Vol. 35 (2021)

It is a pleasure to announce the release of the thirty-fifth volume of Witness! In looking back over the three-plus decades worth of prior volumes, the depth and range of scholarship is striking. It is an honor to continue that tradition with this new edition.

This volume appears in the midst of the ongoing, global COVID-19 pandemic. Preventative lockdowns and travel restrictions resulted in having last year’s annual meeting cancelled, and this year’s meeting was held entirely online. While travel has been limited for us all, it is pleasing to note the decidedly global focus in the slate of articles featured in this year’s journal.

Engaging in the study of a New Zealand congregation, Lynne Taylor’s article directly considers adaptations in pastoral mission and ministry following the onset of the global pandemic. With focus on the other side of the world, William Payne reports on a national study of Irish religious identity and practice as a means to inform the shape of effective evangelistic outreach in that context. Closer to home, Tony Chuang draws attention to the particular opportunities and challenges for shaping Christian faith among the hybridized identities that characterize first-generation Chinese populations in North America. We widen the aperture in a final article, in which Sochanngam Shirik considers the general character of transcendent religious experience as a form of divine revelation and an avenue for evangelistic initiative.

As always, we also are grateful for the several excellent book reviews in this issue due to the good work of our Book Review Editor, David Gustafson.

Let me close with another word of encouragement: please continue to consider Witness as a context to share your research and scholarship, or to offer a review of new work in our field. We welcome your submissions, and if you have questions about relevant content or the process, please let me know.

Jeffrey Conklin-Miller
Editor