New Christian believers sometimes borrow what they see others outside their culture do. This is called cultural appropriation. Several years ago my wife and I returned to our first church plant for a Christmas worship service. Some years had passed since we worshipped with the believers and many changes had taken place. The church had […]
The devaluing of the dollar not only impacts firms and consumers; it also affects the nontraditional economies of everyday life, such as the missionary sending “enterprise.” Every American foreign missionary develops incredible exchange rate acumen relative to the average person over time. The average missionary can spout off the top of his or her […]
Introduction Martyrdom and the persecution of Christians concerned not only the early Church, but has accompanied all branches of Christianity throughout history. The history of the Church is also the history of her persecution. Of the twentieth century, Chuck Colson writes, “More Christians have been martyred for their faith in this century alone than in […]
When you use the word “contextualization” most cross-cultural workers assume you are talking about theology. However, the foundational idea of contextualization applies more broadly than just to theology—it applies to the whole of the Christian faith. The ultimate goal of contextualization is to make the entirety of the Christian faith, including both the message and […]
In New Testament times, the Roman Road system was strategic in God’s plan. It enabled the spread of the gospel throughout the then-known world. In the same way today, the Internet is a worldwide network that can facilitate effective gospel communication. The Internet Evangelism Day website offers resources for Christians at two levels. Mainstream Internet […]
Fatima loves chatting on the Internet. Several hours usually go by quickly in the Arabian Peninsula Internet café. The web is new, exciting and fun; you can even chat with foreign boys from other countries! And you can ask questions that the clerics in the mosque do not want to hear. Some time ago Fatima […]
If we are to reach Europe’s youth, we need to cultivate and encourage leaders to have a type of missional imagination. In the United Kingdom, there have been two recent research projects into the spirituality of 14 to 25-year-olds.1 Both were based on personal interviews with groups of young people. Making Sense of Generation […]
Audio Bibles are reaching the farthest corners of the earth. In the Brazilian rainforest, the small village of Makita sits along the muddy banks of an Amazon River tributary. When the conditions are ideal, the trip takes two days by boat. American church leader Jeff Scott and his short-term mission team arrived at Makita and […]
