I’ll never forget the Easter sunrise service on the shores of southern Arabia three years ago. First light was winking on the Persian Gulf, and the pastor greeted us with “He is risen!” We replied with a joy akin to laughter, “He is risen indeed!” In our chorus of praise that followed, it occurred to me that we were part of something big—something VERY big. I wrote in my journal about that morning:
On this special day, the first day, the days of days, the Kingdom choir started in the Pacific Islands and the Far East, then across Asia, even rising from prison cells in Iran just across the water. We took up the praise in this corner of Arabia, and before our echoes of “He is risen!” died down, the stanza continued across Africa and Europe, only to be answered from across the Atlantic with “He is risen indeed!”
Last spring my friend Tim Challies shared with me an idea he had been working on because of a similar experience he had at his church in Toronto as he visualized the global chorus of worshippers with whom we are connected in Christ. Tim has blessed the Church for years as an author, blogger, speaker, and traveler. As he set out on this project, he invited me to join him in telling a story that is both remarkably simple and profound. On one day—the first day of each week—Christians across the globe gather to worship Jesus, their risen Lord. Together, as a worldwide community of worshippers, we obey God’s command that, “From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised” (Psalm 113:3). The diversity and unity of the Church in this worship is a stunning demonstration that the Gospel of the one and only Savior crosses every kind of barrier!
This is how Challies describes this worldwide, blood-bought family: “I love to ponder that as the sun breaks over the islands of the South Pacific to begin a new day, Christians rise, then gather together to praise God in song, to call out to him in prayer, and to hear from him through his Word. As their services draw near to a close, Australians in Sydney, then Adelaide, then Perth begin to sing their own calls to worship, as do Christians in Japan and Korea. Next, millions of Chinese believers add their voices, as do Filipinos and Indonesians. By now nearly a quarter of the earth is resounding with the sound of Christian worship. And so it goes as the sun follows its course across Africa and Europe, then South America and North America. By the time it sets again far out over the Pacific, the whole earth has given praise to God.”
The Project
We’re calling this project Worship Round the World, which will be a globe-circling journey as we chase the sun. Viewers will join believers as they rise to worship in house churches, open-air buildings, and ancient edifices that stretch from the South Pacific to the mountains of Nepal, from the Middle East to the American heartland. It will be a taste of Revelation 5:9 as we, along with our brothers and sisters worldwide, worship the One who by His blood has “ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
As we travel to countries spanning the globe, we will join with churches whose worship is consistent with Scripture but whose practice of that worship is faithful to the local language, customs, and culture. We plan to worship in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea, the mountains of Nepal, the bustling metropolises of Russia, the warm plains of Zambia, the cold reaches of Iceland, and many other places. We’re eager to introduce you to brothers and sisters we meet along the way.
The Products
We plan to create a 13-episode video series on DVD and digital download as well as a co-authored book that combines a travelogue of places and people with topical, theological reflections. If time and budget permit, we will also create a coffee table book displaying some of the best photographs and stories from the world-wide journey as well as a study curriculum suitable for use by individuals, families, small groups, or churches.
The Need
Expenses for this project will be covered through donations. The total anticipated budget is $275,000 which will cover expenses related to travel, equipment, and video production. This will be a two-year long project that involves multiple trips spanning the globe. It’s the biggest, most audacious film project either of us has ever undertaken. But that’s as it should be because this is the big, audacious story of Jesus’ saving work in the world as he brings worshippers together from “every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9)!
Will You Help?
Will you help us tell this story? If you want to have a part in this project, please consider giving a gift of any size for the Worship Round the World project. You can give online at www.frontlinemissions.info/worship-round-the-world. If you have any questions, please contact me at tim@frontlinemissions.info.