Missiologically Aware Blog

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).

In Character Theology: Engaging God through His Cast of Characters, authors Tom Steffen and Ray Neu introduce an approach to teaching the narrative portions of the Bible that focuses on drawing out truths of Scripture through the lives of the Bible characters.

Whether organizational leadership occurs within a cross-cultural environment or not, the challenge is always to create a healthy environment. In his four-part book, Healthy Leadership for Thriving Organizations, Justin Irving touches on the most critical elements of organizational leadership that can be applied in any setting.