EMQ articles
Evangelical Missions Quarterly, from 1964 to the current issue. Page 1 of 160 · 3,835 in all.
Members onlyMissionaries as Mediators Between Donors and Recipients
By Jim Harries | Missionaries often mediate between donors and recipients who have little shared understanding of each other’s contexts. Donor expectations can sometimes pressure missionaries to act in ways that are culturally inappropriate or ineffective.
Members onlyHow a collaborative partnership supports a tool shared cross-culturally
By Katherine Choi-Lee | In recent years, church revitalization among Protestant churches in Europe has become an important focus for mission work. Given the post-Christian, secular contexts among some of the most atheist countries in the world, church revitalization in Europe is hard work.
Members onlyBuilding Healthy Partnerships: Missionaries as Alongsiders
By Tom Gerick | Partnerships in cross-cultural missions are becoming the norm. Yet, they remain challenging. Interviews with national leaders, Christians, and experienced missionaries, confirm the importance of building strong relationships for effective partnerships.
Members onlyThe Redeemed Personal Agency of Movement Catalysts
By Gene Daniels |This article examines how a particular category of highly successful missionaries have reframed a secular concept—personal agency—to be a part of their Christian worldview. Drawing on a set of 50 interviews with global church planting leaders, the findings reveal that “redeemed personal agency”…
Members onlyLiving the Adventure God Intended: Faithfulness, Dependence, and Perseverance in Cross-Cultural Ministry
By Russell Matthews | Most of us enter ministry expecting an adventure. And it is an adventure—just not always the one we imagined. Drawing on Ephesians 2:10, Russell Matthews explores how God often works through the ordinary and unseen moments
Walking Toward Wholeness: Solvitur Ambulando and the Practice of Pilgrimage
By Greg W. Burch | Stressful and traumatic encounters in mission, humanitarian and justice contexts are on the rise. Pilgrimages provide opportunities to take a break from normal routines and roles. They allow time for extended periods of reflection and vulnerability, individually and in community with others.
The Cost of Disciple Making in Muslim Contexts: Redeeming the Lost through Sacrificial Mission
By J Wu | Drawing on biblical theology, missiological reflection, and field experience, this article explores the suffering and persecution involved in making disciples among Muslims. Building on the concept of kinsman redeemer theology developed by other scholars
Members onlyIn the Time of Darkness, a Little Lamp
By Premasis Satman | An associate pastor in Hyderabad tells the story of his own COVID-19 lockdown: sealed in his apartment, sick, cut off from his small children, and sinking into fear.
Members onlyMinistering from Weakness: Embracing the De-centering
By Yong Choi | Western missionaries facing social, political, bodily, and spiritual “de-centering” should not deny or overanalyze their loss but meet God in weakness. Yong Choi calls for honest reflection, naming grief, and humbly moving forward. In this way mission advances through vulnerability rather than power.
Members onlyNurturing the Spirit: The Essential Role of Spirituality in Global Mission
By Joseph W. Handley, Jr. and Janelle Stoops | Mission flourishes not through greater activity but through deeper communion with Christ. Drawing on biblical foundations, cross-cultural experience, and case studies from A3’s leadership development work, this article argues that spiritual practices such as abiding…
Members onlySpirituality and the Pragmatism Paradox
By Jackson Strider | What is pragmatism? And how does it detract from our spirituality? The author of this article shares some of his own journey with the delicate balance of putting God’s power first in missions, and advice for how to grow into that yourself.
Leading in a World of Relentless Activity
By Kirk J. Franklin | Relentless activity can lead mission leaders to equate achievement with faithfulness. Historical influences such as the Protestant work ethic and the missionary industrial complex have helped create this tendency.
Editorial – Spirituality in Missions
By Evelyn Hibbert | Although cross-cultural missions has many challenges, we are not alone. Its source and power is God. He is the one who is calling the nations to him. Walking in step with God should open a well of joy that carries us day by day. Drawing on that well uncovers our vulnerability. Then, we free God’s…
Reframing Mission Support for the Majority World
By Gillian Mwaura (Edube) | African participation in global mission is expanding, yet this movement will not be sustained by replicating imported funding systems. Many prevailing models, shaped in Minority World contexts, fail to reflect African economic patterns, communal values, and cultural realities. Majority…
Members onlyBroken Crayons: Learning to Allow People to Discover Meaning in Ways that Make Sense in Their Culture
By Jennifer W. Belcher | Using the Story-Based Trauma Healing course as an exemplar, Jennifer Belcher discusses how a learner-centered, resource light, and localized approach could make biblical transformation easier for the Papua New Guinean learner and other learners around the world.
Members onlyRemember the Women: The Need to Recognize Gender Dynamics in Church Planting Movement Strategies
By Eliza Kettering | Many church planting strategies suggest the importance of the familial web of relationships for the spread of the gospel. These strategies emphasize the speed in evangelizing within a family after coming to faith.
Members onlyWhat’s in a Name?: Using Different Languages’ Names for God
By Mark Durie | Many Christians are unsure whether it is okay to use Allah and Isa for God and Jesus. In many Muslim-majority contexts, believers do use these names. However, patterns vary in the use or avoidance of these names. Iranian believers use Isa but not Allah. Malay believers use Allah but not Isa. Recent…
Members onlyIntroducing God’s Word into Spaces Where People are Looking
By Matthew Summers | As billions live inside the mobile scroll, the challenge for evangelism is no longer over ideas but over attention. Matthew Summers explains how placing God’s Word where people actually look is an effective first step in evangelism. He shows how short form video can create first contact with…
Members onlyEnding Bible Poverty: A Research-Driven Approach
By Matthew Elliott | Matthew Elliott discusses how ending Bible poverty requires more than translating Scripture into every local language. Drawing on research from Africa, he argues that most people read in national or educational languages and lack access to the Bible due to cost and distribution issues. Elliott…
Members onlyCurses Can’t Harm Me, Right?
By Neil Miller | This article explores the often-overlooked biblical topic of curses and asks an important question, “Can they really affect people today?” Drawing from real-life stories and Scripture, the author examines what the Bible teaches about curses, how they operate, and why believers should take them…
Members onlyObstacles to Forgiveness Among Turks
By José L. Cruz Parada | Forgiveness is a major topic in Christianity yet largely ignored in Turkish culture. This article presents the reasons why that is and gives practical suggestions on how to teach it to others especially for those serving among Turks.
Members onlyDiscipling Leaders Across Cultures: A Four-Dimension Framework and How to Apply It
By Joseph W. Handley Jr. and Mary Jo Wilson | Handley and Wilson present a framework of four overlapping dimensions for effective cross-cultural discipleship based on their decades-long experience of developing leaders. These four dimensions are abiding deeply in God, forming Christlike character, using simple…
Being Among the Lost: Discipleship Must Move Back into the World of the Unreached
By Manuel Becker | What if the church’s greatest obstacle to mission is church life itself? This article introduces “Church-Gravity Syndrome,” the tendency of Christian communities to pull believers away from the very people they hope to reach. Drawing on Jesus’ ministry and movements in Thailand, it shows how…
Members onlyReframing Cross-Cultural Discipleship around Allegiance: Promoting Peace, Reconciliation, and Freedom from Fear
By Bryan Carey | Byran Carey argues for a deeper, more lasting approach to cross-cultural discipleship centered on allegiance to Jesus and participation in God’s work of peace and reconciliation. He contrasts the effect of focusing on doctrinal boundaries versus reordering loyalties. This kind of discipleship is…