Winner of Christianity Today's "Award of Merit" in the Church Growth Category
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Being a witness for Jesus in Muslim contexts is often difficult, complicated, and even discouraging. Over the past forty years, Phil Parshall, a leading authority on Muslim outreach, has demonstrated that making friends with Muslims—whether in the West or abroad—is where our witness usually begins. "Brother Phil" and his wife, Julie, were missionaries in Bangladesh for more than twenty years and later worked among Muslims in the Philippines. During his tenure as a missionary leader, Parshall authored a dozen books that helped shape current missiological perspectives about Muslim outreach. In this volume, the only edited work dedicated to exploring Phil Parshall’s legacy, seven respected missiologists interact with those ideas.
While all the contributors to this book have been inspired by Parshall's life and work, some of them believe that Parshall’s methods of contextualization could have been taken even further. They ponder: How can we further remove obstacles to following Jesus? How do we navigate the fine lines between Muslim cultures and Muslim religious ideas? What cultural and social aspects of Muslim life could cross-cultural workers adopt when living among Muslims? Here they share some of their victories and challenges, encouraging Christian workers to press ahead on paths of outreach to Muslims that are fitting for the twenty-first century context. |
"The topic of Muslim followers of Jesus is hotly debated in missiology today. Phil Parshall, through his humble and gentle spirit and forty years as an effective cross-cultural witness among Muslims, has been an innovative pioneer in Muslim evangelism, opening the door for new ways of thinking, relating to, and living among Muslims. Others have built on his foundational principles and at times taken his contextualization ideas beyond his theological comfort zone. Now seven missiologists, have written captivating, helpful, and practical essays to honor Phil Parshall. What a great gift they have given to missiologists and mission practitioners today."
--Darrell Whiteman, Global Development, Inc. "This book reflects and builds on the insights of a contemporary leader in Christian mission among Muslims with whom I have had the privilege of working in the classroom and the mission field for many years. Likewise the contributors bring a similar blend of the academy, experience and creative insight. This book should be on the short list of any missionaries to Muslims wishing to enrich their call with the insights of those in whose footsteps they are privileged to walk." --J. Dudley Woodberry Dean emeritus and senior professor of Islamic Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary |
Weighing Approaches to Finish the Task
Christians have been reflecting on best practices for as long as they have been engaging in missions. Practitioners have developed diverse strategies to promote the spread of the Gospel—such as indigenous church planting, disciple-making movements, community development, dynamically equivalent Bible translations, and chronological Bible storytelling. These models began as creative analyses of the mission endeavor, in light of the current cultural context. As that context shifts, it is also important to critically re-examine these models. Advancing Models of Mission reflects on the missionaries and models of the past and reconsiders current models, all with the aim of looking toward the future of evangelical mission. This compendium of thirteen essays tackles such timely and difficult questions as: · How does globalization challenge the 10/40 window model? · How does hybridity and diaspora change the way we think about people groups and identity formation? · How does the colonial history in Africa affect believers' connection with global evangelism? Readers can learn about the contexts of the past that shaped our current missiological models while listening to diverse voices describe how those models are experienced considering our changing realities. Through honest analysis of the past few centuries of missionary movement, Advancing Models of Mission provides hope for the future. |
The goal of historical study is to gain an accurate view of the past. And when we tell the truth about the past, we are forced to rejoice and lament. Ultimately, doing history teaches us to be wise. In this volume, the authors present the people, places, and practices of historic Christian mission, inviting the church to greater humility, wisdom, and skill as we strive to be faithful servants in God’s mission.
--Edward L. Smither, PhD , Columbia International University |
In this book, Kenneth Nehrbass examines the interaction between traditional or animistic religion (called kastom) and Christianity in Vanuatu. First, he briefly outlines major anthropological theories of animism, then he examines eight aspects of animism on Tanna Island and shows how they present a challenge to Christianity. He traces the history of Christianity on Tanna from 1839 to the present, showing which missiological theories the various missionaries were implementing. Nehrbass wanted to find out what experiences in the lives of the islanders distinguished those who left traditional religion behind from those who held on to it. In the end, he contends that there are twenty factors of gospel response and cultural integration that determine whether an animistic background believer will be a mixer, separator, transplanter, or contextualizer.
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Ever since Allan Tippett's "Solomon Island's Christianity", modern missiological inquiry has richly benefited from case studies addressing the spread of Christianity into the South Pacific. "Christianity and Animism in Melanesia" continues that rich tradition by examining a variety of missiological practices and their outcomes in forming Christian communities in Vanuatu that has implications for missions around the globe.
--Doug Hayward, PH.D. Professor Emeritus at Biola University |