Multicultural Realities: A Call to Diversify the Unity of the Church

With the advent of modernization and globalization, the social landscape of our world has been rapidly changing. Urbanization and new patterns of migration have contributed to the formation of a complex tapestry of cultural plurality. As a result, the social fabric of society has undergone a swift transformation, challenging Christians to continually think about their faith in new ways. Perhaps like never before, in the last few decades America has seen large new multicultural populations emerge. It does not take a social scientist to recognize that our world is diverse, our cities and towns are changing, and our schools and workplaces are very different than they used to be. This article explores the ways in which multicultural congregations can be sustained and utilized as an expression of Kingdom work

Short-Term Missions: Making a Long-Lasting Difference in Today\u27s World

Over the course of the last few decades, short-term missions (STM) has invigorated and challenged the missionary enterprise around the world like no other movement. In fact, close to 1.6 million adults from the United States travel abroad every year on STM trips. During 2015, the Church of the Nazarene alone sent 618 short-term missions teams from the United States, including Work & Witness, University teams and Jesus Film Ministry teams. This effort involved the participation of 8,644 individuals who engaged in an intentional missional journey and stimulated missionary activity both at home and abroad. The magnitude of this movement is remarkable, one that without a doubt will continue to attract with renewed interest both new and experienced travelers alike.Although STM is currently a small part of a wide array of missional strategies, it is without a doubt one of the most noticeable and perhaps even the most appealing. Year after year, STM becomes an open invitation for youth groups, college students and church members to see the world first-hand and respond to the needs they encounter in tangible ways. For this reason, STM may be contributing to a new sense of “global citizenship” or what Sociologist Kersten Priest has called a “globalization of empathy.” This article discusses how to use STM for longer impact in missions

Missiology as a Discipline: Its Dimensions and Scope

At its most fundamental level, missiology simply refers to the study of mission. This basic understanding, however, invites further reflection. What and whose mission ought to be studied? What methods, academic disciplines, and tools must be employed in such a study? Inevitably, other questions beckon to be included in the discussion. Is there an essential core that pertains only to missiology that is not shared by other disciplines? What are missiology’s primary concerns? What are the goals and purpose of missiology? This article seeks to address these pertinent issues by offering a few insights from both a biblical and academic reflection

Interreligious Dialogue: Towards an Evangelical Approach

Engaging with people from other religious traditions, with respect and grace while also bearing witness to our faith, can be challenging for evangelical Christians but is also a crucial part of carrying out our mission. This article surveys various types and purposes of inter religious dialogue and offers practical guidance on how and why all of us should do it

Reversing the flow of short-term missions within a partnership model: Perceptual outcomes

Short-term missions provide opportunities for the formation of cross-cultural relationships and joint evangelistic endeavors. Scholars have challenged the typical unidirectional nature of short-term mission and partnership efforts, advocating for a more bidirectional flow of resources. This article analyzes the dynamics of reverse short-term missions with the goal of understanding their contributions from the perspective of the American hosts. The author suggests that reverse short-term missions bridge social capital across social networks and function as “networks of invigoration” by bringing information benefits to their hosts. These types of exchanges have the potential to help the American church reinterpret familiar experiences and see the mission of the church in a new way. Five perceptual outcomes are identified: alteration of perspectives; service opportunities for the hosts; renewal of spiritual commitments; first-hand exposure to a different culture; and contact with faith-mission models

Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare: a Theological Assessment of its Premises and Practices

With the impact of globalization, the rise of Eastern spirituality, the emergence of the New Age Movement, and the influence of Pentecostalism around the world, evangelicals have exhibited an ever-increasing interest in matters related to the spirit world. The last several years have seen an ex- plosion of books and articles published from a variety of perspectives re- garding the task of engaging unseen forces in spiritual warfare through prayer. As a result of this increased awareness of the spirit world, contro- versial trends and strategies have begun to emerge in evangelistic efforts. One such methodology has come to be known as “strategic-level spiritual warfare” (SLSW). This article surveys its theological premises and discusses its practices under biblical lenses

Contributions, challenges, and emerging patterns of short-term missions

It was not until the last decade that missiologists placed the short-term missions (STM) movement at the center of their research. As the initial wave of STM scholarship surfaced, research centered on measuring the impact of STM on participants. Later, attention shifted to unraveling the impact upon the host community. More recently, with the exponential growth of partnerships between congregations in the Global North and the South, researchers have focused on analyzing the prevalent dynamics and patterns of relationships that involve STM teams. This article unravels the impact of STM in terms of its contributions and challenges to the global missionary enterprise and describes emerging patterns, such as reverse STM and multicultural STM teams

Book Signing

Prayer seems intimidating to many Christians. We wonder if we are doing it right, or saying the right things, or praying often enough, or in the right way. In Intimacy with God, Simone Mulieri Twibell assures us that there is absolutely no wrong way to pray. Instead, opening ourselves up to prayer is opening ourselves up to receiving and enacting the grace of God already at work in our lives to fill us even more deeply. Twibell examines prayer from a triune perspective that engages God the Father, in the name of Jesus, through the power of the Spirit. Intimacy with God invites readers to step into deeper relationship with God by considering different aspects of prayer, including seeking the will of God, interceding for others, praying in community, and listening for God\u27s unique voice guiding us toward kingdom purposes. From https://www.amazon.com/Intimacy-God-Simone-Mulieri-Twibell/dp/083414180

Social Capital and the Church: Engaging Virtually for the Sake of the World

Today’s dramatically reconfigured world has created opportunities for unprecedented types of social interaction and engagement in missions. Amid economic, environmental, and pandemic crises, it is incumbent to critically assess the various alternatives available to further God’s mission on earth. This article explores the concept of social capital, seeking to offer a framework by which to understand and embrace the opportunities hidden behind virtual platforms of social engagement. This article also considers trends in the approaches of religious social capital, seeking to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics involved and of the implications for contemporary missions

The Case of the Religious Unaffiliated: a Socio-Cultural Analysis of the Millennial Generation

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the secularization theory was birthed – namely, the belief that with the onset of modernization and urbanization, religion would cease to shape cultural values and influence societal norms, confining religion to the private sphere of life. The premise of this theory built its foundation on the Enlightenment period, an era during which it was assumed that human reason could establish a perfect society. During the “age of reason,” advances in science, technology, and education promised to dispel the stench of superstition often associated with religion. However, a century later, sociologists realized that religion had not yet vanished from the global spectrum. In fact, the creation of new religious movements in the West, the proliferation of Pentecostal churches in the Global South, and a growing interest in the supernatural everywhere have disseminated religious beliefs around the world. This article analyzes critical aspects of the millennial generation as to understand how to better reach them. The first section provides a brief and general overview of the current religious landscape of the United States, describing the general characteristics of the religious unaffiliated in order to underscore possible reasons for their lack of religious affiliation. The second explores specific characteristics of the Millennial generation, providing further clarification as to their participation (or lack thereof) in organized religion. The final section examines the most distinguishing cultural values of Millennials, taking into consideration the hierarchy of needs proposed by American Psychologist Abraham Maslow