Merry Christmas and Welcome to Exchange: The Journal of Mission and Market!
The marketplace is the most pervasive institution in human experience. The division of labor and exchanges of material, as well as intellectual, goods have occurred since the Garden of Eden. Everyone, everywhere is, by varying degrees, connected through the thoroughly globalized marketplace. And, modern communications technology drives our inter-connectedness deeper than ever before. Fortunately, that same technology allows us the opportunity to drive the conversation deeper as well.
Exchange is your journal if you are involved in marketplace ministry or missions, are a Christian working in a “secular” occupation (a misnomer if ever there was one), or if you have ever been a been a customer in the marketplace! This journal is dedicated to exploring the movement of God in our financial relationships and interactions, the theology that guides our marketplace ethics, and, most especially, advancing the Kingdom of God to His glory through marketplace mechanisms and initiatives.
Exchange comes from many years of collaborative research, especially on the business-as-mission (BAM) movement, and the realization that no consistent and open communications vehicle existed within the broad-ranging conversation on the integration of Christian faith and the marketplace.
In this first issue, you will find a variety of contributors, including theologians, business practitioners, mission agency leaders, missions practitioners, academics, and however else we might classify anyone interested in the topics we broach. I am proud to be able to include submissions from Mats Tunehag and Jo Plummer, the Co-Chairs of the Lausanne Global Business-as-Mission Think Tank, and Rudy Carrasco, a tireless, “irresistible force” in both international and domestic missional work.
There are articles on theology, profiles of practitioners and agencies, stories about marketplace ministry models, books reviews (or teasers for new one’s coming soon), and provoking challenges from thought leaders within the intricate and vast network of all involved. Hopefully, this journal will become a venue for discussion on any topic from the influence of post-modernism on Christians at work to cross-cultural and incarnational business ministry to the issues surrounding marketplace stewardship as witness and proclamation of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
For the foreseeable future, the submission policy will remain wide open. About the only criteria is we ask articles not exceed 2,000 words. We also invite suggestions for articles we can research and resource in-house or through our wide range of contacts and connections. But please submit your articles and ideas . . . this is a place where you voice is needed and welcome! Rebuttals and alternate views concerning articles published here are welcome but please make them sound theologically and logically. The Church is overrun with emotionalism and dubious ideas. We need strong critical thinking to face the challenges of our day.
The copyright on all articles will remain the property of the original author to use / reprint as they see fit. By assenting to inclusion in Exchange, the original authors grant Exchange also the right to use / reprint articles at will.
The intent is to use this publication as a launch point for compiling research and encourage connections. We all have a lot to offer to the conversation and the more widely we throw open the doors, the more can come in. Beyond granting the freedom to print and share, or email / forward, this journal to anyone and everyone you know, I would ask that you do so intentionally and extensively. Our only request in sharing Exchange materials is that appropriate acknowledgment be given to the author’s and the Journal.
Shalom,
Dave Doty
Eden’s Bridge, Inc.
This journal is downloadable in its entirety in .pdf format and all articles are available individually online at www.edensbridge.org for ease of sharing.
To learn more about Eden’s Bridge, please visit our blog at www.edensbridge.org. Tax deductible support for Eden’s Bridge or sponsorship for Exchange may be mailed to the Eden’s Bridge address above or contributed via the PayPal account of davedoty@edensbridge.org
Thank you for your support and please keep our ministry in prayer. Shalom, Dave Doty.
Thank You!
Eden's Bridge 