Reflections and resources for lifelong learning for missionaries
Mission agencies, including the one in which I serve, are increasingly drawn to work in partnership with other mission organizations and churches. As Missio Nexus' tagline says, "The Great Commission is too big for anyone to accomplish alone and too important not to try to do together." So we do not often hear calls to …
Continue reading How do we decide whom we can work with?
In our ongoing discussion of Insider Movements, we turn now to the question of what implications an understanding of the Kingdom of God might have for insider movements. In chapter 20 of Understanding Insider Movements, Anthony Taylor prefers the "Kingdom of God" paradigm over the "conflict of religions" paradigm. He writes: An alternative to the 'conflict …
Continue reading The Kingdom of God paradigm and Insider Movements
Theological issues must not be avoided but ought to be thoroughly discussed. Evangelical missions must reaffirm commitment to the inerrancy of Scripture or drift without a rudder in popular currents.
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 …
Continue reading Keeping Evangelism and Discipleship together
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. Frankly, I'm not convinced. …
Continue reading What is the Biblical Support for Insider Movements?
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 …
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: …
Continue reading Review: Early Christian Mission by Eckhard J. Schnabel
