Interdependance of the local and the global

I've been blogging recently about how to develop a theology within local contexts that respects the fact that mission is both local and global. The danger of the new "missional" theologies that at best ignore the validity of contemporary cross-cultural mission and at worst deny it altogether.This group of posts originated in a thought from Eddie Arthur, which drives me to the subject of translation as an example. Translation of the Bible and its message is vitally important for the task of making disciples. Making disciples and teaching them to obey is a task that will always include translation. We will need to translate the Gospel into terms that British people will understand as well as in pioneering situations where the language has to be reduced to writing first. Many of the insights of missional theology are founded upon the insights of cross-cultural mission. So local mission depends on global mission for effectiveness and global mission depends on local support for its effectiveness.