Longing for Community

Description

Understanding the strength and unity of the ummah— the worldwide Muslim community—and its role in an individual’s identity is essential in comprehending the struggles that Muslims undergo as they turn to faith in Jesus Christ. It has been a place of security, acceptance, protection, and identity; turning away from it entails great sacrifice. Where, then, will Muslims who choose to follow Jesus find their longing for community fulfilled: ummah, church, or somewhere in between?

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Philosophie et théologie
• Growth
• Christian Church

Informations

• Publié par: William Carey Publishing
• Date de parution: 25 avril 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781645080824
• Langue: English

Extrait

An excellent presentation of how to achieve a proper balance between sociological and spiritual realities within the challenge of outreach to Muslims. The concept of Ummah (community) is explored and suggestions made on how to integrate believers into a new grouping that preserves biblical integrity while not denouncing Muslim culture and life. A valuable resource for practitioners on the front lines.
Phil Parshall
SIM, Missionary at Large
In the present day, sharing the Gospel to Muslims (or to anyone else) is different than the mission compound methodologies. I highly recommend this book to be read by readers who are striving to share Christ to anyone, especially to Muslims. It is also a thoughtful reading for general Christ followers (Christians) who are interested in understanding the issues in a mission field context. This book will encourage all of us to pray for those who are involved every day in helping people to understand the Injil .
K. Rajendran
World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission; Global Roundtable
The chapters of this book introduce us to a new way of bridging the gap that many make us believe exists between civilizations. We will discover through these pages some explanations to the difficulties a Muslim faces in accepting a new identity and how sometimes in spite of our human efforts in discipling the new converts, God surprises us in dealing with the Muslim person through keeping their cultural Muslim identity while at the same time being faithful to Jesus in the inner ego. I found the book very thought provoking in the very issues that many missionaries are facing in the field. Our cultural ways as Latinos or Westerners are sometimes obtrusive of how God sometimes deals in His way with them. We need to be open to the manifold wisdom of God manifested in the East. To miracles, dreams, visions, and allowing the Holy Spirit to apply the revelation of the Scriptures in different homiletical categories that we have learned in Systematic Theology.
Pablo Carrillo
Founder, PM Internacional

Longing for Community: Church, Ummah, or Somewhere in Between?
Copyright 2013 by David Greenlee
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise-without prior written permission of the publisher, except in brief quotes used in connection with reviews in magazines or newspapers.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV, Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
Scripture quotations indicated ESV are taken from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
Scripture quotations indicated NAB are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotations indicated NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible , Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations indicated NET are taken from the NET Bible copyright 1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. www.bible.org , all rights reserved. This material is available in its entirety as a free download or online web use at www.netbible.org .
Scripture quotations indicated NIrV are taken from the New International Reader s Version, copyright 1996 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Thomas John Carlisle, Proving the Pertinence, 1984. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.
Published by William Carey Library
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Pasadena, CA 91104 | www.missionbooks.org
Kelley K. Wolfe, editor
Brad Koenig, copyeditor
Hugh Pindur, graphic designer
Rose Lee-Norman, indexer
William Carey Library is a ministry of the
U.S. Center for World Mission
Pasadena, CA | www.uscwm.org
Printed in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Longing for community : church, ummah , or somewhere in between? / edited by David Greenlee.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-87808-533-0
1. Missions to Muslims. 2. Christian converts from Islam. I. Greenlee, David, 1957- editor of compilation.
BV2625.L66 2013
266.0088 29-dc23
2012044576
CONTENTS
Contributors
Introduction: Transformed in Christ
David Greenlee
Section 1: Understanding the Complexity of Conversion
1 Fuzzy Thinking and the Conversion Process
David Radford
2 Relationships, Emotion, Doctrine, Intellect-and All That Follows
Kathryn Kraft
3 Refusing to Choose: Multiple Belonging among Arab Followers of Christ
Jens Barnett
4 Living a Pun: Cultural Hybridity among Arab Followers of Christ
Jens Barnett
5 Conversion in the Light of Identity Theories
Tim Green
6 Identity Choices at the Border Zone
Tim Green
Section 2: Culture, Community, and Coming to Faith in Christ
7 The Ummah and Christian Community
Sufyan Baig
8 Patronage, Salvation, and Being Joined with Jesus: Socio-anthropological Insights from South Asia
Colin Edwards
9 Us or Me ? Modernization and Social Networks among China s Urban Hui
Enoch J. Kim
10 Knowing but Not Confessing: Attitudes of Youth in Baku Who Have Heard the Good News
Russell Eleazar
11 Sharing the Truth with Courtesy and Respect for All Cultures
Rick Brown
12 Getting to the Source of Guilt, Fear, and Shame: Innocence, Security, and Honor in the Muslim Context
L. R. Burke
13 Areas of Change in the Conversion Processes of East African Muslims
Reinhold Straehler
Section 3: Lessons to Foster Fruit and Growth
14 Fruitfulness from the Perspective of the Fruit and the Farmer
J. Dudley Woodberry
15 Mission: Imitation of Christ
Jean-Marie Gaudeul
16 Nestorians, Conversion, and Mission on the Early Silk Road
Jihan Paik
17 The Anotoc Story, Continued: Group Dynamics within an Insider Movement
John Kim
18 The Disconnect in the Discipleship of South Asian Women: Socio-cultural and Religious Barriers among Muslim Background Believers
Karen Scott
19 Women s Gatherings and Leadership
Mary Davidson
20 Liturgy to Focus Mind and Heart: Fostering Spiritual Growth among Muslim Seekers
Ruth Nicholls
21 Against Winds and Waves: The Countercultural Movement of a Turk and the Turkish Protestant Church
James Bultema
22 Concluding Reflections
David Smith
Endnotes
Index
CONTRIBUTORS
Sufyan Baig , an Indian Muslim background believer in Jesus Christ, has been working among Muslim peoples for fifteen years. He is integrated into the mainstream culture through an appealing, secular role in the community. He has a BD in Theology and an MSc in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies.
Jens Barnett has lived for eighteen years with his family in the Middle East. For much of this time he has been involved in the discipleship and training of believers coming from a Muslim religio-cultural background. He holds a master s degree in Global Issues in Contemporary Mission from Redcliffe College, UK.
Rick Brown , PhD, is a Bible scholar and missiologist. He has been involved in outreach in Africa and Asia since 1977.
James Bultema has lived in Turkey since 1990, serving and seeking to grow the church in that land. He and his wife Renata have led the way in establishing in Antalya the St. Paul Union Church, the St. Paul Cultural Center, and a youth camp called Olive Grove. He is also writing his PhD dissertation on the Turkish Protestant Church and intends to submit it to the Religious Studies Department at Leiden University in 2013.
L. R. Burke has worked in sub-Saharan Africa since 1992. The focus of his work is Bible translation, Bible storying, and training local evangelists. Since 2007 he has collaborated with the Fruitful Practice Research team in researching the ways in which language and cultural issues affect fruitfulness in Muslim ministry.
Mary Davidson worked with her husband in the Middle East for over two decades. She is now involved in teaching and training people in understanding other cultures and faiths, and continues to visit the Middle East. She has a PhD in Education, and is writing another dissertation on Muslim women.
Colin Edwards has worked in South Asia for more than twelve years looking at the growing church there. His PhD research considers the concepts of honor, shame, and patronage and how they impact the beliefs and outworkings of faith in these groups.
Russell Eleazar was born and raised in a Muslim family in the Soviet Union. He came to faith in Jesus in the mid-1990s and later served with OM for about ten years. He received his MA degree from a seminary in North America.
Jean-Marie Gaudeul is a Roman Catholic priest and member of the Missionary Society of the White Fathers. Ordained in 1963, he worked several years in Tanzania as a parish priest. The author of several books on the history of Christian-Muslim relations, he holds a PhD in Arabic and Islamic studies from the Pontifical Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) in Rome where he also taught from 1975 to 1984. From 2000 to 2006 he was in charge of the French Bishops Secretariat for relations with Islam (SRI) and for the past ten years was a member of the Vatican commission for Christian-Muslim dialogue. At the present, he produces, in French, Se Comprendre , a bulletin for Christian-Muslim understanding.
Tim Green has enjoyed friendships with believers from Muslim background for thirty years. He has worked in theological education by extension in Pakistan 1988-2003, in Jordan 2003-2005, and