Missiologically Aware Blog

What is the role of narrative in global mission today? Through biblical, historical, and contemporary stories, the authors of Christ Among the Nations demonstrate that narrative holds a unique power for global mission transformation.

The task of reaching the least reached is increasingly accompanied by risk. Anna Hampton, drawing on her years of experience in Afghanistan, helps guide the reader through risk in the second edition of her book Facing Danger, originally published in 2016. 

This book is the fruit of more than 20 years of research, reflection, and observation by Cecil Stalnaker, a missionary who served in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United States. Stalnaker was shaken by research finding that in Sweden, for each non-religious person that starts going to church, 26 others raised in the Christian faith turn their back on God (10).

I have long been uncomfortable with the competitive military and sports imagery in mission literature and the prevalence of corporate strategic planning and evaluation models. Many practitioners feel the assumptions of these concepts do not fit well with the contemporary, complex, fluid realities of global mission contexts. 

To remain relevant, theological studies must engage in social science research, argues Joshua Iyadurai in Social Research Methods. Often, however, students of theology and religious studies are ill-equipped for such a task. This book seeks to fill that gap. 

Confronting a culture of individualism, Wan and Raibley argue that personal and communal transformations occur through relationships. Based on the relational nature of the Triune God, the authors’ framework, relational interactionism, suggests that Christian formation leads us into the likeness of the Trinity.

Andrew Walls (1928–2021), an innovative missiologist and influential historian, envisioned this project, which tells the story of Protestant missions before his death, but realized it would not be possible (xv).

If you were to try to be the first to design a way to strategically impact and accelerate global evangelization, to mentor and disciple laypeople and the next generation of missionary leaders, and finally, to “awaken God’s people to his purpose, mobilizing his church to strategic engagement

The literature addressing Jesus movements is narrow, crowded, and prone to repetition. However, Robert M. Reach’s latest volume attempts to move beyond compelling testimony and lists of multiplication factors to consider the overlooked issues of movement structure and sustainability. 

“Can a Westernized, twenty-first century reading of Scripture – even with the benefit of scholarly exegesis – provide sufficient understanding of what Jesus said and people associated with him heard two thousand years ago?” (181).