Innovation in Missions

A Winding Road to Innovation

DUKE DILLARD, Editor

Let me bring you into the messy process a bit on this one… about a year ago, someone wrote me to ask about doing an issue on tools being used to reach the least reached. I liked the idea and agreed to do it for a future issue. Fast forward six months and we reconnected on a Zoom call to discuss the idea. I thought we came away from that call with a clear path forward; my collaborator had a totally different idea. Neither of us realized it. Ahh, the joy of human communication!

Letter to the Editor

Derek Seipp

With the risk of sounding anti-AI, I found a striking lack of references to the spiritual nature of missions in the latest edition on AI.

FV: 50 Years of Values

Elizabeth Winter Gill

Fifty years ago, my dad and mom, Ralph and Roberta Winter, founded the US Center for World Mission (USCWM), now called Frontier Ventures (FV). We four daughters asked my dad, before he died in 2009, not to burn his 50 journals but to let one of us go through them and choose what might be worth saving. . . . what were the values and convictions of my parents that gave birth, personality, and character to this organization?

Rooted Innovation: When Faith Fuels Lasting Impact

DR. LIAM SAVAGE

“So, you’ve had 600 people take your innovation class, so what? What impact did that have on their ministry?” my leader asked me at our year-end review. I was confused.

The Gospel's Advance: Ever Innovative, Always Evolving

DR. IAIN PICKETT

Those who have engaged with Christian mission in the last 30 years could be forgiven for thinking that concepts such as people groups, integral mission—even the language of the 10/40 Window—are how we have always operated. But they are not.

Appropriate Technology and the “Harmony Way” in Frontier Missions

BRANDON

The apostle John saw something breathtaking in a vision, which he described in Revelation 5:9, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation.”

Through the Roof: The Heart of Innovation at the Frontier

TRACY DAHDOUH

When we think of innovation, we tend to picture new platforms, new strategies, and new methods. And in the world of frontier mission, this conversation is very much alive: How do we use media, digital tools, and creative approaches to reach people where the gospel has not yet taken root?

Church-Centric Innovation for Finishing the Task

GILLES GRAVELLE, PhD & ERICH RAMSEY, JD

A team of Christian college students in Burkina Faso are working with their church to produce a full Bible in a Fulani dialect that is barely 1% Christian.

Transforming the Sahel’s Nomadic Heart

UMAR (a Nomad)

“Respect everyone and let them believe what they believe. Faith is a personal choice.” These phrases may seem ordinary or commonplace in some contexts, but they are more than revolutionary in certain circles.

Child-focused Mission that Forms Disciples, Leaders, and Movements

DR. LYDIA WONGET

The deep question in frontier mission is not whether we should innovate, but how we innovate without losing spiritual depth, discernment, and lasting fruit. Frontier people groups often have challenges like distance, language, spiritual resistance, or political pressure against engaging Scripture. One of the overlooked frontier communities is children.

Miracles, Dreams & Apps: A Missions Innovation Case Study from Waha

A.K. AMBERG

Miriam woke up in a cold sweat. The image of a man dressed in white and shining like the sun was scorched in her mind. It was far from the first dream she had ever had, but this was different.

Bridging Faith, Family, and Culture: Redefining Community in a Hindu Ekklesia

SATYA CHAKRAPANI & ANDY BETTENCOURT

It is also assumed that when a person comes to follow Christ, they must begin attending a local “church,” stop attending festivals and family celebrations, and publicly share their new identity with all their family. The family receives this news with a mix of shock, anger, frustration, and grief. Is this mere rebellion, a short spiritual sojourn, or a deep betrayal of one’s family, community, and heritage?

Book Review: Living the Yes

MARK MATLOCK

Bobby Cox’s Living the Yes: Daily Reminders to Trust the One Who Called You is written for people who have already crossed the first threshold—those who have said “yes” to God’s call—and now find themselves facing the quieter, more demanding work of sustaining that yes.

Perspectives Student Questioned by the FBI!

GREG H. PARSONS

A little later, the FBI called him at work. They wanted to talk to him in the next hour! He wondered if something with his pharmaceutical company was not right.

Challenges of Growing Deep Friendships on the Field

IRENE SPRINGFIELD (Pseudonym)

I think one of the biggest challenges of adulthood is making friends. Sure, it’s easy to have lots of acquaintances, or “friends” on social media, but it’s more challenging to build deep, life-giving relationships. My husband and I call them “2 a.m. friends”—people who would pick up the phone if you called them in the middle of the night.

Gen Z, Work, and the Search for Purpose

JEEMIN HAN

Calling, passion, career. These are words that weighed heavily on my mind when I was a college student, trying to choose a career. It’s been especially hard in the past six months as I returned from the mission field eager to make my way back.

Redemptive Structures in Innovation: Unleashing the Power of Systems for Lasting Discipleship

JOHN EDMISTON

As a missionary and a Christian technologist for forty years, I lead Cybermissions, which uses computers and the internet to facilitate the Great Commission. Over the years I have been among the pioneers of internet evangelism and mobile ministry, and Cybermissions has established various online training and internet radio initiatives. However, on reflection, I think there is a bigger picture to innovation that I may have missed and that is Structural Innovation.

What Are We Really Forming? Innovation, Metrics, and the Quiet Erosion of Scripture’s Authority

SAMUEL E. CHIANG

In the 1990s, as both house churches and the official church in China discreetly opened space for Bible training, church leaders, with gratitude and curiosity, often sincerely displayed their warm welcoming of Bible teachers from outside the country. Over time, however, I observed something unexpected. Students became adept at comparing teachers, confidently critiquing who taught particular books of the Bible most effectively, Ephesians, for example.