Happy New Year to you, and Happy Anniversary to Frontier Ventures!

In 1976, Ralph and Roberta Winter launched the US Center for World Mission (now Frontier Ventures) in Pasadena, CA, and over the last 50 years, unreached peoples all over the globe have felt the godward impact. We will include an article focusing on the 50th in each issue this year. You can read Sue Patt’s retrospective on page 6.

And speaking of birthdays, I hope you experienced deep joy celebrating the birth of our Savior. With small grandkids in the house, we are back in the phase of simple gifts bringing great joy. Just put an excavator or a trash truck in a box, wrap it, and put a bow on it to make a two-year-old boy dance with joy on Christmas morning.

I have found that we humans like to put things in boxes and tie them with bows, whether they fit or not. In this issue, we dive into one of those topics that has been an ill-fitting box for too long. Dr. Samuel Perry published Religion for Realists in 2024, pointing out the box in which we put beliefs, doctrines, and religion needs to be reconfigured. Research (and the Bible) tell a more nuanced story about our need to belong and how the social groups with which we identify shape our beliefs.

As humans, we are constantly scanning to find “our people.” Churches realized this in harsh ways during the COVID-19 pandemic. People who seemed content pre-COVID, left churches in droves during COVID. How often did we hear, “If you have that mask policy, then I’m out of here!”? In essence, they were saying, “I thought y’all were my people, but you’re clearly not!” Rarely was an in-depth biblical argument given for the departure. As we reflect on this phenomenon, Religion for Realists helps us understand.

But MF doesn’t focus on America. Thus, we wanted to take the ideas Dr. Perry shares and expand them to cross-cultural, frontier contexts. This issue is a bit more academic than most of our issues, but I beg you to engage with our authors who have worked hard to take the concepts and bring them to a practical level.

Dr. Perry says, “We are belongers before we are believers.”1 If this is true, how must we then minister in frontier settings (and every setting, for that matter)? I think you’ll enjoy the diverse opinions and contexts our authors engage in this issue. We cover movements, Muslims, and Buddhists, the kingdom, the Bible, and history, those hurt by the church and those eager for discipleship. Dive in and consider what this means for your ministry.

Lastly, I want to point out a new column we have added for 2026. Irene Springfield (pseudonym), a young mom (Millenial) serving in North Africa will be sharing stories of her life ministering among a UPG as a wife, mother, and team leader with her husband. You don’t want to miss the authentic wisdom she shares. And we are continuing our other columns as well, so enjoy the perspectives of Greg Parsons, who has been here since the beginning, our Gen Z contributors sharing their zeal, and our diverse 24:14 authors keeping us aware of what God is doing in movements around the globe.

My prayer is that 2026 is a year in which you grow in loving intimacy with Jesus, feel a deep belonging to his people wherever you live, and end the year with Christ more fully formed in you than you began it.

That all the world may experience God’s love, Duke Dillard