Editorial

Fresh Currents in Worldwide Gospel Ministry

J. Nelson Jennings

Published in Global Missiology, www.globalmissiology.org. October 2018

Christianity's worldwide spread has brought forth fresh wellsprings of gospel ministry. Here in the early twenty-first century, Jesus’s followers have now lived for multiple generations in contexts that previously had not experienced a significant Christian presence, particularly in parts of Asia and Africa. Just prior to Europeans migrating worldwide half a millennium ago, Christianity was largely confined to European peoples and their limited universe. Now that the gospel has been developing among peoples whose worldviews are inhabited by spiritual forces and other realities unknown to modern Europeans, new initiatives by Jesus’s followers among these more populated universes are giving rise to fresh currents in gospel ministry

This issue highlights a plethora of Asian Christian leaders, both young and old as well as dispersed across much of Asia. The methodological background of seeing honor-shame contexts on their own terms is also analyzed. Also, lessons tied to an important southern African ministry are unpacked, continuing from the previous issue. Happily, GM’s cross-cultural humor feature has returned, with this iteration highlighting linguistic faux pas by gaijin (“foreigners”) in Japan.

Ours is a stimulating and challenging time in which to serve in gospel ministry. The complexity of multiple, intermingling contexts demands Jesus’s followers to be familiar with how various people are best served. This issue aims to help equip scholars and practitioners in today’s stimulating and challenging tapestry of environments.