Hear from Global Christian leaders about opportunities and challenges facing the Global Church, and read stories about how these leaders — especially the ScholarLeader of the Year — are meeting those challenges.
On Easter Sunday, 21 April 2019, Muslim suicide bombers killed 258 people in my country, Sri Lanka. Afterward, some Christians were terrified, asking, “How do we plan future services?” Others called for retaliation. In fact, in mid-May, mobs attacked mosques. My first prayer was that, even in fear and anger, the Church would be a community …
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Fifteen years ago, Athena Gorospe gave a devotional in which she called her audience – wealthy American Christians – to be downwardly mobile. That morning in Pasadena, she argued that we should recover “Jesus’s concern for the marginalized, the invisible people.” Athena has dedicated herself to this plea – and to practicing what she preaches …
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Last month, Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited Silence opened in theaters, invoking difficult questions among Christians regarding what it means to have faith. It spurs me to reflect on how Japanese Christians have perceived suffering, and how we as believers are called to respond to this inevitability. In many cultures, suffering and weakness are rarely discussed. When people do …
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But then I recall all you have done, O LORD; I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago. Psalm 77:11 (NLT) When I returned to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia two years ago, I could barely recognize my hometown. Between my doctoral studies and work in Nairobi, Kenya, I had been away for almost ten years. So …
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Suffering is the daily lot of many of the world’s Christians, particularly those in Western Africa. Unfortunately, churches give little heed to this reality in most Sunday services. Behind this lies a barely concealed apprehension Christians have with regard to the proper stance to adopt toward suffering. In the following reflection, I explore lamentation as …
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Introduction Since 9/11, hardly a day goes by without some religiously motivated act of extremism. According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, religious extremism worldwide claims nearly 100,000 Christian lives annually. Since the 1980s, Sunni Islamic extremism has been on the rise in Pakistan, where the tiny Christian …
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Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.— Ephesians 5:15-16 (NRSV) The Crisis More than three years have passed since the beginning of the “Arab Spring,” a term that symbolized hope for the people of the Middle East. However, …
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Muslim-Christian interfaith dialogue often raises the question: Do we worship the same God? The answer is usually colored by the preferences, presuppositions, or theological-doctrinal understanding of the individual. In this essay, I affirm the complexity of this question, explain some of the challenges, provide arguments Muslim and Christian scholars voice, and offer an understanding to …
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While we generally welcome theological differences stimulated by the cultural context, discussions that address the socio-political dimension of life often cause discomfort for evangelical believers. In my context of Latin America, we take contextual realties quite seriously. With an approach to theology that is “from below” we bring the questions of society to the truth …
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The Iraqi people have experienced a deep wound. Since 2003, national unity has been torn apart, creating an irreparable fissure in what was probably a superficial unity within the country. After 2003, Iraq developed a system that consolidated democracy along sectarian, religious, and ethnic lines, deepening fragmentation and benefitting only the ruling elite. The system …
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Although urbanization is not new, the degree and speed with which the world, and especially the non-western world, is turning urban is remarkable. People from every culture and ethnicity are moving to our cities by the millions. Yet we still tend to work in traditional ways of doing mission. We assume that the unreached millions …
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How does God awaken someone to a fresh Kingdom vision? For Manohar James, it involved getting beaten up in the “land of the gods,” game-changing findings during his doctoral studies, and a twelve-hour train ride with a carful of opinionated Hindu women.
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Love calls for Solidarity. Loving one another includes especially caring for those who are persecuted and in prison for their faith and witness. If one part of the body suffers, all parts suffer with it. We are all, like John, “companions in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus” (Revelation 1:9, …
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To be in transition is to be in an in-between place – neither here nor there. Anthropologists and theologians call this ‘liminal’ space. For many of us, this can be a difficult time because we feel unsettled, uncertain, and insecure. Old rules no longer apply, but we may not be quite sure what the new …
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After completing his PhD in New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 1993, Dr. David Kasali returned to the faculty at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology, where he later served as President for eight years. Following the devastating war in his native country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, David and his wife Kaswera …
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