Why Global Friendship & Collaboration Changes Mission | Becoming a Global Disciple Ep. 4
The global church was never meant to live in silos.
Nana Yaw Offei Awuku and Jurie Kriel explore why global friendship and global collaboration are essential to Christian discipleship and mission.
This episode looks at cross-cultural friendship, unity in the body of Christ, meaningful partnership, and the kind of collaboration Jesus prayed for—so that the world may believe.
Friendship is not a side issue in mission. It is part of our witness.
Episode 4 of Becoming a Global Disciple
A Lausanne Movement series helping followers of Jesus build friendships, partnerships, and collaborative action across cultures.
Episode Outline
00:00 Opening
00:55 Love one another across cultures
01:47 Global friendship and collaboration
02:47 Practice Global Friendship
03:00 Why global friendship matters
04:28 One global family in Christ
05:22 The nations right next door
06:24 What global friendship looks like
06:34 Jesus as our model of friendship
07:08 Paul’s cross-cultural friendships
08:00 One body that suffers and rejoices together
09:42 A mission gap and a friendship challenge
10:39 Practical steps toward global friendship
11:37 Using technology to build relationships
12:07 Friendship as sacrificial love
13:27 Practice Global Collaboration
13:47 Relationships that bear fruit in action
14:06 Jesus prayed that we would be one
14:40 Why collaboration matters for the world
15:38 Fellow workers in one mission
16:14 New ways to collaborate today
17:04 Meaningful partnerships
17:37 Maturity over a poverty mentality
18:07 Small steps toward massive progress
18:39 Jesus’ prayer for unity
19:10 Responding to a disconnected world
20:13 So that the world may believe
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Speakers' Bios
Nana Yaw Offei Awuku
Global Director for Generations
Nana Yaw Offei Awuku serves as the global director for generations. In this role he leads the Lausanne Younger Leaders Generation initiative (YLGen). He was previously the Lausanne regional director for English, Portuguese, and Spanish-speaking Africa (EPSA) for over five years until September 2016.
Nana was on staff with Scripture Union Ghana for over 20 years till 2017 and served on the senior management team as the director for field ministries. His primary ministry foci are evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development.
Nana is trained professionally as a chemical engineer and organization development consultant. He graduated from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Massachusetts, US) with an MA in evangelism and world mission, and is currently a PhD candidate with Biola University. Nana is married to Beth, and they have three children: Christy-Joy, Eben-Joy, and Laura-Joy.
Jurie Kriel
Jurie Kriel is the Lausanne Movemeent’s global director for collaboration and a catalyst for the Lausanne Cities Network. He is innovating 5twelve City Church in Austin, Texas, and also leads nxtMove.global, gathering global leaders to help catalyze a turnaround in the trajectory of Christianity in the next generation. Learn more about Jurie at https://www.juriekriel.com.