Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 1(2),  Winter 2010  

i 
Hoksbergen,  

 

Editor’s Introduction to the Winter 2020 Issue: 

A Call for Papers 

Roland Hoksbergen 

 

 
The editors of CRDA will continue to consider all 

contributions on the many and varied topics of interest 

to the Christian RDA community (Relief, 

Development, and Advocacy), but there are two topics 

we encourage you to consider for the near future.  

First, the opening article in this issue tackles the 

question of how to be faithful in our practices of 

monitoring and evaluation (M&E). While a great start, 

the article only scratches the surface of what needs to 

become a mutually enriching conversation on how 

Christian faith impacts our practices of M&E. Many 

Christians in the RDA community are involved with 

M&E. The authors of this article and the editors of 

CRDA invite M&E practitioners and theorists to share 

their experiences and reflections. Such topics as 

theological paradigms, objectives, indicators, methods, 

strategies, and case studies are all on the table. 

Contributions on the topic may generally agree with the 

framework presented in the article, but that is not 

required. The overall goal is for us to learn from each 

other in a process that helps us be faithful to God in our 

efforts to serve our vulnerable neighbors and ultimately 

to honor, love, and serve God. If your organization is 

working with something innovative or especially helpful 

in M&E, please share it with the rest of us. 

Second, in these early days of the journal, we’d like 

to hear from you on what you see as the leading edges 

in RDA for Christian research and reflection in coming 

years. Put simply, what particular theories, topics, 

and/or issues should Christian RDA academics and 

practitioners be thinking about, researching, discussing, 

or commenting on? The general idea would be to  

 

1)  identify the issues you think Christians should be 

addressing in the contemporary context,  

2)  explain why these need our attention, both in 

terms of what’s happening in the world (or in the 

RDA professional community) and what 

Christians are called to care about, and  

3)  give some sense of what Christians might have to 

say about these issues and what new research we 

might engage. 

 

 Not meant to be an exhaustive list, here are some 

questions that come to mind:  

  

• How do Christians approach RDA differently than 

others, and how or why does that matter? 

• What RDA theories need to be addressed or 

critiqued explicitly from a Christian perspective? 

• What methods and practices in RDA need to be 

evaluated from a Christian perspective? 

• Do Christians need their own RDA theories and 

practices? 

• To borrow a turn of phrase from Dena Freeman, 

does the world need Christians doing development 

or should we be doing Christian development? 

• What questions or issues have contemporary RDA 

theories and practices not addressed as well as 

Christians might be able to? 

• On what controversial issues or world trends have 

Christian views, especially as they relate to RDA, 

not been adequately shaped or voiced (e.g. race 

and ethnicity, gender, climate, citizenship, religious 

diversity, spirituality, global health, sexuality and 

family, immigration, urbanization, democracy, and 

many more) 

• What wisdom do Christians have on what some 

have called “the development enterprise?” 

 

Papers in this category, what we’ve been calling 

“mini white papers,” can be anywhere from 2000 to 

6000 words. They can be submitted through normal 

online channels at the website. If you’d like to consult 

with the editor about your ideas, please send an email 

to Roland Hoksbergen at hoksro@calvin.edu.  

mailto:hoksro@calvin.edu