We believe followership is something in its own right, not just the lack of leadership. . . . One can follow well and one can follow poorly. Furthermore, the first call of every Christian is to be a follower (of Christ, but also of those who have walked the road of discipleship before you). We should take that call seriously.

First, that because God is a covenantal God who has entered time and space to be in relationship and partnership with us, who we are matters to God. That is the basis of faith and theology, which must take into consideration our context and identity.

The literature on the apostle Paul can be overwhelming for just about anyone. So, we took as much research on Paul as we could and condensed it into a single volume. We address questions related to the New Perspective, pistis Christou, miraculous gifts, Paul’s eschatology, and so on.

Humility begins as submission to God and develops into a way of life that pursues peacemaking. Humility ought not be rare but should be a Christian identity marker (as it was in the early years of the Jesus movement). It is also not episodic but is meant to be a basic characteristic of the Christian’s daily life.

Family, love, belonging. These really stand out to me. Many people think Galatians is about a theology of justification by faith. That’s true, but justification, in my view, is part of a larger reality of being incorporated into the family of God by faith in Christ, the Son of God.

The Old Testament itself provides the ultimate model for contextualizing theology in Asia and beyond. While it’s common for missiological studies to ignore the OT in their discussion of contextualization, truly biblical contextualization must include the whole Bible, not simply the New Testament.

I argue that Scripture itself calls evangelical theologians to attend to the church catholic in all its wild diversity, and to consider local cultures a material theological good. When you trace the Bible’s engagement of cultural realities . . . , you see that even if culture is in human sin and the fall, it is also a key way God chooses to reveal himself and commune with his people.

My hope is that people would grasp that apathy is not their fate. God is for them and with them even in their apathy. He has given us his Son and Spirit to empower us to move beyond apathy. However, there are no short cuts: we must embrace the gospel as the ultimate cure and cultivate a life that makes it difficult for apathy to get a foothold.

God’s presence and absence are not mutually exclusive. Placing the Song of Songs and Esther front and center in Old Testament theology yields a portrait of a God who neither works according to human beings’ expectations nor conforms to his own pattern of presence in the past.

If we truly believe that the church is one body, then we ought to be aware of what is happening in the rest of the world. . . . This approach challenges and broadens the lens of assumptions and interpretation of those outside Africa because it presents readers with a different way of looking at texts. It can help other readers see what lies in their blind spots.

There is evidence right in the Bible that women led (like Deborah), taught (like Prisca), and ministered (like Junia and Phoebe) in the early churches, called by God and responsive to the needs of the people of God. We need to tell their stories to hear the full gospel taught in the Bible.

I also encourage readers to read deliberately, that is, to slow down and to think not only about the information that the Old Testament writer is trying to impart, but also what the Old Testament writer is trying to do.