When I took my first short-term mission trip to Kazakhstan in 1993, cell phones and internet were not available. Four years later when we moved across the world, we could stay in touch through email, but the slow baud rate meant that a one-megabyte photo took an hour to download. Not long after landing in Uzbekistan in 2003, Skype made it easy to talk to friends and family back in the US. And by the time we got to Turkey in 2007, cell phones were common, the iPhone was launching, and all my Turkish MBA classmates were on Facebook.

With the pace of new technological innovations, those social and communication revolutions seem like a lifetime ago. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming a disruptive and necessary tool, and Christians are trying to catch up. In this issue of MF, we explore the amazing possibilities AI opens for missions as well as the real dangers knocking on our doors.

You will hear from university professors, mission organization leaders, practitioners, scientists, engineers, and missionaries. They cover different aspects of AI—the highs and lows—and touch on the deeper philosophical issues. As you read, don’t be surprised to find yourself asking what happens to our humanity as we head down this road. It is a good question, but one we don’t know how to answer yet.

Our Final Reflection on page 36 in the print edition was written by AI. It is the only article in this issue written by AI. Check it out and see what you think.

Also, I want to point you to a couple of new and ongoing features. With the last issue, we included articles online that were not in the print or PDF edition. We are continuing that with this issue. At the end of the table of contents on the next page you will see the five extra articles you can only find online. Be sure to go to missionfrontiers.org to read those articles Don’t miss these online additions to this issue.

New Column: This issue also has a new column that will be included in every issue moving forward. The authors will vary but will be from the under 40 crowd. In this first column, Irene Springfield (pseudonym), a field worker, shares about ways supporters can bless missionaries. Eventually, we will decide on a name for this column.

New General Director Team: As of April 1, the board of Frontier Ventures (FV), the parent organization of Mission Frontiers, appointed a new general director team. The move to plural leadership is an exciting step forward for FV. The three members of the General Director Team are Duke Dillard (me), Kerry Jones, and Ed McManness.

MF Team: With this AI issue, I thought it would be a good time to note the excellent humans who make MF possible. Lois Carey and Marjorie Clark handle all the subscriptions. Mike Riester does our amazing design work. Sue Patt, the editor before me, continues to give vital input to every issue. Andrew Wheeler, Barb Winter, and Anne Jordan are our excellent volunteer proofreaders, and Jessica Findley has recently become part of the team, helping in different editorial areas. We want to grow our MF team. If you know of a college student looking for experience working for a magazine (unpaid internship), please write [email protected].

Correction: For those receiving the print edition, you hopefully received a postcard notifying you of an error we made in the last issue. The article by Greg Coles entitled “No Longer Strangers” was a reprint from a book by the same name, and we didn’t mention that it was printed with permission. The article was taken from No Longer Strangers by Gregory Coles. Copyright ©2021 by Gregory Coles. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515, USA. www.ivpress.com.