EMQ articles
Evangelical Missions Quarterly, from 1964 to the current issue. Page 1 of 160 · 3,822 in all.
Members onlyReframing 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…
Members onlyBeing 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…
Members onlyFive Questions about Disciples and Disciple Making
By Andy Smith | As a missionary trainer, Andy Smith has encountered five questions about discipling repeatedly. These questions explore whether discipleship relates only to spiritual life, whether or not to use qualifying adjectives with “disciple,” who should make disciples, what the discipling relationship looks…
Members onlyEditorial – Discipling
By Evelyn Hibbert | Jesus’ disciples walked with him, ate with him, lived with him, hurt with him, and later reproduced what they experienced. The most effective discipling occurs in multigenerational community. It is active and flexible to changing circumstances. The best disciplers come alongside disciples…
Members onlyRecovering Monastic Values for Mission Today
By Edward L. Smither | In this article, I explore two values of historic monastic mission – study and simplicity – that contributed to missionary spirituality. Illustrating these values through two modern evangelical examples, I invite the reader to consider the importance of study and simplicity and how they might…
Members onlyStrategies for Managing Stress in Urban Mission Contexts
By John E. White | As the world urbanizes, more missionaries are living and ministering in cities. Therefore, more missionaries are encountering the stress of the city. This article reports the results of a survey of urban missionaries around the world. Four causes of stress and five coping methods are outlined.…
Members onlyThe Past and Future of Funding Missions: From Everywhere to Everywhere – National Workers vs. Missionaries
By Scott Klingsmith | The direct support of national pastors and missionaries by American and European churches has been promoted as a more efficient and effective model of ministry than sending missionaries from the West to other parts of the world. After a historical overview of funding models and a survey of…
Members onlyPrioritizing Relationships over Resources
By Terry Jackson | This article emphasizes that while resources are abundant and valuable, their effective application depends on relationships. Relationships are primary, and activities or resources should support these meaningful connections.
Members onlyProclaiming the Holistic Gospel: Communicating the gospel appropriately for people from diverse cultures in the US
By Soo Min (James) Park | The US, like many nations, is not a mono-cultural mission field. Beneath the surface, immigrant, refugee, minority, and younger generations live with shame-honor, fear–power, marginalization–belonging, and brokenness–wholeness (healing) dynamics that shape how they perceive sin, redemption…
Members onlyWelcome to the Land of Goshen – A Biblical Model of God’s Provision for Climate Migrants
By David Kimiti, Safia Kimiti, and Ian Ratcliff | Genesis 47 outlines the way that God provided for the people of Israel in response to a climatic event. This provision suggests to the church today a way of thinking about climate migration and how it can respond. Drawing on Genesis 47 and the limitations of current…
Members onlyFaithful Innovation: Lessons from the Tension of Saving Souls and Saving Lives
By Thad Hicks | How can Christians respond to disaster with both compassion and conviction? This article explores the tension between evangelism and humanitarian aid, drawing on both fieldwork with The Salvation Army’s Emergency Disaster Services and traditional research. Discover how faithful responders balance…
Members onlyHolistic Ministry: Prioritizing Relationships
By Glen Bagley | This article examines how churches can move beyond temporary relief toward transformation in ministry to the poor and homeless. Based on research done in a city in the US, it discusses how hope grows through relationships – when people are known, valued, and loved in word and deed.
Members onlyCulturally Informed Mental Health Care
By Sofia Locke | Mental health is a growing area of need. Christians have an opportunity to step into this space to bring holistic healing. However, we often engage in such ministries without taking the time to contextualize our understanding of mental health. This article explores some of the challenges when…
Members onlyToward a Wider View of Healing Missions
By Jim Ritchie | Healthcare missions suffers from a dichotomy of purpose. Is medicine alone an adequate motive as a ministry of compassion? Or are we wasting effort and money on the temporal body when we should be concentrating on the eternal soul? We need a broader strategic theology of healing missions. Might we…
Members onlyHealing the Wounds of Trauma
By Harriet Hill | In 2001, a small group met in Nairobi to put together materials to respond to traumatized people in war zones across Africa. This program and its materials have spread around the world. First, the history and development of the program are presented. Then, the article reports research findings on…