Discipling All Muslim Peoples in the Twenty-First Century

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10Discipling All Muslim Peoplesfound in Yemen. According to Woodberry,there are 1,000 discrepanciesbetween these manuscripts and thepresent Quran. He also notes that 19verses in the ancient manuscripts arenot in the present Quran (1999b).This historically verifiable evidence willmake little difference with the majorityof the world's Muslims. However, itdoes open a door to some and shouldbe capitalized on. The rise of globalizationand urbanization should makeapologetics more fruitful among thegrowing Muslim intelligentsia.7. New Paradigms of Training: New realitiesdemand new paradigms. The wellestablishedBible school or theologicalseminary has not historically equippedworkers for the Muslim world. Forexample, in most countries, the missionarymust be bi-vocational, that is, atentmaker. In addition, many missionarieshave emotional struggles withtheir vocation on the field (e.g., as abusiness person or English teacher).They see it as a "cover" and thus a perceivedlack of integrity in their relationshipswith Muslims.These failures of traditional training canbe remedied with a new holisticapproach to training. We need todevelop training centers or institutions(since degrees are important!) that integratevocational skills with theologicaland missiological training. A bivocationalapproach to training bivocationalmissionaries is needed.Biola University is on the cutting edgein this area. They presently offer both aTESOL degree and a business degreethat include cross-cultural training.8. Maximizing Crisis Opportunities: Thewars in Afghanistan, the Gulf, andKosovo, along with the earthquake inTurkey are sadly "previews of comingattractions." 19 The crisis in Kosovo andthe quake in Turkey have affordedFrontiers with significant opportunitiesfor the gospel. While we were not adequately prepared for this, our mission didrespond vigorously in each case.Mission agencies and churches should be prepared for these coming crises so we canmaximize potential impact. I think it would be wise to prepare ourselves with rapiddeployment teams trained specifically for crisis situations.9. The Local Church as a New Missions Force: More and more local churches want tobe "in on the action." Rather than sending money and missionaries through missionagencies, they want to participate. "Taste and see that the Great Commission isgood" would be an appropriate battle cry for many local churches today. At first Ithought this was just a Western phenomena, having seen it in the United States andin Europe. However, after a recent trip to Costa Rica, I am convinced that it appliesto the church around the world.10. A Closure Strategy: There has been much talk about closure strategy at theUSCWM and in the AD 2000 movement. They have rightly reminded us that it isnot enough to carry out the Great Commission. We must fulfill the Great Commission.One of my burdens in the next decade is to develop a measurable closure strategyamong all Muslim people in partnership with other mission agencies andchurches. Through better collaboration and coordination we can see reproducingchurches planted among every Muslim people group.ConclusionThe Fourth Era of Missions? 20 Ralph Winter has popularized the concept of the "ThreeEras of the Modern Missions Movement" (Winter and Hawthorne 1999:253-261).The First Era was initiated by William Carey (1792-1910). Denominational agencies,European dominance and a focus on the coastlands characterize this first era.The Second Era was initiated by Hudson Taylor (1865-1980). Faith Missions,American Dominance and inland areas characterize this second era. The Third Erawas started by Cameron Townsend and Donald McGavran (1934-90). SpecializedMissions, Non-Western Dominance and people groups characterize this era.Could we be on the verge of the Fourth Era? I believe there is evidence to suggest weneed to think in these terms. I believe Winter's paradigm should be adapted to fit thenew realities of the twenty-first century. Here is one way of looking at what God isdoing:Whether this is the Third or Fourth Era is not that important. What is important is thatwe set our face like a flint towards the Muslim world. Because the love of Christcontrols us, we must walk through the wide-open door whatever the cost. Becausepower is perfected in weakness, we can overcome every adversary -- through Himwho said, "Lo, I am with you even to the end of the age."We need to develop training centers or institutions(since degrees are important!) that integratevocational skills with theological and missiologicaltraining.International Journal of Frontier Missions
EndnotesRick Love1. Paul refers here to his ministry at Ephesus (1 Cor 16:8), the site of his longest missionarytenure and the climax of his missionary career (Acts 19-20). Paul labored inEphesus for three years—evangelizing, teaching, healing the sick, casting outdemons, raising up leaders and sending out church planters (or church plantingteams) to the surrounding region. Ephesus was where Paul was most fruitful and theLord’s power most fully manifested through him. Ephesus was indeed a wide opendoor.However, Paul also faced “many adversaries.” Ephesus was the Mecca of magic in theancient world centered in the religion of Artemis. The famous spiritual warfare passageof Ephesians 6:10-20 grows out of his first hand encounter with the powers andprincipalities at Ephesus. Paul encountered political opposition as well. For thereligion of Artemis wielded enormous political influence. Much like present daymissionaries to the Muslim world, Paul faced the twin adversaries of demonic andreligio-political opposition.2. It may be more accurate to say the last 35 years. This would include the great harvestin Java Indonesia where more than two million Javanese were baptized from 1965-71 (after the failed communist coup) (Willis 1977). However, a ground-swell ofinterest among Evangelicals in intentional missions to Muslims began around 1975(Livingstone 1999).3. This bold declaration is based on the following considerations. 1) There has been asignificant increase of missionaries to Muslims since 1975 that is easily verifiable.2) Estimates of baptized believers within this same time frame show a notableincrease in numbers, especially when we include the entire Muslim world – fromNorth Africa to Southeast Asia. 3) When compared with past missionary efforts thispresent work of God seems easy to substantiate.4. Livingstone’s estimate includes missions such as Frontiers, Pioneers, Assemblies ofGod, Southern Baptists, Navigators, AWM, SIM, PMI, YWAM, WEC, and IMI.5. A newspaper article in Enquete [an Algerian Newspaper] writes freely about Algeriansbecoming Christians! These are conservative statistics from an interview with aformer missionary there.6. These statistics are from Livingstone 1999 and Matamoros 1999. Allan Matamoros isthe current Director of Fedemec, a Latin American Sending Base in Costa Rica. Themissionaries counted refer to those who are doing intentional, long term disciplemaking among Muslims.7. As a mobilizer myself I’ve made my share of overstatements.8. An excellent introduction to contextualization among Muslims can be found in thefollowing articles: “Contextualization Among Muslims: Reusing Common Pillars”by J. Dudley Woodberry in the International Journal of Frontier Missions Vol 13:4Oct.-Dec. 1996 Pp. 171-186 (originally chapter 14 in The Word Among Us 1989,edited by Dean Gilliland); “Critical Contextualization” in Anthropological Insightsfor Missionaries by Paul G. Hiebert 1985, Pp. 171-192; “Danger! New Directions inContextualization” by Phil Parshall, along with responses by John Travis and DeanGilliland in the Evangelical Missions Quarterly, Oct 1998 Pp. 404-417. The followingbooks represent some of the best work on the topic: Eternal Word and ChangingWorlds: Theology, Anthropology, and Mission in Trialogue by Harvie Conn 1984;The Word Among Us: Contextualizing Theology for Mission Today edited by DeanGilliland 1989. Contextualization: Meanings, Methods, and Models by David Hesselgraveand Edward Rommen 1989; Anthropological Insights for Missionaries byPaul Hiebert 1985; Christianity in Culture: A Study in Dynamic Biblical Theologizingin Cross-Cultural Perspective by Charles Kraft 1979; and especially “MuslimContextualization” a Feature Edition of the International Journal of Frontier Missions,Vol. 17:1, 2000.10. This prayer movement is a vital powerful force for world evangelization. However,it also has its share of excesses. Pray-ers sometimes make grandiose claims whichfind no precedence in Scripture and show no or little verifiable fruit. Declarationslike “We have defeated the powers of darkness in this region” (though missionarieshave been present in the region for years) make good prayer letter topics for theshort term missionary warrior. However,when Jesus describes a similarphenomena in Scripture it was becausethe disciples were preaching the gospel,healing the sick and casting outdemons – not prayer walking (Luke10:1-20).11. See my recently published book: Muslims,Magic and the Kingdom of God:Church Planting Among Folk MuslimsWilliam Carey Library, 2000, for acomprehensive look at some of theseissues.12. The growing number of books writtenabout spiritual warfare in the last decadegive ample evidence of this truth.For an introduction to the main themesand perspectives propounded see especially,The Bondage Breaker by NeilAnderson 1990; 3 Crucial Questionsabout Spiritual Warfare by ClintonArnold 1997’ The Handbook for SpiritualWarfare by Ed Murphy 1992;Defeating Dark Angels: BreakingDemonic Oppression in the Believer'sLife by Charles Kraft 1992; Wrestlingwith Dark Angels: Toward a DeeperUnderstanding of the SupernaturalForces in Spiritual Warfare by C.Peter Wagner 1990; Spiritual Warfareby Timothy Warner 1991.13. The whole edition of Urban MissionVol 15, Number 3 March 1998 is dedicatedto Muslims and urbanization.14. According to Woodberry, “Globalizationhas been fostered by mass-media,rapid communications and travel,international business, migration,urbanization, and the collapse of thebi-polar world with the fall of SovietCommunism (1999a).15. According to Livingstone, this numbermay be inflated, because some ofthese ‘so called’ martyrs have actuallydied at the hand of other (nominal)“Christian” tribes, not for the sake oftheir testimony.16. The term “tentmaking” has become amodern technical missiological term inthe last two decades. Just as Paul madetents to support himself during hisministry, so too do modern missionaries“make tents” to support themselveswhile ministering—usually doing business,education or relief and development.Usually a person’s tentmakingprofession becomes the vehicle toenter and remain in their appointedcountry.11Vol. 17:4, Winter 2000
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