Vol. 30 (2016)

Welcome to the thirtieth volume and first all-online volume of Witness!

I apologize for the later than usual role out of this year's volume, but we had two big hurdles this year: 1. We (and our authors) had to learn the new online format, 2. We are changing hands as to who will be editing Witness.

We are now running at full speed with the journal, so we welcome new submissions. Please click on the "For Authors" area to the right to learn about how you can register and submit. As always, we especially welcome new evangelism scholars who are seeking to publish in a peer-reviewed journal to submit their work to us.

Second, this will be my final volume as editor, as I shift toward becoming the VP and, in 2018, President of the Academy for Evangelism in Theological Education. I am being ably succeeded by Rev. Dr. Rick Shaw from Wayland Baptist University. Rick has been serving as our book review editor for several years now and is well prepared to take over the task of being the managing editor. If you have any questions about the journal, you can continue to connect with Rick through <aetemanagingeditor@gmail.com>.

This year's volume features three strong articles that each seek to deepen our understanding of evangelism by resisting the ways that we often dichotomize or reduce our thinking about evangelism. (As a Methodist, I am grateful for this! It is always good news for me when the rest of the church discovers how much a gift John Wesley's insistence on God's grace saving us into a liftime of holy living is.)

Laceye Warner begins by definitively arguing against the all-too-common practice in the church of separating evangelistic scholarship and practice, as if scholars never practiced evangelism and practitioners never thought deeply about what they did. Arguing for a broad view of what counts as evangelism, Warner reminds us that evangelism is the work of God, and that we cannot parse the work of God this way.

Trey L. Clark continues in this vein with a thoughtful reflection on Dallas Willard's theology. Drawing from Willard's work, Clark argues we cannot be satisfied with reductionistic understandings of evangelism that only focus on justification. Evangelism should take up the entire call of Jesus to make disciples, including the invitation and the process of guiding people into sanctification through the grace of God.

Finally, David Thang Moe seeks to deepen our view of evangelism by taking a fresh look at the ministry and theology of St. Paul. Moe contends that Paul's theology was informed by his conversion to Christ and was missional by nature. This dynamic interaction between personal faith, missional drive, and theological reasoning offers the church today a more holistic example of how to approach the evangelistic task God has given it.

As these three articles demonstrate, we are in an exciting time in reference to evangelism. For over a decade, scholars have been talking about the changes in the North American culture and the challenges that presents to the church. The new work around evangelism suggests that we have finally reached a place where we are embracing this new context as an opportunity for living into the Great Commission rather than resisting it as a death knell to the institutional denomination.

The Academy for Evangelism in Theological Education is working to be at the forefront of this evangelistic fervor. More than ever, evangelism scholars want to move beyond academic theorizing to engaging with the living mission of the church in order to obey Christ's directive for us both to be disciples and to make disciples. The kind of work being done to support church planting and multiplication movements, to learn alongside of Christian brothers and sisters around the world, and to rediscover the longterm call of Jesus for us to forge disciples instead of just register one-time decisions for Christ are all part of this. We invite you to join AETE as we take these next steps together to find out what God will do. Please take a moment to check out our website <aete.online> and, when the call for papers comes out for our annual meeting next year, to submit your work so we can support one another as we participate together in Christ's redemptive work.

Mark R. Teasdale, Editor

Evanston, IL

September 2016