Atonement Theology for Muslims?

Missionaries and theologians within the New Testament were determined not to identify a single, correct understanding of the atonement but to find context-specific ways of making the word of the cross accessible and challenging to varied audiences…. The images of the atonement that have surfaced in the history of the church have often taken shape through similar commitments to articulating the significance of the cross in particular settings.

This encourages us to believe that no one model of the atonement will fit all sizes and shapes, all needs and contexts where the church is growing and active in mission. This means, ultimately, that the next chapter of this book is being written in hundreds of places throughout the world, where communities of Jesus' disciples are practicing the craft of theologian-communicator and struggling with fresh and faithful images for broadcasting the mystery of Jesus' salvific death.

-Mark D. Baker & Joel B. Green. Recovering the Scandal of the Cross: Atonement in New Testament and Contemporary Contexts (Kindle Locations 2949-2954).

Is this a good start?

A Patron–Client View of the Gospel in “Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes”

I have previously blogged on A Patron – Client View of the Gospel as a key way to understand MBB journeys to faith in Christ, and, by implication, how we can share the gospel with Muslims.

Based on some feedback I’ve received from the article, it seems extremely difficult for most Westerners to grasp the concept.  In that respect, I highly recommend Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible, which does a fantastic job of explaining culture and interpretation in an enjoyable and edifying way. 

Here are some selected quotes on the concept of patronage as it is found in the New Testament:

Joining words together, though, can be far more significant than merely vocabulary. Some words have special meanings when they are paired with other words. In the New Testament, for example, the word charis means "grace." Pistis means "faith." What we didn't know until recently-what went without being said in Paul's day- was that those two words together described the relationship between a patron and his or her client.

In the Roman world of the New Testament, business was conducted through an elaborate system of patrons and clients.' When we watch the movie The Godfather, we are seeing the modern remains of the ancient Roman patronage system. Like Marlon Brando who played the godfather in the movie, the ancient patron was a wealthy and powerful individual (male or female) who looked after his or her "friends" (clients). The complex world of Roman governmental bureaucracy, the far-reaching tentacles of the banking system (usually temples) and the pervasive and powerful grasp of the trade guilds made it impossible for ordinary craftspeople or farmers to conduct business on their own. They were entirely dependent upon their patrons. Like most unwritten cultural rules, everyone knew what was expected of a patron and a client, even though expectations weren't engraved on a wall. Everyone knew a patron's role was to solve problems for his or her clients, whether it was trouble with the local trade guilds, refinancing a loan or smoothing over tensions with city leaders. When Paul was staying in Thessalonica, it was reasonable to expect Jason to handle the "Paul problem," which he did by asking Paul to leave town (Acts 17).

In that world, an ordinary craftsman or farmer didn't have the social skills or connections or wealth to negotiate with the various powerbrokers of a city. He would seek out an individual, a patron, to help. Marlon Brando captures the sentiment well. The local merchant wants help. The godfather says, "So you want me to do you this favor?" Both sides understand the agreement: the godfather solves the problem, and the merchant now must be loyal to the godfather and be ready to help if he is ever summoned. In the Roman system, likewise, the client couldn't earn the "favor"; the patron showed "kindness" to help. Seneca, a philosopher from Paul's time, said the patron and the client had a relationship, a form of friendship.6 The client was now a "friend" of the patron, but not a peer. The client was expected to reciprocate with loyalty, public praise, readiness to help the patron (as much as he could) and, most importantly, gratitude.' This kind gift had strings attached. (All gifts in antiquity had strings attached.) Seneca called it "a sacred bond."' The recipient of the gift was obligated to reciprocate. Paul introduced Lydia to Christianity (Acts 16). She reciprocated by hosting Paul and his team at her estate.

The language of patronage permeated everyday life. We know well the Christian terms grace and faith, but these were common before Paul used them. They were part of the language of patronage. When the patron gave unmerited gifts of assistance, these were commonly called charis, meaning "grace/gift.."10 The client responded with faithfulness to the patron, called pistis, or "faith."" We see that when Paul explained our new relationship with God, he used something everyone understood: the ancient system of patronage.12 Taken together, this vocabulary-so central to the Christian faith-means something different than the sum of its parts.13 (Kindle Locations 847-866).

Now Paul wasn't opposed to the patronage system; he probably couldn't imagine a world without it (Kindle Location 1802).

Because it was impossible to escape the patronage system, Paul worked within it, even in his explanation of the Christian message of salvation. Patronage had its own vocabulary. Words we usually consider particularly Christian terms-grace and faith-were common parlance before Paul commandeered them. The undeserved gifts of assistance the patron offered were commonly called charis ("grace" and "gift").' The loyalty the client offered the patron in response was called pistis ("faith" and "faithfulness").9 Roman philosophers noted that when one received a god's favor (charis), one should respond with love, joy and hope.10 When Paul sought to explain the Christian's new relationship with God, then, one of the ways he did so was in terms of the ancient system of patronage - something everyone understood. In other words, it went without being said that relationship is the premier and determinative aspect of charis, grace (Kindle Locations 1808-1813).

I believe that relationships today in Africa, the Middle East, and throughout Asia are largely defined by patronage, whereas in the liberal, democratic cultures of North America and Europe, relationships are defined by equality and freedom (except in politics).  If this is even remotely close to reality, how can Westerners use the concept of patronage to share the gospel with Muslims?

A Basic Theology of the Relationship between Gospel and Culture

Initially adapted but modified significantly from The Gospel in Human Contexts, pages 31-32:

1. The gospel, as revealed truth, is distinct and separate from all human cultures.
2. Culture is simultaneously a reflection of divine creativity and human rebellion.
3. Gospel and culture are interrelated realities: it is impossible to express the gospel apart from culture.
4. The gospel transforms people, and transformed people transform societies.

I reserve the right to modify this in the future.

Theology, Gospel Missions, and Insider Movements, by Nabeel Jabbour

[UPDATE: Jabbour is not the only writer of the document. See Joel’s comment below.]

Here is a resource that is worth perusing for a while (HT: MH).  230 pages long.

A CALL TO FAITHFUL WITNESS
-PART TWO –
THEOLOGY, GOSPEL MISSIONS, AND INSIDER MOVEMENTS

A PARTIAL REPORT (PART TWO OF TWO PARTS)
OF THE AD INTERIM STUDY COMMITTEE ON INSIDER MOVEMENTS
TO THE FORTY-FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA
MARCH 20, 2013

By Nabeel Jabbour (See also www.nabeeljabbour.com)

Among his other works are The Crescent Through the Eyes of the Cross: Insights from an Arab Christian and The Rumbling Volcano: Islamic Fundamentalism in Egypt.

A Patron – Client View of the Gospel (Part 4 in the “How are Muslims coming to Christ?” Series)

Previous posts in this series: How are Muslims coming to Christ? Introduction, Part 1: Conversion is a Contextual Process, Part 2: The Prominence of the Affective Dimension, and Part 3: The Silent Witness of Love and Integrity.

If the gospel is news about a new relationship, then how we socially understand relationships will inform our view of the gospel.  Do Asian, Arab, and African MBBs view the gospel in a different form than Western Christians? I think we’re beginning to see this emerge in missiological research (from this article):

 

4. A Patron – Client View of the Gospel

Like Yehia, Hanaan grew up very disillusioned with the hypocritical lifestyles of some fundamentalist Muslims she knew. One night a man in a brilliant white robe holding a staff appeared in her dream and told her that she was correct to doubt Islam. The next morning she described this event to her loving and devout Muslim father, who told her the person from her dream was Isa al Masih. Eagerly she went to the Qur’an and read everything she could about Jesus, who continued to show up in dreams for many years at key moments in her life.

According to her testimony, Hanaan joined herself to Jesus long before she met another Christ follower who studied the Bible with her for the first time. Like Hanaan, MBBs appear to bond themselves to Christ in a patron-client relationship as they initially begin to understand His lordship and even the atonement.

A biblical, missiological view of conversion must take into account the social context of the first century Mediterranean world (Asia and Africa are much closer to this worldview today than is the West). Relationships were conceptualized around the concept of “patronage,” where “they saw their gods as patrons and benefactors and their own conduct as clients” (Crook 2004, 254). “In this hierarchical society, where the status of the person you follow and to whom you give allegiance is very important, the position of Isa becomes the focus of reconsideration” (Edwards 2013, 84). MBBs relate to Christ in ways that are difficult for Westerners to understand, but make sense in their worldview. Yet this understanding of salvation is commonly found in the writings of the Apostle Paul. Christ is our ultimate Patron (the Divine Lord), we must be found “in him” and part of the new people of God.

Implications?

1. A Patron – Client View of the Gospel – There is only one gospel, but it is always expressed in only one of its various forms (Keller 2008 – [this is a foundational article in missiology]). The legal, moral guilt presentation of the gospel, while definitely biblical, has been over-emphasized by Westerners in Muslim lands. Can we begin to use the Patron-Client form…: Through faith, we are joined with the glorious Messiah in his life, death, and resurrection. He gets our loyalty (praise, glory, and honor) and we get his life in us, removing our shame and defilement. Could this be the form of the gospel that is most relevant to Muslims?

There is a lot more to discuss about patronage. For now, use this concept as a hermeneutical key to understand Paul’s talk about being “in Christ.”  See also this helpful, brief video about the patron-client relationship in anthropology (missiology is the intersection of theology and the social sciences):

 

Next: Part 5, Conversion in Layers of Identity.

On the Resurrection

Every sermon preached by every Christian in the New Testament centers on the resurrection.  The gospel or “good news” means essentially the news of Christ’s resurrection.  The message that flashed across the ancient world, set hearts on fire, changed lives and turned the world upside down was not “love your neighbor.”  Every morally sane person already knew that; it was not news.  The news was that a man who claimed to be the Son of God and the Savior of the world had risen from the dead.

From The Pocket Handbook of Christian Apologetics, page 69.

Did Jesus Preach the Gospel?

This is an important (12 minute) video that helps clarify how we read the gospels and talk about the kingdom.  I find the reason why Jesus’ Lordship replaces the “kingdom” talk in the epistles to be a very helpful reminder.  It is so wrong to pit the “gospel of Paul” and the “gospel of the kingdom against each other!!!

The article Keller refers to is Simon Gathercole, "The Gospel of Paul and the Gospel of the Kingdom" in God's Power to Save: One Gospel for a Complex World? ed. Christopher Green (UK: Apollos/Inter-Varsity Press, 2006).

Did Jesus Preach the Gospel? from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

Related Posts:

• Does the “Kingdom” Make Sense to Muslims?
• The Kingdom, the Cross, and the Church 

Summary and Outline of Invitation to World Missions: A Trinitarian Missiology for the Twenty-first Century (Tennent 2010)

If missiology is a puzzle, then Invitation to World Missions by Tim Tennent has helped me put more pieces in place than any other book.  Perhaps this is due to the fact that I’ve read several books on missiology and things are beginning to come into focus for me.  But Tennent’s missiology not only provides the corner pieces and the edges, it also fits several seemingly odd pieces that didn’t look compatible before (Tennent is an evangelical who loves to learn from other Christian traditions: the three most quoted missiologists in his book are Walls, Newbigin, and Sanneh).  Before reading this book I felt like I was trying to put together the puzzle without referencing the picture on the box, but now I have a clearer view of the puzzle’s shape and image.

The four major features of Tennent’s missiology (provided in the conclusion of the book) are as follows. 1. The Missio Dei.  Mission is primarily God’s, not ours.  Mission is “God's redemptive, historical initiative on behalf of His creation.”  Missiology must be articulated from a theological and theocentric framework.  Social science and business-world insights are helpful, but the Bible still rules the day.  2. The Triune God.  “The Father is the Sender, the "Lord of the harvest"; the incarnate Son is the model embodiment of mission in the world; and the Holy Spirit is the divine, empowering presence for all of mission” (Kindle Locations 722-723).  3. The New Creation.  Missions is about the in-breaking of the future reign of King Jesus into the present.  We minister in the “already but not yet” of the kingdom.  4. The Global Church.  Most missiologies have been written from a mono-cultural perspective where the West has assumed to be the major player.  But the rise of the majority-world church has changed the game and there is much to be learned.

If you want to develop your missiology and learn more about missional theology from a trusted guide, then Invitation to World Missions is a book that deserves careful study.  Readers of Circumpolar will find his discussions on Islam and the “insider movement” helpful and interesting.

Below is the outline of the book along with brief chapter summaries.

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

Section A: Megatrends That Are Shaping Twenty-first Century Missions

1. From Moratorium and Malaise to Selah and Rebirth

Seven megatrends that are shaping missions today: 1. The Collapse of Christendom.  2. The Rise of Postmodernism: Theological, Cultural, and Ecclesiastical Crisis. “The Western church has responded in very different ways to the collapse of Christendom and the emergence of postmodernity, but none has managed the transition without experiencing some form of crisis.” (176-178).  3. The Collapse of the "West-Reaches-the-Rest" Paradigm. “Western Christians have been slow to grasp the full missiological implications of the simultaneous emergence of a post-Christian West and a post-Western Christianity” (247-248).  4. The Changing Face of Global Christianity.  Six sending and receiving continents!  5. The Emergence of a Fourth Branch of Christianity: “Independent” “Pentecostals”.  6. Globalization: Immigration, Urbanization, and New Technologies.  7.  A Deeper Ecumenism. “The simultaneous emergence of postdenominational identity among many, as well as the emergence of thousands of new denominations, requires the forging of new kinds of unity that transcend traditional denominational and confessional identities” (426-427).

Section B: The Triune God and the Missio Dei

2. A Trinitarian, Missional Theology

We must maintain a difference between mission and missions.  Mission belongs to God, missions is the church joining in God’s mission.  “Maintaining the distinction between mission and missions enables the church to be both God-centered and church-focused” (606-607).  “The only way to maintain the link between God's mission and missions in the church is to immerse the entire training in a thoroughly Trinitarian and ecclesial framework, so that everything is ultimately related to God (missio dei) and His church (missio ecclesiae)” (619-620).  LESSLIE NEWBIGIN and KWAME BEDIAKO have been key thinkers to try to advance this in the past and their contributions are summarized. 

3. A Trinitarian Framework for Missions

This chapter fleshes out what Tennent means by a Trinitarian missiology.  Missions must be talked about in the context of the Missio Dei, where each person of the trinity has a distinctive role to play.  God the Father is the source, initiator, and sender. God’s mission began with Abram in Genesis 12.  Missions is the expression of God’s relational and holy love, and the trinity is the seminal relationship that lies behind all human relationships.  God the Son is the embodiment of the Missio Dei.  God the Holy Spirit is the empowerment of the Missio Dei.    

PART Two: GOD THE FATHER: THE PROVIDENTIAL SOURCE AND GOAL OF THE MISSIO DEI

Section A: A Missional Perspective on the Bible

4. The God of Mission Reveals His Plan

The Abrahamic covenant reveals that God is the source and initiator of mission, that Yahweh is a sending God, and reveals God’s heart for all nations.  The missio Dei focuses on communities and nations- it doesn’t stop with individuals.  Tennent primarily looks at God’s blessing of the nations in the OT, and Wright is oft quoted.  “There is, therefore, a grand narrative of mission unfolding in the Bible that will ultimately follow the broad contours of creation –> covenant –> Incarnation –> Cross –> Resurrection –> Pentecost –> return of Christ –> eschaton/New Creation. Missions must be understood as the driving purpose for this grand narrative, not as some optional auxiliary of it. In other words, the missio dei is the central message of the Bible. The Bible, like the missio dei, is the story of God's redemptive, historical initiative on behalf of His creation. Missions ultimately must derive its life from that source” (1289-1293). 

5. The Sending Father and the Sent Church

This chapter reviews the “Great Commission” passages of each gospel writer.  We must listen to all in context and together in order to understand the missio Dei.  “Matthew emphasizes the role of discipleship and planting the church across ethnic and cultural boundaries among every people group in the world. Although we do not have the original words of Mark's commission, the received version is consistent with Mark's emphasis on perseverance in persecution and the central role of proclamation. Luke's commission emphasizes the importance of Spirit-empowered, holistic missions as we bear witness to the ongoing, mighty deeds of God. John's commission emphasizes the sending role of the church. Taken collectively, the commissions demonstrate the Father's initiative in missions. The Father imparts all authority to Jesus in Matthew's gospel. In Luke, the church fulfills only what the Father has promised. In John, the Father sends the Son, who, in turn, sends the church. Thus, all of the commissions are set within the larger context of the missio dei and God's original promise to Abraham that He would bless "all nations on earth" (Gen. 22:18) (1701-1706).

Section B: Creation, Revelation, and the Human Response to God's Rule

6. A Trinitarian, "New Creation" Theology of Culture

This chapter attempts to define a theology of culture.  Richard Niebuhr’s famous Christ and Culture (Christ against Culture, Christ of Culture, Christ above Culture, Christ in Paradox with Culture, Christ the Transformer of Culture) was flawed in several ways: First, Niebuhr's understanding of culture was constructed on the foundation of secular anthropology… To create a barrier between Christ and culture is to relegate God to the supracultural category, which maybe acceptable to some Islamic theologians but can scarcely be accepted as a thoroughly Christian view” (1757-1765). Second, Niebuhr's entire perspective on culture assumes a Christendom framework.  Third, the cogency of Niebuhr's argument requires a monocultural perspective and, therefore, is increasingly unpersuasive within the context of twenty-first-century multiculturalism.  Fourth, “Niebuhr's conception of culture is not set within an eschatological framework that sees the future as already breaking in to the present order… his secularized view of culture, which puts God in a supracultural category, robs his entire project of the eschatological perspective that is so central to all Christian thinking” (1795-1800).  Revelation is better described as transcultural, not supracultural.  

There are four ways Christians differ from secular anthropology in regards to culture.  First, Christians affirm that God is the source and sustainer of both physical and social culture.  Second, Christians affirm the objective reality of sin, rooted in the doctrine of the Fall, which has both personal and collective implications for human society.  “Human cultures, therefore, are simultaneously a sign of God's creative design as well as a manifestation of human sin, which stands in opposition to God's rule” (1865-1866).  Third, Christians affirm that God has revealed Himself within the context of human culture. God's revelation does not occur in a cultural vacuum apart from the particularities of culture. And fourth, Christians affirm that a future, eschatological culture, known as the New Creation, already has broken into the present.  “By relating the entire cultural process to the inbreaking of the New Creation, we are able to provide a vantage point from which to prophetically critique and enthusiastically celebrate as the gospel is embodied afresh in a potentially infinite number of new global contexts” (2094-2095).

7. An Evangelical Theology of Religions

(This identical chapter appeared in Encountering Theology of Mission.)  Tennent renames the classic paradigms of exclusivism, inclusivism, pluralism, in addition to the postmodern acceptance model.  He likes the hospitality of the pluralists, the inclusivist insistence that the missio Dei transcends the church, and the narrative emphasis of the postmoderns which reminds us that the gospel is primarily story and not simply doctrine.  He renames exclusivism to “revelatory particularism.”  Revelatory particularism should be articulated within a Trinitarian context.  The Father is the source of all revelation.  The Holy Spirit is the agent of the New Creation, and salvation is not simply justification but includes becoming a part of the New Creation.  And the Son is the “apex of God's revelation and the ultimate standard by which all is judged. Rather than comparing and contrasting Christianity with other religions, we measure all religions, including Christianity, against the revelation of Jesus Christ” (2479-2480).  Revelatory particularism embraces a canonical principle that asserts that the Bible is central to our understanding of God's self-disclosure, and positions an evangelical theology of religions within the context of the missio Dei where God desires to bless all nations.

PART THREE: GOD THE SON: THE REDEMPTIVE EMBODIMENT OF THE MISSIO DEI

Section A: Missions History as a Reflection of the Incarnation

8. Turning Points in the History of Missions before 1792

Seven snapshots of mission: 1. UNNAMED DISCIPLES FROM CYPRUS AND CYRENE in Acts 11:20.  The first instance of cross-cultural evangelism that led to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. 2. ST. THOMAS PREACHES THE GOSPEL IN INDIA.  Church history taught in the West misses the multidirectional spread of Christianity. 3.  THE TALE OF TWO MONKS, ALOPEN AND AUGUSTINE.  Two groups of monks in different parts of the world.  Early examples of contextualization and missional ingenuity.  4. RAYMOND LULL AND THE CHALLENGE OF ISLAM. Lull understood the long-term ill effects of the Crusades before any other.  He was also an effective apologist and mobilizer.  5.  FROM PADROADO (1493) TO PROPAGANDA FIDE (1622).  The difference between "missions as translation" and "missions as cultural diffusion" (Sanneh).  6. COUNT NICOLAS VON ZINZENDORF AND THE MORAVIAN MISSION.  The Pietist missionary movement that occurred prior to William Carrey.  7.  THE ODD ORIGINS OF KOREAN CHRISTIANITY.  The church was born outside of Korea among prisoners in Japan, and the message was first heard from Chinese, not from western missionaries.

9. The "Great Century" of Missions, 1792-1910

Five defining themes that give shape and force to the “Great Century.”  1. HOLY "SUBVERSION": THE BIRTH OF THE PROTESTANT MISSIONARY SOCIETY.  Protestants didn’t have a strucure for sending missionaries for a couple hundred years because they didn’t see the para-church structure in the Bible.  2. THE WORD MADE TEXT: VERNACULAR BIBLE TRANSLATIONS.  “Christianity is the only world religion whose primary source documents are in a language other than the language of the founder of the religion.”  Translation of the Bible was key.  3.  PERPETUATING PERPETUA: THE LEGACY OF WOMEN MISSIONARIES.  Women were mobilizers, professionals, pioneers.  4.  INDIGENOUS INGENUITY: CHURCH PLANTING IN THE "GREAT CENTURY".  Rufus Anderson and Henry Venn propose the three selfs: governing, supporting, and extending.  5.  GLOBAL COLLABORATION: THE BIRTH OF "WORLD CHRISTIANITY".  The famous Edinburgh World Missionary Conference in 1910.

10. The Flowering of World Christianity, 1910-Present

Seven portraits of twenty-first-century world Christianity. 1. PENTECOSTALISM IN LATIN AMERICA.  2. THE AFRICAN INDEPENDENT CHURCHES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA.  3. MUSLIMS WHO ARE FOLLOWING CHRIST IN THE MOSQUE.  “I see C-5 as a temporary, transitional bridge over which some Muslims will be able to cross into more explicit Christian identity” (Kindle Location 3407).  4.  SOUTH INDIAN MISSIONARIES TO NORTH INDIA.  5. THE NON-REGISTERED HOUSE-CHURCH MOVEMENT IN CHINA.  6.  THE KOREAN MISSIONARY MOVEMENT.  7.  POST-CHRISTENDOM VIBRANCY IN EUROPEAN CHRISTIANITY.

Section B: Cross-Cultural Communication as a Reflection of the Incarnation

11. The Incarnation and the Translatability of the Gospel

Cross-cultural communication and contextualization.  “This chapter has demonstrated that the Incarnation provides the theological foundation for effective missionary communication. It serves as the model for all the ways that we seek to contextualize or translate the universal gospel message into a potentially infinite number of particular settings. There is indeed much to be gained from insights from anthropology, ethnography, and communication theory. However, if the whole of the missionary enterprise is to be properly rooted in the missio dei, it is essential that the foundation arise out of the missional and incarnational heart of the triune God” (Kindle Locations 3969-3972).

12. Access and Reproducibility in Missions Strategy

Mobilization for church planting among the unreached.  “The Incarnation makes the good news of God's redemptive love accessible. God, in Christ, relocates into our frame of reference and makes the inbreaking of God's rule intelligible in culturally understandable ways, summoning all cultures to the new realities of the kingdom of God. The themes of this chapter have been raised in order to help the church to better reflect the Incarnation as we seek to make the gospel accessible to every people group and as we nurture viable, reproducing churches in every people group in the world” (Kindle Locations 4358-4361).

13. Reflecting the Incarnation in Holistic Missions

The evangelism vs social action debate.  Tennent’s position is that the incarnation teaches the fundamental unity of word and deed.  “The emergence of a post-Western Christianity has finally liberated Christianity from what Kwame Bediako calls the "western possessiveness of it." The result is that a paradigm of evangelism that is focused on "saving souls" while closing our eyes and ears to human need is no longer tenable. For centuries most of the church has looked upon a world of need from the upper-side perspective of privilege and power. Today, most of the church reads the Bible from the "lower-side" perspective of poverty and powerlessness. In this respect, we may finally have come full circle to a global situation that is far closer to the vibrancy and holistic perspective of the first-century Christians” (Kindle Locations 4613-4617).

PART FOUR: GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT: THE EMPOWERING PRESENCE OF THE MISSIO DEI

Section A: Empowering the Church to Embody the Presence of the Future

14.  The Holy Spirit, the Book of Acts, and the Missio Dei

“During the twentieth century, the Pentecostal movement served to reawaken the church to the normative aspect of the Holy Spirit's activity in the church and in our witness in the world. Ultimately the Spirit is the central agent in the ongoing unfolding of the missio dei, enabling the church to experience the realities of the New Creation in the present. Of course, there have been glaring inconsistencies and theological problems within Pentecostalism, as with any Christian movement. If, in this chapter, I have neglected the "mote" in the Pentecostal eye, it is only because I am so painfully aware of the "beam" in my own eye. In other words, I maintain that despite its problems, Pentecostalism remains an important corrective to the blind spots in the pneumatology and practice that have dominated the West for centuries. As Samuel Escobar has wisely stated, evangelical Protestantism emphasized the "continuity in truth by the Word," whereas Pentecostalism has emphasized the "continuity in life by the Spirit!'" To be faithful to Christ in the twenty-first century, the church desperately needs the dynamic union of both” (Kindle Locations 4880-4886).

15. The Church as the Embodiment of the New Creation

Highlights the importance of the church AND the mission agency.  “This chapter has sought to examine the relationship between biblical ecclesiology and the emergence of various voluntary associations, parachurch ministries, and mission organizations that serve the church. Only the modality of the church infused with the Holy Spirit can embody the full realities of the New Creation in the present age. Sodalities exist only to further this goal. It has been argued that sodality structures are biblical and have historically served and assisted in the effective mobilization of the church in a wide variety of ways. However, it is essential that these organizations be held accountable to godly Christian leadership and that the individual members of the various societies be sent out from, and be held accountable to, a local church” (Kindle Locations 5196-5200).

Section B: Missionaries as Agents of Suffering and Heralds of the New Creation

16. The Suffering, Advancing Church

Chapter covers 5 perspectives on persecution.  “Now that we stand at the end of the long legacy of Christendom, it is vital that Western Christians be given a more robust theological and missiological framework to help us understand persecution better” (Kindle Locations 5242-5243).  “This chapter has provided a theological framework that places persecution and suffering within the larger context of the missio dei. Within this context, it is clear that persecution should not be viewed as an unfortunate bane in the life of the church or something that is experienced only by certain groups of Christians in history or only in a few parts of the world” (Kindle Locations 5501-5503). Persecution serves the church in various ways.

Conclusion: The Church as the Reflection of the Trinity in the World

Tennent concludes by using the “Insider Movement” as a case study to show his three step process for engaging new missiological questions.  Interesting stuff.  Read it for yourself.

African-American Muslim Resources: The Gospel

Here's Trip Lee explaining the gospel in two minutes... 

HT: DG

What's the Message of the Bible in One Sentence?

Very interesting post: click here to read the various answers.  It’s very similar to ask what is the gospel or what is mission.  As you read, notice three issues:

1. Is the main message of the Bible to see Jesus/God ruling/reigning as King and Lord, or is Jesus mainly a Savior to save people from their sins?  We should not bifurcate the two (yes I just said bifurcate), but is one aspect a function of the other?
2. Is restoring/redeeming creation (not just people) included, or are people the extent of Christ’s work?  Also, are “all the nations” in view?
3. Is there an element of doxology, or is the storyline about human flourishing? (Again about the bifurcating.)

How would you answer the question? Sound off in the comments below.

Related Posts:

• The Gospel and its Results Should be Neither Confused nor Separated
• The Purpose (Vision) and Task (Mission) of Missions
• Five Questions to Answer Everything
• The Kingdom, the Cross, and the Church

Christ Crucified as the Very Heart of our Message

“The Missionary among Muslims (to whom the Cross of Christ is a stumbling block and the atonement foolishness) is driven daily to deeper meditation on this mystery of redemption to a stronger conviction that here is the very heart of our message and our mission.” –Samuel Zwemer

“Wherever there is the obscuring of the beauty of the Cross, it must be unveiled.” –Kenneth Cragg

These are quoted in the conclusion of Cross and Crescent: Responding to the Challenge of Islam by Colin Chapman.  In closing Chapman says:

Walking the way of the cross in witnessing will mean testifying as best as we can it is “in the face of Christ” that we see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 4:6).  However weak our efforts to bear witness to Christ crucified as the very heart of our message, we shall find that for those whom God has called – of whatever community and whatever faith – Christ on the cross will be recognized as the supreme revelation of “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:23-24). 

Related: When should we focus on the cross? (and especially the comments)

The Gospel for Muslims Lecture by Anyabwile

Former Muslim Thabiti Anyabwile gives a 1 hour lecture called, “The Gospel for Muslims” at the Gospel Coalition 2011 National Conference.  For better or worse, he insists on using Christian terminology and leading conversations with classical reformed theology in his approach to Muslim evangelism.  While I think there are more fruitful and more biblical approaches, it was beneficial for me to hear him articulate some concepts.  I also appreciated his bridge-building with Muslims and that he uses the Qur’an.

See also Thabiti M. Anyabwile on the CAMEL Method.

A Revolution in Church Multiplication in East Africa

Here is an excerpt [for the excerpt click on the link] of a DMin dissertation called, A Revolution in Church Multiplication in East Africa.  The entire paper can be downloaded from that link as well.

Luke 15 and a Word about Parables

Listen to this Islamic interpretation of Luke 15:11-32:

In this parable the Father obviously represents God while the younger son represents humankind.  The son leaves home, gets into trouble and finally decides to return to his Father.  He “yistaghfir Allah” (he seeks the forgiveness of God).  On arrival the Father welcomes the son and thus demonstrates the he, the father, is “rahman wa rahim” (merciful and compassionate).  There is no cross and no incarnation, no “son of God” and no “savior,” no “word that becomes flesh” and no “way of salvation,” no death and no resurrection, no mediator and no mediation.  The son needs no help to return home.  The result is obvious.  Jesus is a good Muslim who in this parable affirms Muslim theology.  The heart of the Christian faith is thus denied by the very prophet Christianity claims to follow.  Islam with neither a cross nor a savior preserves the true message of the prophet Jesus.

This is how Kenneth Bailey opens The Cross & the Prodigal: Luke 15 Through the Eyes of Middle Eastern Peasants. In his book, Bailey interprets the parable in light of the cultural paradigms of the first century Mediterranean world.  He finds a warrant to introduce the atonement in this parable because the father bore the public shame of his prodigal son’s “death wish” (asking for his inheritance while his father was still alive) by running publically in the street to embrace the prodigal son.  A dignified man in the Middle East would never run without great cost (public shame) to himself.  “This parable depicts a father who leaves the comfort and security of his home and humiliates himself before the village.  The coming down and going out to his son is a parable of the incarnation.  The costly demonstration of the unexpected love in the village street demonstrates a part of the meaning of the cross” (67).

Clearly the Muslim interpretation is flawed with eisegesis, trying to insert the Islamic concept of salvation into the parable. Let’s not forget to interpret the the parable in light of the crucifixion narrative and Jesus’ words in Luke 9:22, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

But I wonder if Bailey goes too far as well?  Parables were not meant to teach a summary of everything in Biblical faith, but instead to highlight one main point.  Luke 15 illustrates God’s extravagant mercy for sinners (something, by the way, that Islam and Biblical faith have in common).  Read this from the New American Commentary on Luke 15 (pg. 410):

The question has been raised about whether this parable teaches that God’s forgiveness is “free.” Did Luke believe there was thus no necessity of an “atonement.” One cannot require in a parable such as this, which teaches God’s love for the outcasts and the hostility this encounters, a complete doctrine of the atonement as well. A parable is not meant to serve as a shorter catechism of all Christian doctrine. Luke expected that this parable would be interpreted in light of what he had already said in his Gospel (cf. 9:22), what he would say shortly (cf. 19:10; 22:17–22), what he would write in Acts (4:12; 13:26–39; 20:28), and what they had already been taught (perhaps a tradition such as 1 Cor 15:3–8). The purpose of this parable is to teach essentially one basic point dealing with the situation described in 15:1–2. To ask more of it than this is unwarranted.

The church must continually examine the significance of this parable. Will we be the church of the elder brother or the church of the loving father?

This is the same route Tim Keller takes in The Prodigal God. He warns, “This story is a great metaphor of sin and salvation, but we can’t press every single detail literally” (76).  Keller continues:

Over the years many readers have drawn the superficial conclusion that the restoration of the younger brother involved no atonement, no cost… (82)

Mercy and forgiveness must be free and unmerited to the wrongdoer.  If the wrongdoer has to do something to merit it, then it isn’t mercy, but forgiveness always comes at a cost the one granting the forgiveness. (83)

The younger brother’s restoration was free to him, but it came at enormous cost to the elder brother.  The father could not just forgive the the younger son, somebody had to pay!  The father could not reinstate him except at the expense of the elder brother.  There was no other way.  But Jesus does not put a true elder brother in the story, one who is willing to pay any cost to seek and save that which is lost.  It is heartbreaking.  The younger son gets a Pharisee for a brother instead.

But we do not…(84)

Praise God for Jesus, who absorbed the cost of forgiveness in our place on the cross!  But the point of the parable does not take us there.

Five Questions to Answer Everything

How we answer these 5 questions will shape almost everything we do (and form a general framework for missiology):

1. How do we know what we know?
2. What is the gospel?
3. What is mission?
4. What is the church?
5. What is the kingdom of God?

HT: Stetzer (And then answering these questions helps shape our Islamic missiology.)

Review of Walking with the Poor, Myers

Walking With the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development (1999, 279 pgs) by Bryant Myers is a seminal book in Christian community development, perhaps the most often referred to book by Christian professors and practitioners.  His book tackles the big issue of human suffering and how we should view poverty and its causes, including how the the Kingdom of God impacts the world today to create a “better human future.”  In this review I will try to summarize the book as concisely as possible (it’s a dense, rich book) and offer a brief appraisal of its strengths and weaknesses.

Walking with the Poor begins by addressing Hiebert’s “The Flaw of the Excluded Middle,” including the sacred/secular divide promoted by the modern worldview.  The Church has been captivated by this separation, thinking Jesus is only for our spiritual life, and that God is not really concerned with the material or physical world.  What results is a dichotomy that fails to see that God cares about whole people and that Jesus is Lord of all areas of human life.  Myers explains,

We express our captivity to a modern worldview when we say that holistic ministry means combining evangelism (meeting spiritual need) with relief and development (meeting physical need) as if these were divisible realms and activities.  Then we make it worse by insisting that the church or the evangelism part of our organization do the former, while the development agency does the later.  By so doing we declare development independent of religion, something most of us do not really believe (7).  

Instead, Myers argues that people create society and society shapes people.  The “impact of the fall is on both the individual and the social system, and so the impact of the gospel of the kingdom must be on both” (49).  “The biblical story is the account of God’s project to restore the lives of individuals and communities, marred by sin, so that they can be good, just, and peaceful once again” (176).  People need to be reconciled to God, to self, to others, and to the environment.

Myers believes that the gospel is communicated through life, word, deed, and sign:

The gospel message is an inseparable mix of life, deed, word, and sign.  We are to be with Jesus (life) so that we can preach the good news (word), heal the sick (deed), and cast out the demons (sign)… Each dimension of the gospel message adds meaning to the others. Our life and deeds make our words intelligible; our words help people understand our life and deeds.  Life, word, and deed are signs of the living presence of someone greater than ourselves (134).

The “already” aspect of the kingdom of God is central in Myers’ paradigm of development, and embracing Jesus is the beginning a community’s “story.”  “Only by accepting God’s salvation in Christ can people and the community redirect the trajectory of their story towards the kingdom of God” (112).  And all people are invited to move towards the kingdom, which he defines as the better human future.  “The kingdom vision for the better human future is summarized by the idea of shalom: just, peaceful, harmonious, and enjoyable relationships with each other, ourselves, our environment, and God” (113). 

Christ’s redemptive work is cosmic in scope.  In Myers’ view,

God’s redeeming world does not separate individuals from social systems of which they are a part.  People come first, of course.  Changed people, transformed by the gospel and reconciled to God, are the beginning of transformation… At the same time, however, this individual response does not fully express the scope of God’s redemptive work (52).

Myers further believes that the local church is the center of God’s plan for transformational development (126-128).  [This is why I believe, in a pioneer setting where there is no church yet, we should see church planting as the foundational focus of mission. See Church Planting or Development? Word and Deed in Biblical Balance.]

Now we turn to the fundamental questions that Walking with the Poor addresses.  Moving people towards a better human future means having an understanding of these foundational issues.

1. What is poverty?
2. Why are “the poor” poor?
3. What is transformational development?
4. How do we work with the poor?
5. How does Christian witness relate to transformational development?

1. What is poverty?

Poverty is a lot more complex than simply people being in deficit or lacking stuff.  Myers reviews both secular and Christian theorists who give their own definitions of poverty as:

1. Entanglement - The poor live in a cluster of disadvantages that leave them physically weak, isolated, vulnerable, and helpless.  These dimensions make up a “poverty trap.”
2. Lack of access to social power – The poor are excluded from the overlapping domains of state power, political power, social power, and economic power.  The values of those powers are so low for the poor that they cannot move out of poverty on their own.
3. Disempowerment – The poor find themselves ensnared inside a system of disempowerment made up of cultural, societal, biophysical, spiritual, and personal systems.  The poor listen to a “web of lies” and are told by the world that they are God-forsaken.
4. Lack of freedom to grow – The poor are wrapped in a series of restrictions and limitations in four areas of life: physical, mental, social, and spiritual.  People don’t have the freedom to reach their full potential.

None of these theories are complete but they are all important as they complement each other.  Poverty is a complex, multifaceted phenomena to which there are no easy answers.  Myers doubts that there will ever be a unified model of poverty.

He concludes that the nature of poverty is fundamentally relational:

Poverty is a result of relationships [with God, self, others, environment] that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable.  Poverty is an absence of shalom in all its meanings (86).

Understanding poverty as relationships that don’t work as they should is consistent with the biblical story as well.  The scope of sin affects every one of the five relationships in which every human lives: within ourselves, with community, with those we call “other,” with our environment, and with God (87).

And the cause of poverty is fundamentally spiritual:

Sin is what distorts these relationships.  Sin is the root cause of deception, distortion, and domination.  When God is on the sidelines or written out of our story, we do not treat each other well… Without a strong theology of sin, comprehensive explanations for poverty are hard to come by (88).

2. Why are “the poor” poor?

It is important to understand the multifaceted causes of poverty because our understanding of cause shapes our response:

Our understanding of the causes of poverty also depends on where we start looking at poverty, and more important, where we stop looking…  For example, if we are only concerned with needs, we will only seek lack of water.  Without further thought, lack of water is the cause of poverty and providing water is the answer.  However, behind needs are issues, such as ownership of the water.  If this is the cause of the lack of water, then the response is to work on ownership or access.  Yet behind issues there are structures, such as caste, that influence who gets access to water, and which often create insurmountable barriers to access.  Behind structures are groups who inhabit and enforce the structures by insisting that “it is our water and our right to control its use.”  Behind these groups are the ideologies and values that inform the group and shape the social structure, the unspoken assumptions that “we are to be served and they are subhuman and aren’t supposed to drink where we drink.” This is worldview.

This kind of social analysis deepens our understanding of what causes poverty… [But] at the end of the day, people are the cause of poverty, and it is people who must change for things to change (82-83).

3. What is transformational development?

The two goals of transformational development are 1) changed people and 2) just relationships.  By changed people he means a recovering of true identity and true vocation:

We must know who we and the purpose for which we were created.  Therefore, restoring identity and recovering vocation must be the focus of a biblical understanding of of human transformation.  The transforming truth is that the poor and non-poor are made in God’s image (identity) and are valuable enough to God to warrant the death of the Son in order to restore that relationship (dignity) and to give gifts that contribute to the well-being of themselves and their community (vocation) (115).

If poverty is the world trying to tell the poor they are god-forsaken, then transformation is the declaration that they are made in God’s image, that God allowed his Son to die for them, and that God has given gifts to the poor so that they can fulfill God’s creation mandate that they too may be fruitful and productive…

For a Christian understanding of development, restoring identity and vocation is the goal.  This is the only path that leads toward life and that hold the promise of shalom (117).

To move toward a better human future we must encourage and develop relationships that work, relationships that are just, peaceful, and harmonious.  This is the heart of shalom and the only way of leading toward abundant life for all.  Thus transformational development that enhances life works to promote relationships that work as well as they can in a world of fallen people.  Life and relationships are inseparable (120). 

4. How do we work with the poor?

In order to work for just relationships and a recovering of identity and vocation that leads to a better human future, we must work with the poor in ways that that empower them.  All the tools development practitioners use should be seen as tools that the community uses themselves in order for them to do their own social analysis, and not as tools outsiders use to plan.  We disempower the poor when we assume or communicate that we know more about their situation than they do.

Because social systems and human transformation are not linear, it is better to work from a vision-and-values approach instead of a planning-and-management approach.  We need to work with people, not with projects. “It can be argued that empowering participation is the single most critical element of transformation” (149).  The community itself needs to own the vision, and the values/philosophy of work should be biblically-based.

Two overarching approaches to development should be in reducing vulnerabilities and building capacitates.  Both must be done.  Only addressing one without the other will result in the community being frustrated.

5. How does Christian witness relate to transformational development?

For Myers, the gospel is a message of good news that must be verbally announced.  Although the goals of evangelism and transformational development are the same (changed people and changed relationships), evangelism focuses more narrowly on the relationship between man and God, while transformational development is more concerned with all relationships man has (with God, others, self, creation).  The gospel is the “best news” we have, better than making short work of dirty water, parasites, malnutrition, and poor agricultural production:

Our thinking and practice of transforming development must have an evangelistic intent, although this needs to be understood with some care.  This is not a call for proselytism; neither is it a call to coercive, manipulative, or culturally insensitive evangelism.  It is not even a call for all development practitioners to become evangelists… Rather, it is a call to be sure we do our development with an attitude that prays and years for people to know Jesus Christ (205).

Evangelism should happen the same way development does; people must be able to come to conclusions by themselves and have ownership of the truth they discover.  This happens best not by monologue (preaching down at people and thus disempowering them), but by question asking and dialogue. 

Because we are always witnessing to something (even without words), we must be sure that at the end of the day, God is the one who gets the credit.

Ultimately, the best of transformational development deeds are ambiguous.  Good development is being done every day by Buddhists, Muslims, and atheists.  The driving force for Christian witness in the context of transformational development is to be sure that credit is given where credit is due.  We must take great care that we point, not to our own sacrifices or professionalism, and to to the effectiveness of our development technology, but to the fact that the good deeds that create and enhance life in the community are evidence of the character and activity of the God of the Bible, the God whose Son makes a continuing invitation to new life and whose Spirit is daily at work in our world (244).

Some Concluding, Brief Observations

• Highly theoretical and theological book.  Short on stories and examples.  It’s not for everyone.
• Repetitive. Said some things over and over. And over.
• Dense and deep.  Made me think a lot.  I wish I would have read it a couple years ago when I started working in development.  I feel my capacity for social analysis and identifying the causes of poverty has been greatly enhanced.
• There could have been more said about our motivation and power for working with the poor.  See Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just.
• Myers didn’t place hardly any emphasis on man’s rebellion being primarily an offense against God.  For a book as theologically based as this was, and for a book that talked a lot about sin, I was also surprised that the topic of hell was never mentioned.  The discussion of sin was basically about the human effects of sin- and Myer’s main paradigm was the gospel for a “better human future.”  But to be fair, the book was about development work.
• Walking With the Poor is an excellent book for building a framework to understand “the poor” and poverty alleviation.  Overall, I recommend this book even for people who don’t work in development.

The Gospel and its Results Should be Neither Confused nor Separated

From Tim Keller in Gospel Theology:

What is the gospel? It is not about everything the Bible teaches. It is about how our relationship with God is put right through the work of Jesus Christ.

What are the results of the gospel? They include the eventual healing of the world and all the other alienations resulting from the disruption in our relationship to God. Racism, hunger and poverty, the ravaging and exploitation of the environment—all these enormous problems will ultimately be solved on judgment day, because the rupture in the relationship between God and humanity has been mended through Christ. The gospel is not just incarnation and atonement but also resurrection—Jesus is the first-fruits of the future renewal of the world. Therefore, the gospel—what Jesus has done to put us right with God—points forward to the day when we will also be put completely right in every other way.

The gospel and its results/implications must be carefully related to each other—neither confused nor separated. This is very close to Luther’s dictum that we are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that remains alone. His point is that true gospel belief will always and necessarily lead to good works, but salvation in no way at all comes through or because of good works. Faith and works must never be confused for one another, nor may they be separated.

In the same way, once your alienation from God is healed, your other alienations will begin to be healed within and around you, partially now and fully later. Gospel-changed people will be moved to serve their neighbors and use their gifts and resources to alleviate psychological, social, and physical suffering, because of the hope and love the gospel brings.

Having said that the gospel and its results must neither be confused nor separated, we risk making two overgeneralizations. Some people over-emphasize the distinction, and they fail to adequately stress how the gospel always leads to community and justice and peace. On the other hand, some under-emphasize the distinction, giving the impression that gospel work is synonymous with making the world a better place.

I have heard people preach this way: “The good news is that God is healing and will heal the world of all its hurts; therefore, the work of the gospel is to work for justice and peace in the world.” The danger in this line of thought is that the good news becomes a divine rehabilitation program for the world, rather than an accomplished substitutionary work. “Believing the good news” means joining that program, rather than receiving Christ’s finished work. In other words, the gospel becomes primarily a salvation by practice instead of a salvation by faith.

As J. I. Packer says, “The gospel does bring us solutions to these problems, but it does so by first solving…the deepest of all human problems, the problem of man’s relation with his Maker; … and unless we make it plain that the solution of these former problems depends on the settling of this latter one, we are misrepresenting the message and becoming false witnesses of God.”  J. I. Packer, quoted by James Montgomery Boice, Foundations of the Christian Faith: A Comprehensive and Readable Theology (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 319.

The Tension Between the Pilgrim and Indigenous Principles

(HT: JP)  Talking about the book The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in Transmission of Faith by Andrew Walls, Justin Taylor says “Many mistakes in Christian witness and cultural engagement can be traced to ignoring this biblical tension and giving excessive weight to one end of the pole to the exclusion of the other.

Walls explains that “Church history has always been a battleground for two opposing tendencies; and the reason is that each of the tendencies has its origin in the Gospel itself.”

He first looks at the “indigenzing principle”:

On the one hand it is of the essence of the Gospel that God accepts us as we are, on the ground of Christ’s work alone, not on the ground of what we have become or are trying to become. But, if He accepts us “as we are” that implies He does not take us as isolated, self-governing units, because we are not. We are conditioned by a particular time and place, by our family and group and society, by “culture” in fact. In Christ God accepts us together with our group relations; with that cultural conditioning that makes us feel at home in one part of human society and less at home in another. . . .

The fact, then, that “if any man is in Christ he is a new creation” does not mean that he starts or continues his life in a vacuum, or that his mind is a blank table. It has been formed by his own culture and history, and since God has accepted him as he is, his Christian mind will continue to be influenced by what was in it before. And this is as true for groups as for persons. All churches are culture churches—including our own. (pp. 7-8)

Then Walls looks at the “pilgrim principle” of Christianity:

But throughout Church history there has been another force in tension with this indigenizing principle, and this also is equally of the Gospel. Not only does God in Christ take people as they are: He takes them in order to transform them into what He wants them to be. Along with the indigenizing principle which makes his faith a place to feel at home, the Christian inherits the pilgrim principle, which whispers to him that he has no abiding city and warns him that to be faithful to Christ will put him out of step with his society; for that society never existed, in East or West, ancient time or modern, which would absorb the word of Christ painlessly into its system . . .

Just as the indigenizing principle, itself rooted in the Gospel, associates Christians with the particulars of their culture and group, the pilgrim principle, in tension with the indigenizing and equally of the Gospel, by associating them with things and people outside the culture and group, is in some respects a universalizing factor.

The Christian has all the relationships in which he was brought up, and has them sanctified by Christ who is living in them. But he has entirely a new set of relationships, with other members of the family of faith into which he has come, and whom he must accept, with all their group relations (and “disrelations”) on them, just as God has accepted him with his. Every Christian has dual nationality, and has a loyalty to the faith family which links him to those in interest groups opposed to that to which he belongs by nature. (pp. 8-9)

Here we can see these principles on a chart:

	Pilgrim Principle	Indigenous Principle
But Not of the World—and Be In It	“They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (John 17:16).	“I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15)
Separate—and Participate	“Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing” (2 Cor. 6:17).	“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world . . . since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality” (1 Cor. 5:9),
Confront—and Adapt	“The wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them. . . . Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Eph. 5:6-11). “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12).	“Aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands . . . so that you may live properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one” (1 Thess. 4:11-12). “[I pray] that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Tim. 2:2).
Refuse Conformity—and Contextualize	“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom. 12:2)	“I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22). “Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved” (1 Cor. 10:32-33).

“May God give all of us grace to find and maintain the gospel balance.”- JT

The Gospel According to Lausanne

Here is a paper by the Theology Working Group called The Whole Church taking the Whole Gospel to the Whole World.  It is about 30 pages long, and dense, but rich.  I commend it your list of “must reads.”  It took me a while to get through.  I’m not sure I agree with everything in it (although it is maybe naive of me to differ from these guys!), but I’m glad I invested in it.  I suppose this paper is what Lausanne is all about.

Developing a Biblical Missiology Among Muslims

The blog Biblical Missiology posts a set of questions that the missions committee at Bethlehem Baptist Church (Piper’s Church) uses when considering supporting a missionary.  For the most part, answering these questions, plus maybe a few others, would amount to forming a Biblical missiology for working with Muslims:

1. How will you help a new believer express his identity in Christ within his community?

2. In your ministry context, what aspects of the local culture may be retained and which aspects must be rejected?

3. As a minister of the Gospel, how will you communicate your identity in Christ to those among whom you seek to minister?

4. How will you communicate the identity of Jesus in the language and culture of the context in which you minister?

5. What will cross-bearing look like for new believers in your context? Are new believers truly ready to suffer for Christ? How will you prepare them?

6. How will you present the gospel in such a way that Jesus is the stumbling block (not cultural practices, leadership style, dress, customs, habits)?

7. How will you proclaim the gospel with gentleness, respect, and with all boldness in your host context (especially in highly restricted areas)?

8. How will you demonstrate the supreme and exclusive authority of the Bible among peoples who revere other sacred texts as supreme authority?

9. How will you instruct the new believer in Christ regarding his relationship to his community and mosque?

10. How and when will you distinguish the intrinsic differences between God as he is revealed in the Bible and as he is written about in the Qur’an?

Some of these questions appear to assume that the foreign missionary should tell the MBB what to do.  E.g. #9 could have been worded better.  However, it is often unavoidable that we will be asked questions like this, and most of these questions hit at core issues we face everyday. 

What questions do you think need to be modified? Are there any other questions you think would be crucial or helpful for developing a biblical missiology among Muslims?