Global Missiology English

Call for Papers for April 2026 Special Issue: "Witness Amidst Confessional Plurality and Nationalism"

2025-10-02T07:09:16-07:00

The April 2026 issue of Global Missiology - English will take up the vexing reality of multiple Christian traditions co-existing amidst nationalistic contexts. The fact that there are myriad Christian traditions has been explored, explained, and both justified and criticized. Even so, Christians can be perplexed as to why that reality not only persists but seemingly grows more complex. Moreover—and arguably more importantly—people outside the Christian faith cannot help but ask why Christian groups cannot seem to agree with each other, further inhibiting their interest in the Christian gospel. Taken together with what appear to be a rising number of nationalistic settings that both demand ultimate loyalty and do not wish for competing religious groups, how churches can best give appropriate witness to Jesus Christ within settings of confessional plurality and nationalism is a widespread and practical challenge. Proposed titles with approximately 100-word abstracts are due November 30, 2025. Full manuscripts of approved paper proposals will be due January 31, 2026.

Call for Papers for October 2026 Special Issue: "Christian Conversion and Mission"

2025-10-02T07:25:17-07:00

Andrew Walls’s posthumous Christian Conversion and Mission: A Brief Cultural History offers a nuanced and incisive overview of the history of Christianity’s encounters with Judaism, Roman Hellenism, Germanic custom, the modern West, and the cultures of the global south from the first century to the twentieth century. The recurrent pattern in the gospel’s interaction with successive cultures through the ages is conversion, understood at its most fundamental level as “turning,” that is, turning to God in response to God’s saving activity. By taking Christian history as a whole and inviting the reader to see it from the perspective of conversion, Walls challenges Western theology in several striking ways. First, he decenters Western theology as the standard by which to judge authentic or orthodox Christian faith and expression. Second, he suggests theological frontiers to be explored as Christianity enters the cultures of the global south. Third, he proposes a fresh way of seeing historic Christianity that is not defined by the creeds of Roman-Hellenistic Christianity. As southern expressions of Christianity increasingly become the dominant forms of the faith, new themes and priorities that never occurred to Western Christians or to earlier Christian ages will appear. Global Missiology invites submissions for this theme issue on “Conversion.”

Guest Editorial: Mission on the Move

2025-10-02T08:34:01-07:00

People on the Move has become a contemporary global reality. Christian migration and diaspora communities have played a greater strategic role in the spread of Christianity than the organized mission efforts and strategies in its history, despite the fact that all missionaries are migrants too. Where Christianity grows, it pushes people outward to other parts of the world, whether it be through trade, work, education, family, charity, or survival. Now with churches in every nation on the planet, Christian migrants and their progenies are remaking Christianity globally. The notion of some form of displacement appears throughout the Bible, and we must put on diaspora spectacles to grasp its narrative and innate missional thrust. The people on the move see that God is on the move, and they are at the forefront of the makeover of Christian mission globally. Yes, mission is on the move!

The Cross-cultural Experience of Ghanaian Pastors Ministering to Second-Generation Ghanaian-Americans in the US

2025-10-02T10:22:29-07:00

This study investigates how Ghanaian immigrant pastors in the Church of Pentecost in the U.S. adjust while ministering to second-generation Ghanaian-Americans. A cultural and generational gap exists between the pastors and the American-born youth. Through interviews with three pastors, the study identifies two key strategies for bridging this gap: education and contextualization. Education ensures both pastors and congregants understand each other’s cultures, while contextualization allows pastors to adapt their ministry to the cultural context of the younger generation.

Multilingual Ministry: Identifying Languages and Finding Bible and Other Resources

2025-10-02T10:42:02-07:00

Linguistic hospitality and a multilingual approach to both integration and discipleship have many benefits. However, language difference is all too often seen purely as a barrier rather than as a bridge to deeper connection. One challenge that many local churches face in building such bridges of connection is that of finding and using Bibles and other resources in newly arrived people’s languages. This study thus seeks to help answer the following questions:

How do you find what languages are spoken by people in your church and community?
Why is that such a complex question?
How can they find Bibles and other resources both online and, if desired, as printed books?

Hustler-Ecclesial Missionaries: Hybrid Identities of Kenyan Anglican Clergy in the U.S.

2025-10-02T10:54:16-07:00

This article explores the lived experiences of East African Anglican clergy serving in the United States, with a particular focus on factors that influence and shape their identities during cross-cultural ministry within U.S.-American congregations. Drawing on qualitative interviews with Kenyan clergy, the study identifies a recurring theme of “hustling” as a framework through which these ministers adapt to their host context. The article introduces the concept of hustler-ecclesial identity, a hybrid missional identity shaped by struggle and adaptability in ministry. Unlike traditional missionary paradigms, these clergy are not institutionally sent but emerge organically as missional agents within unfamiliar and often inhospitable contexts. The article argues that these hustler-ecclesial missionaries represent a non-traditional form of mission rooted in lived struggle, vocational flexibility, and transnational ecclesial negotiation. Recognizing this form of mission has important implications for understanding mission as shaped from the margins rather than from traditional centers of ecclesial power and theological production. Ultimately, this study could enrich scholarship on African diasporic identity and cross-cultural mission in the United States.

Navigating the Lived Experiences of Ugandan Christian TikTok Consumers in South Korea

2025-10-02T12:44:06-07:00

This study explores how Ugandan Christians in South Korea use TikTok to navigate their diasporic experiences, focusing on identity construction, community engagement, and cultural negotiation. While existing research highlights social media’s role in diasporic cultural preservation, few studies examine TikTok’s impact on African diaspora communities, particularly in Asian contexts. Through qualitative analysis of TikTok content and user interviews, this research reveals that the platform enables religious expression, cultural adaptation, and cultural connectivity. Findings show TikTok serves as a tool for sustaining Ugandan Christian identity while fostering integration in South Korea. The study underscores TikTok’s significance in diasporic digital practices, offering insights into religion, migration, and digital media’s evolving role.

Diaspora Identities and Multi-Ethnic Churches

2025-10-02T12:52:19-07:00

Racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse contexts create unique challenges for Christian diaspora peoples at the intersection of their ethnic and Christian identities. This article draws on previous research to describe a strategy available to ethnic minority Christians for navigating this tension in the context of multi-ethnic church communities (Parker, 2024). This strategy derives from a theological analysis of theories of race and ethnicity combined with a missional account of cohesion in racially and ethnically diverse churches.

Between Two Worlds: Identity-Theological Reflections of Second-Generation Chinese Christians in Germany—A Case Study

2025-10-02T14:04:06-07:00

This article explores the identity-theological dynamics of second-generation Chinese Christians (ZGCC) in Germany by examining two contrasting congregational models in two major cities. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork—including participant observation and ten interviews with youth, parents, and church leaders—the study investigates how ZGCC navigate their bicultural heritage within the Chinese Christian diaspora and in relation to the German Christian context. Conceptually grounded in research on migration and diaspora, as well as on congregational typologies, the study reveals that Chinese identity plays a crucial yet ambivalent role in shaping ZGCC’s self-understanding, communal belonging, and theological reflection. The article analyzes structural church models (Transfer vs. Duplex), linguistic and generational tensions, and hybrid faith expressions. It argues that the ZGCC embody a distinct form of contextualized faith that resists binary identity frameworks and instead integrates Chinese and German elements in a theologically meaningful way. Possible implications for church structure, leadership development, and intergenerational integration are discussed. The study concludes by proposing further avenues for theological and missiological research on this topic.

Missiological Response to the Vulnerability of Hausa-Speaking Migrant Christians in Nigeria

2025-10-02T14:14:25-07:00

Nigeria’s North-South migration has missiological implications. Hausa-speaking migrant Christians (HSMC) are doubly vulnerable: they suffer persecution in their northern origin, where the majority are Muslims, and stereotype-induced identity crisis in their southern ‘place of refuge’. Therefore, this study explores a missiological response to the vulnerability of HSMC in Nigeria. Understanding the phenonmenon associated with HSMC’s vulnerability can foster opportunities for a comprehensive—centripetal and centrifugal—missions approach. This descriptive study combines literature, practical observations, and interactions with HSMC in southwest Nigeria to recommend ways of enhancing comprehensive mission mechanisms.

Living the Tension: Toward a Theologically Reflexive Methodology for Diaspora Missiology

2025-10-02T14:24:21-07:00

Diaspora churches in North America inhabit the intersection of theological conviction and cultural complexity, navigating tensions between inherited frameworks and the pluralistic realities of their host contexts. This article proposes a theologically reflexive methodology for diaspora missiology, addressing Joel Robbins’s critique of the “awkward relationship” between theology and the social sciences (Robbins, 2006). Drawing on Paul Hiebert’s critical realism, Peter Berger’s sociology of knowledge, and Dallas Willard’s epistemic realism, the article’s framework—termed Living in Tension—integrates theological reflection with sociocultural analysis.

Jacky Lau, Mark Hedinger, and Sadiri Joy Tira, eds., MAP: Missionary, Anthropologist, Professor— A Festschrift for Dr. Enoch Wan

2025-10-02T14:36:17-07:00

This festschrift volume, MAP: Missionary, Anthropologist, Professor, emerges as both an academic tribute and a testimony to the extensive missiological impact of Dr. Enoch Wan. Compiled and edited by a team of former students, ministry partners, and expert missiologists, the book exemplifies excellence in festschrift tradition: a carefully curated collection of essays recognizing not merely the intellectual contributions of Dr. Wan, but also the enduring network of global relationships cultivated through his life and career. The book is as much a window into the evolving field of diaspora missiology as it is a testament to Wan’s uniquely integrative scholarly leadership.

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2025-10-07T06:03:43-07:00