Why Global Impact Sunday?

Global Impact Sunday was started in 2015 to help inform our church members about who our overseas workers are, what they are doing, and how we can be involved. 

Don Beacham, our cross-cultural outreach pastor, said that as our church grew and the people we sent overseas grew, we needed some way to communicate that to the larger church. Global Impact Sunday is aimed to bring the Great Commission and our overseas workers to the forefront. 

“We have a huge emphasis on missions at Grace – cross-cultural ministry, the Great Commission, and especially the unreached,” he said. “Over the years we’ve been committed as a church to being highly engaged and involved in the Great Commission in some way, however, the Lord will lead us, and so that’s developed over the years into us being a sending church.”

Being a sending church means that we send out people from amongst our congregation who we believe God has called into Great Commission work. Picking a Sunday to communicate to the church family every year about our overseas workers was the best way to keep our overseas workers in front of our congregation. 

Beacham mentioned ways that you can be involved and informed about our overseas workers.

Don and Gary chatting during a Global Impact Sunday meet-up with some of our overseas and local workers.

“The handout that we give out on Global Impact Sunday gives them [our church] a quick reference to where they can pray. It’s a great prayer guide they can use to pray through all of our overseas workers. It also gives information on all of our local Great Commission workers,” he said. “Global prayer is the other big thing, that’s Thursday mornings. Every week, every Thursday morning for an hour we do an online and in-person prayer time for what we’re involved in as a church and the Great Commission.”

Another great way to be involved is to have your life group adopt a person or family who is living overseas. You can communicate with them, actively pray for them and invite them to your home when they’re back in the states.

“Think of it as if they are sort of the life group and the community for that worker,” he said. “When they come back to the states, they plug right back into that group, there are people that know them better than just a random person in the congregation, it’s a place they kinda feel at home.” 

Arlington is very diverse and if you don’t feel particularly called overseas, there’s plenty of opportunities to engage in the Great Commission right here. UTA international students and ESL students are some examples and there are many resources to help you wisely engage with somebody from another culture. 

“One of my goals as the Cross-Cultural Outreach pastor is getting everybody in the church out of the USA—somehow, for some length of time,” he said. “Something to give them a chance to see a wider view of the world and God’s Kingdom globally. To me, that’s big, even if they’re never going to live overseas. That kind of trip will change their lives and they'll have a much better understanding of what God’s doing globally.”

Beacham said that the level of awareness, prayer, and encouragement from our people to our overseas workers has taken a big jump because of Global Impact Sunday. 

“I’ve seen prayer for our workers and our overseas partners rise to levels we’ve never had in the past,’ he said. 

The Great Commission and cross-cultural ministry are important and with events like Global Impact Sunday, we can better spread the Gospel and pray for those who have been sent out. 

“We’re trying to communicate always, as believers, we’re to love all people. The Gospel is for everyone, we’re called to take the Gospel to people that haven’t heard,” he said. “We’re supposed to be united, that’s the mark of the Body of Christ.”

Our church is so richly diverse. We have people with all sorts of backgrounds, upbringings, and experiences. The church is called to be a place of diversity and unity, worshipping God together. 

“People from every nation, tribe, and tongue, gathering around the throne—that’s the ultimate goal,” he said. “So why not see some of that, a taste of that, a beginning of that happening in the church today.”

On Global Impact Sunday from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., we’re going to have a special time in the Worship Center to hear from some of our overseas workers. You’ll get to hear their stories and have a chance to pray for them. 

“I think the whole goal of Global Impact Sunday for me every year is to remind people of the mission of the church, the Great Commission, and to engage with what our part is,” he said. “I want to communicate that we’re all sent. We’re all sent ones, if you are a follower, a disciple of Jesus, you’ve been sent. The only question is what is that field that you’ve been sent to?”