From Bangkok to Bishkek, Budapest to Bogotá. Kenneth D. MacHarg
usually included in what we mean by international church. Ethnocentricity may be a challenge to overcome on the missional journey.
There are also churches that include the word “international” in their name who do so to reflect the international character of the Kingdom but are not international churches as described here. Some do so as a fund raising strategy!
There are many national churches that include amongst their services an English speaking congregation. The church may not be international but the congregation may reflect the main features of an international church – language, passport and cultural diversity. (http://micn.org/defined/)
In another document, MICN describes those who attend IC’s as an assembly of Christians that are inordinately adventurous, highly educated, entrepreneurial, Biblically literate and living effectively outside their countries of origin. ( https://micn.org/story/)
Another umbrella organization, the Network of International Congregations offers this description:
Millions of people are living in lands other than their own, struggling to understand another language, culture, way of life. They seek community, support, a grasp of hope and reality. Persons in such situations can be lost, uncertain, confused.
For these and all who might be touched by the Good News in Jesus Christ, there are oases where Living Water is to be found. Christians abroad find fellowship in International Congregations, gatherings of like-minded and like-experienced people who seek God’s presence and seek to follow God’s leading.
These assemblies of believers focus their lives and activities together under six significant common characteristics.
EVANGELICAL is the chief and theological characteristic for an International Congregation. It sees the “Gospel,” the Evangel, as the principle sign, idea for a Christian. It points to Jesus Christ, the center and key for God’s church. “Evangelical” says that a church focuses on Jesus, who He is and what He does and means for us. Being evangelical means that Jesus is first, that He is Lord and Savior of all.
ECUMENICAL is the sociological characteristic. In these churches each person [left and right, liturgical and non-liturgical, fundamentalist and liberal, traditional and experimental] finds the welcome mat out. The affirmation “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church” takes on a new depth as openness, and inclusiveness, gives a truly “Pentecostal” flavor to International Churches.
INTERNATIONAL is the political characteristic. If there is content to the current phrase, “New World Order,” then International Congregations have been an advance party of awareness. Vast changes are erasing old boundaries and diluting old ideologies. International Congregations witness to a reality transcending “the American way of life;” they testify to a willing embrace of all persons into one community in Christ.
ENGLISH is the linguistic characteristic. The English language now ties people within and among nations together. International airline communication is in English. Scientific and professional organizations use English as the prime language. Libraries want literature and reference works in English. Some nationals affiliate with an English-speaking congregation because they married an English-speaking spouse, or studied in English, or are more at home in English than any other language. As language was a key for a diverse company of people on the first Pentecost, so it continues to weld men and women into community.
CONTEXT is the cultural characteristic. The Christian faith is always wrapped in a cultural robe. There is no way to receive the faith outside of a cultural context. Congregations seek to connect individuals to a faith that acknowledges an inter-cultural reality by being part of a trans-cultural experience. The joy and amazement derived from association with these congregations stem from the fact it is possible to transcend human differences that often divide people.
MISSIONAL is the functional characteristic. It is for mission that the church exists: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Mission is expressed in word and deed, in telling and doing, in acting and being. Churches do not live only to perpetuate themselves, but to be servants of their Servant Lord. A mission-minded International Congregation reaches out to English-speaking persons even when they are not within the normal social or economic circle of the congregation.
International Congregations visualize the united, world-wide church of Jesus Christ without regard to separations of confession, race, culture, or nation. Diversity and unity are seen as complimentary qualities.
Some International Congregations are related through the agency of the Network for International Congregations (NIC). It is a network of congregations in more than 65 countries. They are instruments of God for demonstrating that barriers can be overcome, that faith binds believers into one company.
Congregations related to NIC fall into two styles of accountability: independent and confessional. “Independent” churches are frequently called “Union” or “Community” or “International,” reflecting an inter-/multi-denominational posture; they have no ecclesiastical base, or responsibility toward or benefit from a churchly source. “Confessional” churches are tied to a single Protestant denomination, but intentionally direct their ministry in an ecumenical or non-denominational manner; such congregations have a responsibility toward and receive benefits from their sponsoring church body.
(https://tinyurl.com/y257ajag)
In a more succinct form, Dr. Warren Reeve describes some of the characteristics of these churches:
PEOPLE in the International Church: Rockstars, reformers, royalty, artists, ambassadors, academicians, military, mavericks, missionaries, politicians, professionals and pundits all engaged with the International Church.
PLACES of the International Church: International Churches are first responders answering in close proximity to global crisis assisting where there is geopolitical turmoil, natural disasters and displaced people challenges.
POSITIONS of influence: Located and functioning in open and limited access nations, nothing can penetrate closed countries, tight cultures and the kaleidoscope of classes like an International Church.
PERSONS of every tribe, tongue and nation: The International Church plays a significant role in gathering the scattered diaspora and reaching persons from least reached people groups around the globe.
PRUDENT investment produces synergistic impact: In our ever increasing globalized world, properly positioned personnel in the International Church will catalyze national redemptive lift for countries and regions around the world. --Rev Dr Warren Reeve, Missional International Church Network Founder
IC pastor James Carlson offers a fourth description, less extensive and complex, but helpful:
An International church is a church where at least half of the congregation does not live in their passport country.
An International Church can be found anywhere in the world. It specializes in ministry to people who are not living in their passport country for a variety of reasons. International churches use the lingua franca of the world as the language of communication, which in today’s world is English. They may offer translation into the local language or other languages found in the congregation, but English will always be used. International Churches are often different characteristically from local churches because of their congregation’s greater diversity nationally, theologically, denominationally, economically, educationally and linguistically. Because of these characteristics, demographically International Churches tend to have younger and more highly transitional congregations than the other churches around them.
(James Carlson, International Church Assessment, privately published, available at www.amazon.com, 2019)
Each of these differ in understanding as well as experience and while some may question the assumptions voiced, particularly in the third description, taken together they help to define and