The January issue of Missiology, as is our wont, brings to our readership material that reflects the substance of the prior-year’s Annual Meeting of the American Society of Missiology. The January 2019 theme was, “Lifestyles of the Rich and Faithful,” a title that brings to mind Ron Sider’s 1978 book entitled Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. Al Tizon’s presidential address set the tone for the conference as he addressed, from a missiological perspective, classism and issues of socioeconomic inequality and injustice. As I write these editor’s notes the church is celebrating Advent, and Dr. Tizon’s talk reminds Christians of how Jesus’ incarnation and subsequent ministry demonstrated His identification with the poor. He sets forth implications of this identification for the world’s more affluent Christians, which undoubtedly includes a large percentage of this journal’s readership. This issue’s next article contains Ron Sider’s commentary, on the above-mentioned book, entitled “Living with Rich Christian’s in an Age of Hunger.” The third article issuing from a plenary presentation at last June’s conference is Fr. Ben Beltran’s carefully crafted piece on Earth stewardship, economic justice, and world mission. Debra J. Mumford then writes an inspiring piece on rich and poor in the “kin-dom” of God. Following these four articles, stemming from plenary presentations, are an additional three drawn from the conference’s numerous breakout sessions: Linda Barkman and John Barkman take us on a fascinating journey as they invite readers into their lives and ministry in supporting indigenous women missionaries; Danny Hunter proposes an approach to radical ecclesiology; and Mark R. Elliott brings a fresh perspective on dependency versus sustainability in missions in Russian and African contexts.
In addition to the above seven articles, this issue presents the 2019 recipient of the ASM Lifetime Achievement Award. Ruth Padilla Deborst honors, in accord with the whole ASM community, Samuel Escobar in recognition of his fruitful career and abundant contributions to the ASM and to global mission more broadly.
This issue of the journal also contains the regular quota of book reviews on relevant recently published works. The editorial team again thanks our book editor, David Fenrick, for his faithful service on our behalf.
We pray you will find this issue of the journal stimulating, inspiring, and of practical value.
Richard L. StarcherEditor-in-Chief
