two billion who have never heard the name of Jesus?

The world has changed greatly in the past two decades.  And Lord willing, it will continue to change at a rapid rate.  If our missiology does not seek to engage such a new world order, our strategies and missionary methods on the field will fall short to meet the great opportunities for gospel advancement.

We must keep the never-changing biblical truths in place, but we also must allow our methods for missions to adjust–and re-adjust quickly–as the contexts are ever-changing.  Church history contains examples of missed opportunities due to resistance to changing cultural preferences.

The big idea for us is that we now live in a small world.  Missionary strategies and methods for the big world of yesteryear must be adjusted for the small world of today.

But the stewardship question of the hour is now: Will our denominations, parachurch organizations, mission agencies,  networks, and local churches make the adjustment in our missionary ways?  Of course they will, right? After all, we have no problem adapting our daily lives to the small world by getting our fruit from three different countries.  Right?  If we can make easy adjustments to obtain the mundane, can we not make the major adjustments for the glory of God?  Hummm…. Something to consider.

What are your thoughts?