EMQ articles
Evangelical Missions Quarterly, from 1964 to the current issue. Page 23 of 160 · 3,822 in all.
Members onlyThe Importance of Using Indigenous Languages
Y our language is valuable,” I told the young people gathered at the conference. It was the annual youth event for a particular denomination held in Kenya in August 2016. Around one hundred youth attended. After explaining the value of their language to them, I asked them a question, in answer to which I expected…
Members onlyEngaging Sinbad City: What Research Shows About God’s Work among Workers in the Muslim World
T he world missions community has spent the past thirty years or so establishing footholds in many parts of the Muslim world. But now, unbeknownst to most of our church friends at home, some of those very cities have hundreds of workers in them.
The Gospel in a Plural World: Interrogating the Relationship between Proclamation and Compassion
A recent conversation about global ministry among the poor provoked me to further thinking about missions and compassion. A certain Western Christian humanitarian missionary in an impoverished Majority World context described herself as called to be the “hands and feet” of Jesus, in extending mercy to the least, the…
Soils for Church Growth: What the Research Says about Persecution, Wealth, and Happiness
S tanley Hauerwas has suggested that the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 can be applied to a study of church growth in various cultures (Hauerwas 2015, 129-130). In particular, he suggests that wealth and the fear of persecution are hindrances to church growth. This article explores whether there is any…
Members onlyTouching the Heart of Gulen: Gospel Pathways for Reaching the Movement
T h e July 15 coup in Turkey has brought the name of Fethullah Gulen and the movement which bears his name to the attention of the international community. On an almost daily basis, we read news reports of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, blaming Gulen for fomenting the coup and calling for his extradition…
Members onlyReflections on Short-Term Missions
A few years ago, fifteen to twenty people travelled from the United States to another country to build a village house for a missionary family. Many of the participants had construction experience. The building project lasted several weeks. By the time these Americans left, the village house was almost complete.
Members onlyDeliberately Dependent: Lessons from Costa Rica about Community & Leaning on God and Others
W e were in our 20s, newly married, and fresh out of El Instituto de Lengua Española in Costa Rica when we began working way up in the mountain village of San José de la Montaña at Camp Roblealto. On Sundays, especially, we missed gathering at one of our family’s homes for Sunday dinner back in the States. We…
Managing Trauma’s Effects on the Practitioner (as tested and tried in Rwanda)
T o appreciate the scope of the Rwandan genocide is difficult; in terms of human and material loss, it equated to three New York Twin Tower collapses per day for one hundred consecutive days without the external logistical and emergency medical support which accompanied that disaster. Over 800,000 Rwandan people…
Members onlyBeyond ‘People Groups’: Why the Term ‘Communities’ May Be Preferable
D ecades ago, it used to be that interested people would ask about our “country of service.” But over time, the question morphed into “What people group do you work among?” For quite some time, the status quo for presenting the missionary task has been ‘reaching people groups’, or rather, reaching the ‘unreached…
Members onlyGratitude
T he Christian life begins as the Spirit of God grants us recognition of our guilt, followed by a work of grace received by faith in the finished work of Christ. It is completed on this earth by the response of a life of gratitude, which in turn is a foretaste of the glory we will ultimately experience in God’s…
From the Billy Graham Center to Missio Nexus: A New Home for EMQ to Continue on
With this issue, I bid farewell to my editorial role for EMQ . Having served for 16 years in the editor’s chair, I have been privileged to oversee the publication of more than sixty-four issues containing almost seven hundred articles focused on helping missionaries, mission leaders, church leaders, and lay…
Members onlyThe International Church for a Global World
T he International Church is a kairos call to a profound need and compelling opportunity. G od is sovereignly and supernaturally planting and building international churches in unparalleled numbers around the globe. The unprecedented diaspora scattering has created cutting-edge potential for the International Church…
Members onlyMigration & Diaspora: God’s Movement to Reach More People
A little over ten years ago I was introduced to English as a Second Language (ESL) for the first time. A student at the local seminary who was fluent in Spanish had started an ESL class at a small Hispanic Baptist church in one of the suburbs of New Orleans and needed some help with her growing class.
Members onlySeven Myths Perpetuated by Missions People
O ver the past thirty years I have noticed that many of us have a tendency to inadvertently promote half-truths that we think advance the cause of world missions. By half-truths, I mean concepts that are partially true or seemly true on the surface, but in fact are myths.
Members onlyOur Hospitality Mandate: What Does an Authentic Christian Reception of Syrian Refugees to the United States Look Like?
W hile I was preparing with a team to go on a missions trip to Israel’s Jewish absorption centers, I met a young lady named Rosebud who was taking a break in the fast food restaurant where she worked.
Members onlyThe Missing Key to the Refugee Crisis: Christian Hospitality towards Muslims
W e live in a rapidly changing world in which massive amounts of people move from one place to the next. Many people who have come from other places live on the margins of society as socially excluded international refugees or immigrants.
Members onlyThe Secret of Sports Ministry: Lessons from Japan
C ollege friends wore our fundraiser T-shirts around campus. Team parents praised us for flying across the world to spread the gospel. In Japan, we were guests of honor. Local pastors advertised the visiting American athletes to draw people to church. Groups of teen girls wanted to pose with us for selfies. We were…
Members onlyEnhancing Character Development through Soul Care
A s Richard stood staring out his office window, he knew something was wrong. His enthusiasm for ministry that had accompanied him for nearly thirty years was gone. He was tired, spiritually dry, and growing bitter about his situation.
Members onlyThe Macedonian Call in the Twenty-first Century: Partnering for Contextual Equipping of International Missionaries
T he late 1980s and early 1990s were perhaps the most exciting days of modern missions—the Iron Curtain fell, and immediately over twenty countries and four hundred million people had access to the gospel.
Members onlyThe Yellow Shorts Saga: What We Can Learn from Third Culture Kids Research
T he Evangelical world is no stranger to the term missionary , ever since Jesus commanded his followers to “go and make disciples of all the nations.” Peter, Paul, Timothy, and Barnabas all pioneered global missions efforts. The children of missionaries are commonly referred to as missionary kids, or MKs, for short.
Culturally Conceived Systems for Healthy Groups: Western and Eastern Paradigms in Contrast
M y wife and I have been working in Central Asia since 2013 on a multicultural team. Since the team’s inception, it has at one time or another been composed of members with formative backgrounds from countries as diverse as America, China, Great Britain, Guinea, Italy, Australia, Indonesia, Canada, Egypt, a Central…
Managing Conflict in a Multicultural Team
C on fl ict occurs wherever human beings live or work together. It is no surprise then that conflict is a major issue in multicultural teams. All of the eighty-one people we interviewed explained that their team had experienced some degree of conflict, and in some of these teams, conflict had deeply hurt team members…
Members onlyCultural Self-awareness: A Missing Element in Intercultural Service?
T here are a lot of books and articles that help prepare God’s people for working in other cultures. Most of the material provides insights into cultural difference and for understanding how to adapt to, interact with, and share the gospel with those from another culture. The perspective is usually that of…
Members onlyGet Face! Give Face! A Missional Paradigm for Honor-Shame Contexts
I magine we just met in person. While making introductions, I pull a picture out of my wallet and say, “These are my three kids.” But the picture is of their feet. That would be confusing, if not socially awkward.