By Leonard N. Bartlotti
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The Journal of the International Society for Frontier Missiology Int’l Journal of Frontier Missiology Understanding Movements 135 From the Editor’s Desk Brad Gill The Long Shadow of Alan Tippett 137 Articles 137 Seeing Inside Insider Missiology: Exploring our Theological Lenses and Presuppositions Leonard N. Bartlotti Do you see what I see? 155 Sixteen Features of Belief and Practice in Two Movements among Muslims in Eastern Africa: What Does the Data Say? Ben Naja An intriguing new picture is emerging. 161 Roles of “Alongsiders” in Insider Movements: Contemporary Examples and Biblical Reflections John and Anna Travis Help from without can take many forms. 171 Contemporary Departures from Traditional Christianity in Cross-Cultural Situations: A Melanesian Ethnohistorical Case Study Alan R. Tippett What can we learn from earlier research on movements? 182 Book Reviews 182 A Wind in the House of Islam: How God is Drawing Muslims around the World to Faith in Jesus Christ 183 No Continuing City: The Story of a Missiologist from Colonial to Postcolonial Times 186 In Others’ Words 186 The Art of Mission Indigenous Art Forms and the Gospel Cultural Encounters between Christianity and Korean Religions One in Six Now an Urban Slum Dweller Singles and Missions The Gender Gap in Missions 30:4October–December 2013 UPCOMING 2014 EMS Regional Meetings FOCUS Diaspora Missiology Rocky Mountain April 11 North Central World Venture April 5 Littleton, CO Trinity Evangelical Northeast Northwest Deerfield,IL March 22 April 5 FBC WorldView Flushing, NY Portland, OR Southwest May 3 Biola Southeast La Mirada, CA March 29 CIU Columbia, SC South Central March 7-8 SWBTS Fort Worth, TX (The Canada Region meeting was held January 23-24 in Vancouver) EMS NATIONAL CONFERENCE – JOINTLY WITH MISSIONEXUS Mission Leaders Conference FOCUSING ON: Immigration & migration, urbanization, exploitation & globalization Info for registration will be available in March at: September 25-27, 2014 www.emsweb.org/meetings Hilton Atlanta Downtown www.missionexus.org/mission-leaders-conference Evangelical Missiological www.emsweb.org Society The Long Shadow of Alan Tippett October-December 2013 Volume 30:4 he IJFM welcomes two timely publications as an extensive backdrop Editor to this issue’s focus on how we understand movements to Christ. The Brad Gill first is David Garrison’s A Wind in the House of Islam (see ad p. 181 and Editor-at-Large Bradford Greer’s review pp. 182-83). This book is the culmination of three years Rory Clark T Consulting Editors of research on sixty-nine such movements that have emerged across the Muslim Rick Brown, Gavriel Gefen, Herbert Hoefer, world since the year 2000—the broadest research effort of its kind to date. Rebecca Lewis, H. L. Richard, Steve Saint Garrison’s careful phenomenological approach cuts through the more recent Layout anecdotal hearsay and reflex judgment regarding movements and offers solid Marjorie Clark evidence that God is drawing Muslims to himself to an unprecedented degree. Secretary Lois Carey The second book, Fullness of Time, is the most recent in a series of previously 1 Publisher unpublished works by Alan Tippett (see ad p. 170). When it comes to under- Bradley Gill, representing the student-level standing movements to Christ, few were as perceptive as this eminent mission meeting at Edinburgh 1980. anthropologist. This book is a collection of his essays on ethnohistory, a disci- 2013 ISFM Executive Committee pline thought to be Tippett’s most innovative contribution to missiology. We’ve Greg Parsons, Brad Gill, Rory Clark, Darrell Dorr gotten permission to include one of the essays that captures Tippett’s perspective on different types of movements in Oceania (see pp. 171-80). And don’t miss Web Site Glenn Schwartz’s review of Tippett’s autobiography, No Continuing City, a 580- www.ijfm.org page “inside look” into the life of this rather private Australian (p. 183-85). Editorial Correspondence It’s too easy to forget the missiological rigor of someone like Tippett. Now, just 1605 E. Elizabeth Street twenty-five years since his passing, the rapid-fire publication of his unpublished works Pasadena, CA 91104 is simply astounding. The conviction of this journal is that any understanding of (734) 765-0368, [email protected] movements would benefit from comparing his field experience in Oceania with that Subscriptions of a Garrison (or anyone else) in the Islamic world. You would expect the contextual One year (four issues) $18.00 dynamics to be radically different, but when it comes to movements, both are studying Two years (eight issues) $34.00 “actual dynamic processes at work,” and both are alert to how God “can speak to men Three years (twelve issues) $48.00 Single copies $4.00, multiple copies $3.00 through social mechanisms.”2 Sure, one setting is the post-WWII colonial resistance Payment must be enclosed with orders. of Melanesia and the other the global resurgence of a post-9/11 world, but notice that both represent periods subsequent to historical watersheds. As Tippett notes, most Please supply us with current address and change of address when necessary. “movements are the result of stress situations which arise when two very different cul- Send all subscription correspondence to: 3 tures clash or come into acculturative contact.” The intersection of Tippett’s Oceania IJFM and Garrison’s Muslim world should be a fertile field for comparisons. 1605 E. Elizabeth Street Pasadena, CA 91104 All that said, there is growing attention to the study of movements among Muslims Tel: (330) 626-3361 today. The research is growing, and for this we can be glad. The missiological forum Fax: (626) 398-2263 Email: [email protected] on Muslim contextualization known as Bridging the Divide (BtD) has spent the past four years wrestling with different (often controversial) perspectives on IJFM (ISSN #2161-3354) was established in 1984 by the International Student Editorial continued on p. 136 Leaders Coalition for Frontier Missions. It is published quarterly. The views expressed in IJFM are those of the various authors and not necessarily those COPYRIGHT ©2013 International Student of the journal’s editors, the International Society for Frontier Missiology or the society’s Leaders Coalition for Frontier Missions. executive committee. PRINTED in the USA 136 From the Editor’s Desk, Who We Are insider movements in the Muslim Secondly, more and more we’re study- some of the same sensitivity that Travis world, and it’s in that forum that each ing actual research from the field. fleshes out in his description of the of the authors in this issue, as well as Nothing impacts or disturbs presup- “Alongsider” (pp. 161-69). I think the Garrison’s research, has had a consider- positions quite like a case study that barefoot, island-hopping Alan Tippett able impact. It’s apparent that two vital holds surprising data. It can bend would second any motion to instill developments are pushing the discus- one’s preconceived image of real- the cross-cultural habits Travis has sion of movements forward. ity and force one beyond caricatures. outlined. Understanding movements Admittedly Garrison’s research is demands it. First, we’re willing to discuss our mis- broad and encompassing, but more siological predispositions when it comes to This year’s ISFM in Atlanta focused research on actual movements (September 23-25) will offer this movements. It’s quite apparent that our in particular contexts is finally begin- generation another look at world evan- perception of those Jesus movements ning to be published. A good example gelization with the theme “Recasting emerging in other religious terrain is the second installment of Ben Evangelization: The Significance of is often colored by the unexposed Naja’s empirical research on two Jesus Lausanne ‘74 for Today and Beyond” assumptions each of us brings to the Movements in Muslim communities (see ad on the back cover or on p. 169). table. Len Bartlotti recognized his in Eastern Africa—offered initially at Hope to see you there. own presuppositions and broke them the BtD and now published here in down into nine categories, which he this issue (pp. 155-60). In Him, then offered to the BtD forum The long shadow of Alan Tippett (pp. 137-53). He clarified the different should convince us we have a way to “thought styles” and “group think” that go. It should encourage us to continue Brad Gill can so easily captivate us. I witnessed our pursuit of thorough field-level Senior Editor, IJFM the paralysis of misunderstanding at research. We can’t afford to fall into the that meeting melt into significant oversimplification that Tippett so often Endnotes dialogue. His contribution forces each 1 decried, what he amusingly called “car- The Missiology of Alan R. Tippett of us beyond a posture of evaluation, toons,” “exaggerating one feature at the Series, available at http://missionbooks.org/ beyond that immediate impulse to search/results/search&keywords=tippett/ expense of the others to the distortion 2 4 Alan Tippett, People Movements in validate (or invalidate) movements, of the general effect.” This is no easy Southern Polynesia, Moody Press: Chicago, to a personal examination of those mandate to fulfill, for we no longer live 1971, p. 6 3 models of church, culture, or theology in Tippett’s post-colonial world, and Ibid., p. 5 4 that drive our judgment. the role of the field researcher requires Ibid., p. 226 The IJFM is published in the name of the International Student Leaders Coalition for Frontier Missions,