The first global database to track cases of anti-religion violence became available to the general public in January, providing rights advocates, ministries and others a plethora of information to defend religious freedom and belief.
I think missions influencers resort to militaristic tropes because, when it comes to the sharing of our faith, whether local or cross-cultural, we have a motivational problem. To get more believers ‘committed’ to evangelism, ministry, and missions, influencers too easily twist Scripture to promote a militant activism, casting the ‘great unwashed’, ‘pagan’, or ‘heathen’ as ignorant slaves of our enemy (sin, the powers of darkness, and the Devil) needing to be rescued (by force, if necessary, e.g.
Relationships define reality for us. Everything is interrelated. The interconnectivity of all things, physical and spiritual, are held together by relationships. So much so, that I believe in and started to develop a relational hermeneutic of Scripture that can better help us understand the purposes of God in the world today.
I love the way Peterson’s Message Bible renders the question and response: Joshua asks, “Whose side are you on—ours or our enemies’?” and the response was, “Neither. I’m commander of GOD’s army. I’ve just arrived.” I launched my 2023 World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission Leader’s Missions Forecast from this passage. For my January 2024 post, I’ll repeat the introduction of that essay in the hope that it encourages you to take the time to read the rest.
In a country that has seen a sharp rise in people identifying as non-religious over the past years, a recent survey found people responding with a surprising openness to going to church this Christmas, if they are invited.
Brian Houston is making plans for 2024 to be his comeback year after a tumultuous season that saw him resign from the leadership of the church he founded, Hillsong, and stand trial and eventually be acquitted of accusations that he covered up his late father's abuse.
It should come as no surprise that Māori whakataukī or proverbs tend to be aspirational, even if they also contain a warning. After all, Māori are guided by a strongly collectivist values set. That which is treasured in this world is that which strengthens our relationship bonds—to one another, to our habitats, to the unseen spiritual world around us. There is no greater threat to collectivist values than that which would seek to separate or divide the group.
That suffering can be redemptive sounds utterly perverse in the ears of our mainstream contemporaries. Our secular reality (and too much theology) is so thoroughly drenched in (false) Epicurean hope that it is unfathomable to think that anything bad can ultimately be good, steeped as Epicureanism is in the pursuit of pleasure. We must not fall into the trap that God intends evil so that good might result. That is perverse.
This month’s whakataukī (proverb) is: “Hē o te kotahi, hē o te katoa.” (“The mistake belongs to the collective.”). I’ve said before, I started life in Canons Creek, Porirua, Aotearoa New Zealand—a notorious neighbourhood in the 1970s, noted for its gang violence and poverty-related issues.
Following the Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Incheon, one hundred mission leaders from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America gathered in Busan, Korea from September 30 to October 1 for COALA 2.5, an emerging movement focusing on Global South-led missions. Recognizing the shift away from the primarily Western-led “Christendom” era of missions, COALA – which stands for Christ over Africa, Latin America and Asia – seeks to introduce new paradigms for today’s “polycent
