July 27, 2026

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Category: Disciple-making

Talking with Muslims about faith
Missiological Issues, Islam, Evangelism

Talking with Muslims about faith

In my colleague’s review of the book, Dialogical Apologetics, in this blog, Gary Ridley noted that dialogue with adherents of other religions has often been seen as mutually incompatible with evangelism.  Dialogue has been used to describe inter-religious discussions in which evangelism is not seen as necessary or even a desirable goal. The book Gary reviewed points to another way of viewing that dialogue. I would like to extend that conversation to focus particularly on dialogue with adherents of the Islamic faith. Unknown to most of us,  including myself until recently, Christians have a very long history of these interactions, extending back for many centuries.… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
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
Insider Movements: Understanding the Issues
Missiological Issues, Church Planting, Disciple-making, Islam, Missiology, Contextualization, Insider Movements

Insider Movements: Understanding the Issues

“Over the past fifteen years missiologists have produced a massive amount of literature related to the contextualization debate surrounding the proposals of Insider Movement proponents.” So begins J. Henry Wolfe in his article, “The Development of the Insider Movement Paradigm” (published July 2015, www.GlobalMissiology.org). I have tried to digest a good portion of that material over the last few months and add my testimony to the truth of Ecclesiastes 12:12 – “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.” The definition of Insider Movements John Jay Travis defines an “insider” as “a person from a non-Christian background who has accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior but retains the socioreligious [sic] identity of his or her birth.” (Understanding Insider Movements, kindle loc. 827).  His working definition of Insider Movements (IM) then is:… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
What do you mean by the word “mission”?
Missiological Issues, Disciple-making, Missiology, Bible

What do you mean by the word “mission”?

Today the term ‘mission’ is in search of definition. It has become quite fluid and vague. In 2016, Jay Matenga and Malcom Gold wrote: We are in a state of missional (mission-related) anomie in which the forms and structures of the past are in a state of flux and a cohesive and accepted new way has yet to form. – Jay Matenga and Malcom Gold, Mission in Motion, 2016, William Carey Library, Kindle location 1258.… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
Elenctics
Missiology, Theology, Evangelism

Elenctics

About 35 years ago I heard Dr. Sam Rowen lecture on elenctics.  The term is seldom used in missiology today and the concept behind it gets little press. There is, however, an article on elenctics in the Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions, (p. 307,8). The chief proponent of elenctics is J. H. Bavinck in his book, An Introduction to the Science of Missions (1960). J.H. Bavinck (1895-1964) was a missiologist in the Dutch Calvinist tradition. Elenctics, in Christianity, is a division of practical theology concerned with persuading people of other faiths (or no faith) of the truth of the Gospel message, with an end to producing in them an awareness of, and sense of guilt for, their sins, a recognition of their need for God’s forgiveness, repentance (i.e. the disposition to turn away from their sin) and faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Wikipedia… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
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