December 7, 2024

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Year: 2017

Keeping Evangelism and Discipleship together
Disciple-making, Theology, Evangelism, Gospel

Keeping Evangelism and Discipleship together

During my college years I was involved in a coffee house ministry that reached out to street people in Worcester, Massachusetts. Many who dropped in were under the influence of drugs and alcohol. One of the evangelists said to me that if he could just get someone to say the sinner’s prayer (even if they were drunk), there was one more on the way to heaven. This was certainly an extreme separation of evangelism and discipleship, certainly also a distortion of evangelism. In the 1970’s I often observed and participated in evangelism that had little emphasis on discipleship. Now some talk about discipleship before conversion. So the pendulum swings. I have heard presentations on discipleship that did not even mention the cross and the resurrection. Perhaps that was assumed. But the cross and resurrection are matters of “first importance” that Paul reminds the Corinthians of in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4:… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
What is the Biblical Support for Insider Movements?
Contextualization, Insider Movements, Bible, Missiological Issues, Missiology

What is the Biblical Support for Insider Movements?

Part 3 of Understanding Insider Movements begins: Are insider movements biblical? Or are they merely a missiological strategy with scant theological legitimacy, as some critics assert? (Kindle loc. 4234) This part of UIM contains a dozen biblical and theological studies that advocates of insider movements believe form the biblical foundation for insider movements.… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
Cross-Cultural Living, Training, Multicultural Teams

Missionary, know thyself!

by Josie Oldenburg, reposted from the SEND blog I vividly remember the moment I understood that culture permeates all of life. I’d already been a missionary for a few years, and I was reading “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,” the true story of an epileptic Hmong girl and the cultural tug-of-war over her medical care. The author casually mentioned that in the girl’s Hmong household, family photographs “hung close to the ceiling, to show respect.” “My gracious,” I thought, glancing at my own eye-level art, “culture even affects where you hang your pictures.” (Check out these “Fantastic tips for perfectly placed art;” surely nearer the ceiling would be easier!)… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Insider Movements: Other Religions
Missiology, Contextualization, Insider Movements, Revelation, Missiological Issues

Insider Movements: Other Religions

The term ‘religion’ is a hot topic of debate in the literature on Insider Movements. Some even question whether it is a meaningful concept. In this post we will explore three questions: “What is religion?”, “What is the source of non-Christian religions?” and “Is God at work in non-Christian religions?” What is “religion”? In Understanding Insider Movements, one writer states, “One of the most instructive definitions of religion is provided by Clifford Geertz. He defines it as a ‘cultural system’ or ‘worldview'” (UIM, Kindle loc.  8297)… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
Missiology, Training, Book Reviews, Missiological Issues

Review: Early Christian Mission by Eckhard J. Schnabel

Early Christian Mission, published in 2004 by Eckhard J. Schnabel is a massive resource. The two volumes contain 1928 pages, 1588 of which are text. The size of the work will intimidate many but the thoroughness of Schnabel’s scholarship is rewarding. Theologian and New Testament scholar Peter T. O’Brien gives this endorsement of this work: The publication in English of Eckhard Schnabel’s magisterial work on early Christian mission is a major event for which both author and publisher are to be congratulated most warmly. This amazing achievement, which carefully sets the Christian mission within its wide-ranging historical and geographical contexts, and considers the mission theology of the biblical material, fills a gap left for more than 100 years since the appearance of Adolf von Harnack’s work on the spread of Christianity. … Dr. Schnabel’s comprehensive volume is a profoundly reliable guide and provides countless insights that will inform and inspire… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
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