An obscure field called scientometrics-the study of how rapidly academic research is produced and how quickly it becomes outdated-has recently been popularized by Stephen Arbesman's (2012) book, The Half-life of Facts. This article employs the methods of scientometrics to measure the rate at which new missiological information is being published, and the rate at which this research is going out of date. Mission leaders can use this data to obtain a clearer picture of how the discipline of missiology is reacting to a changing world. This will allow us to concentrate on trends that matter, and on theories and strategies that will have maximum staying power.
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Academic research trends, scientometrics, future of missiologyWe seldom talk about the "conversion of the heathen" these days, as William Carey did in his Enquiry (1792). And few contemporary mission agencies conceptualize the "mission station" as the locus of discipleship and service, as they often did in Roland Allen's time (Allen, 1962: 152). As with research in all academic disciplines, missiological theories and methods seem to have an expiration date. Has our discipline, which is based on demographics and trends, kept up with globalization? Are we gathering information about missions at the same pace at which the world is changing? And how much of our research will be irrelevant in the future? Samuel Arbesman's (2012) immensely popular book, The Half-life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date, is a study of the rapid production, dissemination, and expiration of knowledge in academia. Since missiology is firmly grounded in academia, Arbesman's thinking-about-thinking can undoubtedly be applied to our
Tribal peoples make sense of their world by formulating supernatural explanations for misfortunes that befall them. At times, their explanations are at odds with biblical theology. The author held “sickness workshops” in order to engage the host culture in critical contextualization of misfortune. This article reports on some of the salient findings from those workshops, including (1) the sociological function of tribal discussions about misfortune, (2) an emic1 conceptualization of misfortune causation, and (3) ideas for engaging the national church on issues surrounding misfortune, such as local cosmology, dreams, retribution, and the breaking of taboos.
This grounded theory study examines the motives for relationships between local churches and missionaries: What motivates churches to enter into a relationship with a missionary, to continue this relationship, and to end it? Similarly, what motivates missionaries to begin, continue, or end relationships with a local church? We used purposive stratified sampling to select 17 missionaries and church mission leaders to interview for this study. We performed semi-structured interviews with both groups to discover their understanding of why they form, maintain, and dissolve relationships with each other. Multiple motives influenced all participants. These motives can be broadly categorized as either relationship-focused motives or task-focused motives. Furthermore, the task-focused motives can either be centered on specific goals shared by churches and missionaries (e.g., starting a reproducing church among a specific people group) or on specific processes (e.g., evangelizing or feeding the poor). Although all participants had multiple motives, each participant emphasized some motives over others. The motives present in each party influence many aspects of their relationship, including their communication, financial involvement, and the purpose of the church's short-term mission trips to the missionary's setting. In contrast to social exchange theory which provides a framework to understand conditions under which a relationship will be maintained or ended, the Multiple Motive Theory of Church and Missionary Relationships goes further; it describes specific motives that exist which influence whether a relationship begins, continues, or ends.
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