March 18, 2021
By Bassem Melki These days we are seeing people in “democratic” societies choosing to follow leaders who represent their own personal interests rather than leaders who identify with a country’s wider identity. People must ask themselves again if they will look for leaders who fit the values representing their communities […]
March 11, 2021
By Mike Kuhn That strikethrough of the word “mission” in the title is intentional. I imagine that for most readers of this blog the word “mission” evokes positive connotations of self-sacrificial giving and heroic exploits of missionaries of a by-gone era. Early Protestant missionaries to the Middle East established schools, […]
February 18, 2021
By Brent Hamoud The task of global missions in the Middle East must contend with a host of challenges, but perhaps the most prevalent obstacle confronting missionaries is political borders. These manufactured lines cutting land masses into nation-states are more stifling to Great Commission-inspired missionary ministry than we likely realize. […]
February 4, 2021
by Emad Botros From time to time, and as we hear in the news, there is global political interest that focuses on a particular country as a result of a crisis, a peace agreement, or some other event of consequence. When this happens, the first questions that come to my […]
January 14, 2021
By Nabil Habibi Dad comes home with a big box. The four of us children, two girls and two boys, stare with curiosity. Mom is grinning. Dad opens the box. It is a Christmas tree! In almost any other Christian house in the Middle East, and indeed many Muslim ones, […]
December 9, 2020
By Tim Brys A few years ago, I was left rather shaken when confronted with the fact that Christians are not the only ones to enjoy deeply meaningful religious experiences. Consider for example the following account that I read in William James’s classic work, The Varieties of Religious Experience. James […]
December 2, 2020
by Wissam Nasrallah I can still remember the day when my mother could not find Danish butter in Saudi supermarkets as a result of a boycott against Danish products by many Arab and Muslim countries after dozens of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad were published by the Danish newspaper […]
November 19, 2020
By Martin Accad and Tim Brys We previously wrote that Lebanese society is defined by sectarianism. This marriage of religion and Middle Eastern tribalism leads most Lebanese to think and live according to the dictates of their sectarian (tribal) leaders, whether they be Sunni, Maronite, Druze, etc. The 15 years […]