We want to hear from you and encourage you to write about your experiences, tell your story.  Our goal is to foster an engaging and thoughtful community where you, our readers and writers, can be inspired, encouraged, and challenged to act with more confidence toward creating a more just world. We know that the development of leaders for social change and transformation in today's changing world is complicated and that we can all benefit from others' experiences. We encourage you to share your experiences and expertise with us related to four critical pages of Urban Missiology:

 

• Stories and Issues that Matter

What issues are you passionate about that may be of interest to people living in urban communities, and what does it take to become a change agent?

• Mentors, Mentees, and Mentorship that Matters

What resources support the mentoring process (of all ages and stages in life) by presenting relevant themes, circumstances, interpretations, stories, and symbols?

• Teaching and Learning the Matters

What does it mean to work for a more just world in your context? What are you learning, and what are you teaching?

• Dialogues that Matter

Given the complex and diverse world in which we live, what questions do you have, questions you wished you could have raised, or questions that you want to submit?

 

 

TYPES OF WRITINGS WELCOMED

All Submissions should be sent to both mshaney2013@gmail.com and admin@urbanmissiology.org

 

STORIES/ARTICLES/BLOGS     We are especially looking for positive articles related to specific practice specialties associated with a broad range of mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual issues that impact our common social communities, especially those in urban contexts around the world. Feature articles should be approximately 1,000-1,500 words. Our style is conversational, practical, and educational. Write as if you are having a conversation with a student or colleague. What do you want him/her/them to know about the topic? How is it being addressed? Why is this issue important? What would you have liked to see when you were first starting? Use examples. Plan to submit your article at least 2-3 weeks in advance using the Scheduler.

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The best articles have a specific focus. If you are writing an educational piece, focus on a particular age group and outcomes. Or, if you are analyzing a specific ethical concern, talk about how that moral issue is unique to a particular context. Include examples, and when possible, include one or two resources at the end of your article—books, additional reading materials, or websites.

 

News of interest in social and justice, denominational, ecumenical, interfaith, educational, and community leaders are welcomed. News items should be 100-150 words and should be mailed to admin@urbanmissiology.org at least three (3) weeks in advance. If you are sending a news item, include a photo to illustrate it, if you have one, along with a contact name and email address. We also want pictures of people of all ages and stages of life engaged in action for our online publication.

 

Book reviews - If you are interested in writing a review for a book that you have found meaningful to your understanding and promotion of social change and transformation, be sure to identify the book and author. State your interest in recommending the book, your primary area(s) of interest and expertise, and your credentials.

 

Other creative forms of expression, including humor, sermon illustrations, music, artwork, and poetry, are also welcomed. The name of the submitter and city will be identified with thanks.

 

Podcasts are welcome. How are you using your voice to make a difference?

 

 

IMPORTANT URBAN MISSIOLOGY GUIDELINES

FOR FORMATTING, EDITING, AND PROOFREADING

 

Inclusive Language:   Because words matter and we desire to include people (not exclude), we promote inclusive language because it helps us be more accurate and builds trust.

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Formatting:  Use a standard font size 11, such as Times Roman or Arial. Use single spacing with .5-inch margins. Include the article's title, your name, credentials, and contact information on the front page of the manuscript, and have a brief bio (1-2 sentences) at the end of your manuscript.

 

If relevant, we prefer minimal references or a short resource list.  Submit your article as a Word (or compatible) file.

 

Submit a photo with your article, blog, or story. If you have a picture, chart, or table to accompany your article, offer it a separate JPG file, not embedded in your Word file.

 

Edit and Proofread: Once you have written a draft of your article, be sure to edit and proofread it before submitting it to Urban Missiology. Have you used correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar? Have you written clearly and concisely? Is the organization clear? Have you used inclusive language? These tips cover many of the common writing mistakes we find in submitted articles.

 

Authorship: Individual authors' names must be included in the byline. We do not accept anonymous submissions. (News items may be published without a byline at the editor's discretion.)

 

Submit all materials for possible publication in Urban Missiology via email. Put "Submission" and the title or topic of your submission in the email subject line.

 

Note to educators: Before making an assignment for your students to submit to Urban Missiology, please contact us to determine whether the assigned submissions are consistent with our current publishing needs.

 

 

URBAN MISSIOLOGY'S POSTING GUIDELINE ETIQUETTE

Remember the words of Aretha Franklin and treat one another with R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Be Supportive.

We encourage respectful, positive, and constructive dialogue in our online community. These days of uncertainty can be stressful, and we want to build each other up. Do not post with unnecessarily negative or unproductive language, name-calling, personal attacks, or profanity.

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Be Savvy

We greatly appreciate your written content for publication considerations. However, if the formatting, editing, and proofreading guidelines are not followed, your submission may not be published. Also, make use of the Scheduler for timely submissions and publishing.

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Speak up

This community becomes more and more valuable the more we share! If you have personal and professional experience that can help another member, please offer it. Make sure to keep conversations on-topic — we may either remove off-topic content or move it to the correct forum. 

While we appreciate your time to provide a comment or review, we reserve the right to (but are not obligated to) remove your articles or comments for any reason, but especially if they violate the below guidelines:

• Do not post private information. For your safety, avoid posting personal or confidential information, and keep in mind that anything you post may be disclosed, published, transmitted, or reused.

• Do not post inappropriate or objectionable content. Do not post or transmit any content that is disruptive, uncivil, abusive, vulgar, profane, obscene, hateful, fraudulent, threatening, harassing, defamatory, political, or which discloses private or personal matters concerning any person. Do not post, transmit, or link to sexually explicit material.

• Do not post infringing content. Do not post or transmit any material you do not have the right to transmit under law (such as copyrights).

• Do not knowingly post false information. Do not misrepresent yourself or misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity. Do not submit a comment or review that is false, deceptive, or inaccurate.

• Do not post spam.  Do not spam others by posting unwanted commercials, advertisements, or promotional materials as comments or a product review. Do not post or transmit any advertising, promotional materials, or other forms of solicitation, including chain letters and pyramid schemes

• Do not post illegal content. Do not violate any applicable law or regulation while accessing and using our website.

 

If you have any questions about our community guidelines or moderation philosophy, please reach out to us at admin@UrbanMissiology.org.  Thanks for helping us to build a strong, caring online community!

 

These guidelines are adapted with gratitude from NerdWallet's official posting guidelines and THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER writers' guidelines.