• Directories
    • Business Directory
    • Church Directory
    • Organization Directory
  • Advertise
  • Donate
  • Help
  • Log In
MENUMENU
  • Learning
        • Leader’s Edge
          • Author Interviews
          • Book Summaries
        • Book Reviews
          • Book Look
          • EMQ Book Reviews
        • Publications
          • Anthology
          • Evangelical Missions Quarterly (EMQ)
          • Missiographics
        • Podcasts
          • The Mission MattersNew
          • Missio Nexus
          • People First HR
          • Members Only Feed
        • Blogs
          • Global Issues Updates
          • Member Highlights
          • Mission Advisors
        • Topics
          • COVID-19 ResourcesNew
          • Diaspora Missions
          • Mobilization
          • Muslim Missions
          • Support Raising
        • Media Library
          • Conferences
          • Global Issue Updates
          • On Mission
          • Thought Leader Briefings
          • Webinars
          • Workshop
          • View All
  • Programs
    • Accreditation
    • Alliance for Benefits
    • Bible CertificateNew
    • Church Missions Coaching
    • Cohorts
    • Cybersecurity
    • ImproveNew
    • Mission Jobs
    • Publish
    • RightNow Media
    • The Mission App
    • Women’s Development
  • Events
          • Calendar
          • In-Person Events
          • Virtual Events
          • Event Recordings
          • Awards
        • Premier Events
          • Mission Leaders Conference
          • On Mission
        • Upcoming Events

          • Webinar: Innovating Theological Education: How BibleMesh can Prepare your Staff for Ministry
            Thu Feb 25 2021, 02:00pm EST
          • Association Leaders Gathering
            Tue Mar 2 2021, 08:30am EST
          • Innovation Labs - Session 1
            Tue Mar 2 2021, 10:00am EST
        • View All Events
  • Research
          • Missiographics
          • Mission Handbook
          • Research Reports
        • Popular Research
          • Compensation Reports
          • COVID-19 ResourcesNew
          • Field Attrition Report
          • View All Reports
        • Contribute
          • Current Research Projects
          • Submit Data for Mission Handbook
          • Volunteer
  • About Us
        • Who We Are
          • Our Contribution
          • Meet the Team
          • Board Members
          • History (1917–present)
        • Our Beliefs
          • Statement of Faith
          • Community Standards
        • Awards
        • Partner with Us
          • Advertise
          • Donate
          • Sponsorships
          • Volunteer
        • Help
          • Contact Us
          • Advertising Specs
          • Branding Guidelines
  • Join
        • Learn
        • Learn what you cannot learn anywhere else.

        • Meet
        • Meet people you otherwise won’t meet.

        • Engage
        • Engage in a community like none other.

          • Benefits
          • Benefits for Churches
          • Pricing

Sponsored Content

Upcoming Events

  • Webinar: Innovating Theological Education: How BibleMesh can Prepare your Staff for Ministry
    Thu Feb 25 2021, 02:00pm EST
  • Association Leaders Gathering
    Tue Mar 2 2021, 08:30am EST
  • Innovation Labs - Session 1
    Tue Mar 2 2021, 10:00am EST
  • Webinar: God's Heart for Oneness and Diversity
    Thu Mar 4 2021, 02:00pm EST
  • Women In Leadership - Special Events
    Fri Mar 5 2021

View all events »

Topics

author interview Canada CEO Church Church Missions Church Mission Team Church Planting Coaching Conference Proceedings COVID-19 Cross Cultural Skills Diaspora Evangelism Focus Future Globally Engaged Churches Islam Justin Long Leadership Management Missiology Missionaries Mission Finance and Administration MLC2019 MLC2020 Mobilization muslim Muslim Diaspora Networks Partnership Personal Productivity Podcast Presenter Research Security Short-Term Missions Spirituality support raising Training Trends Unengaged Unreached unreached people groups Weekly Roundup Women

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Where There Was No Church: Postcards from Followers of Jesus in the Muslim World

Posted on October 1, 2011 by October 1, 2011

by EJ Martin, ed.

Fruitful Practice Research and Learning Together Press, 204 pages, 2010, $12.50.

—Reviewed by Benjamin Lee Hegeman, SIM lecturer in the history of Christian-Muslim relations, Houghton College; SIM academic dean at the école biblique en langue baatonou, Benin, French West Africa.

The fascination of this 200-page work lies in its formatting: it is all about stories, or as the cover says, “postcards.” From storytelling (Part 1), to story explaining (Part II), to story discussions (Part III), editor EJ Martin has designed a workshop narrative text to tackle the hardest issues with which Muslim seekers and converts might wrestle. A more accurate title, though, might be Where There Is No Accessible, Acceptable Church in that most of these “name changed, place changed” stories strongly suggest the Middle East, where historic Christianity has never been entirely eradicated. Yet herein lies the rub: the sixty-eight recommended “fruitful practices” for reaching Muslims are hard to find in these ancient churches.

For this reason, emerging Western-trained missionaries are the intended readers and the book is clearly designed to train them in discussing the practices via the lens of seven stories. These practices are the fruit of a conference held in Thailand 2008 and written under the auspices of the venerable Dudley Woodberry.

This workshop and conference-friendly small textbook should enjoy wide circulation in Ministry-to-Muslims ministry training circles, especially among those who wish to advocate insider movement strategies. In advocating this provocative approach, a rich workshop debate should be engendered, both to the unique value as to the deep concern of being Jesus-Muslims for life.

One such debate should be whether non-believing Muslim-seekers can already be called disciples of the Lord Jesus (see believer principles 1-2). The best case for this is Judas, which is the problem. What do we actually produce if we disciple unconverted followers of Jesus if not the same legalism we regret in our evangelical history? The alarmingly high attrition rate among Muslim converts makes this a critical question of discussion. A second debate is how much authenticity to give to the Qur’anic non-deity, non-crucified, non-Son of God Isa as a viable bridge toward the resurrected Lord Jesus.

The stories are written with humility in that “followers of Jesus in these pages don’t have everything worked out.” However, it does assume that the authors have discovered the practices from observable, documented cases. Herein lies the book’s greatest weakness: while there are eight categories of discovery themes (society, believers, God, teams, seekers, leaders, methods, and characteristics), there is no category relating to scripture. This approach assumes that it is biblical and therefore relies unapologetically on social-scientific inductive methods of “discovering what God is currently using to grow his kingdom among Muslims in order to better partner with him” (p. 145). So doing, it lies open to the criticism that the center of authority is moving away from scripture (assumed) to field experience (new discoveries the Holy Spirit is doing!).

This foundational oversight will require workshop leaders to both correct this lack and add further principles during training sessions, all of which we trust will lead to an amplified second edition.

….

EMQ, Vol. 47, No. 4, pp. 507-508. Copyright  © 2011 Evangelism and Missions Information Service (EMIS).  All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from EMIS.

 

GoToOlder PostNewer PostAll PostsBook ReviewsEMQSectionVolume 47 - Issue 4

Comments are closed.

Subscribe to Our Mailing List

Keep up to date with our community.

Menu

  • Join
  • Directories
  • Events
  • Donate

About

  • Who We Are
  • Statement of Faith
  • Awards
  • Resources

Help

  • Contact Us
  • Terms
  • Cookies Policy

Connect

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Google+

PO Box 398
Wheaton, IL 60187-0398

Phone: 770.457.6677
678.392.4577

© Missio Nexus.
All Rights Reserved.

Membership website powered by MembershipWorks