DOCSLIB.ORG

Church Planting Movements Vs Insider Movements

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Church Planting Movements Vs Insider Movements Proceedings of the ISFM 2004 Meeting: Insider Movements Church Planting Movements vs. Insider Movements Missiological Realities vs. Mythiological Speculations by David Garrison The Quest for Anonymous Christianity ver since the 17th century Jesuit Roberto de Nobili made his famous contextualizing breakthrough with Brahmins in India, E missiologists have been captivated by an elusive quest for that contextualizing philosopher’s stone that will magically transform a pagan people group into a Christian one. The quest reached its zenith with the 20th century Roman Catholic theologian, Karl Rahner, who postulated the existence of “anonymous Christians” scattered within each of the world’s non-Christian religions.1 Protestant theologian Karl Barth echoed back with a neo-Orthodox basis for a similar conjecture when his Dogmatics concluded that the unlimited atonement of Christ extended to all who were saved whether they were aware For five years David Garrison served of it or not. as the Southern Baptist International Mission Board’s Vice President for Even the evangelical hero C. S. Lewis got into the act of finding believ- Global Strategy assisting the IMB’s ers where none were thought to exist. In the final volume of his Chronicles 5000 missionaries ministering in 150 countries. His quest to understand of Narnia, Lewis opened the door to anonymous Christianity when he and join God’s global mission has described the eschatological meeting of a soldier named Emeth who had taken him to more than 80 countries. vigorously opposed Aslan in the name of his god Tash all the days of his He has lived in Hong Kong, Japan, Germany, France, England, Egypt, life. Upon entering the eschaton, Emeth finds himself face to face with his Tunisia and India. old nemesis Aslan who now stands as Judge and Lord of all. Rather than In 1988, Garrison earned a Ph.D. in condemning Emeth for his past opposition, Aslan embraces him pronounc- historical theology from the University ing a startling absolution. “Child,” Aslan says, “all the service thou has done of Chicago. He has taught missions to Tash, I account as service done to me.”2 and Christian studies at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, Fuller Theological This leaves one to ask if Lewis would some day see Osama bin Laden Seminary, and Hong Kong Baptist standing before Christ and hearing the words, “Osama, my child, all the University. His latest book is entitled Church Planting Movements: How service thou has done on behalf of Islam, I account as service done for me.” God is Redeeming a Lost World (Midlothian: WIGTake Resources, Given this checkered history of attempts to project a Christian face onto 2004). His previous books include The the world’s lost billions, the quest for truly indigenous Insider Movements Nonresidential Missionary (MARC, should be viewed with caution. We are defining Insider Movements here as 1990), Something New Under the Sun (IMB, 1998), and the booklet Church popular movements to Christ that bypass both formal and explicit expres- Planting Movements (IMB, 2000). sions of the Christian religion. The peril to avoid is allowing the search for International Journal of Frontier Missions 21:4 Winter 2004•151 152 Church Planting Movements vs Insider Movements David Garrison 153 Insider Movements to deteriorate Africa, the civil war of the 1980s and One example illustrates some of into yet another attempt to co-opt 90s saw the evacuation or martyr- what was occurring in this Azeri the lost into the ranks of anonymous dom of most of Algeria’s Catholic indigenous movement.4 A new Christianity. and Protestant missionaries. Despite convert to Jesus, an Azeri named this exodus, the past twenty years Shamir (not his real name) started Apart from their place as a staple in have seen an unprecedented number a small fellowship in the Azeri lan- missiology textbooks, these Insider of Algeria’s Kabyle Berbers come to guage meeting each week in a local Movements have proven as difficult faith in Christ. Radio broadcasts, Baptist church after the Russian lan- to find as Osama bin Laden. One Jesus Film distribution, and indig- guage service was concluded. By the routinely hears hints and rumors, enous missionaries shuttling between year 2000, Pastor Shamir’s flock had usually something about members of France and Algeria have produced a grown to 300 adults packed into an the Saudi royal family being secret harvest estimated at between 15,000 aging facility designed for half that believers. Upon closer examination, and 20,000. number. In an interview, Shamir however, these rumors dissolve into admitted that he had personally the same wishful dreams that have In the face of this great turning to baptized 500-600 Azeri adults over beguiled Christians since the medi- Christ, one is struck immediately the past three years. Shamir was at eval quest for Prester John. by how few actual churches have been formed. Reports from workers a loss to explain where these believ- And then came Herbert Hoefer. in the country blame many causes ers might now be found. The church including the high cost of land, structure was simply unable to con- A Case in Point tain all that God was doing. In the early 1990s, American In both Algeria and Azerbaijan, Lutheran missionary Herbert Hoefer there were thousands of unchurched published a ground-breaking report Upon closer believers, with insider momentum on churchless Christianity in the and little visible expression in terms South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.3 examination . these of church buildings. Were these, too, Hoefer made the surprising dis- Insider Movements? Let’s turn back covery that up to half of the Tamil rumors dissolve into the same to Tamil Nadu. Is it unusual? Is it Christians in this state had never wishful dreams that have typical? Is it an Insider Movement? been in a church and had no inten- tion of associating themselves with a beguiled Christians since the Back to Tamil Nadu church. Theirs was an autonomous, We should first note that the Tamil independent, somewhat atomized medieval quest for movement may reveal something movement of millions of individuals Prester John. peculiar to religion in the Indian who pledged exclusive faith in Jesus subcontinent. An Indian Christian Christ without any formal denomi- leader with years of experience relat- national association. It was, in fact, high unemployment, civil war, and ing Indian and Western Christianity an Insider Movement. fear of persecution. Whatever the has pointed out that “unlike the reason, the result has been a variety While Hoefer’s study may or may West where religion is highly struc- of churchless Christianity. So, is this not be the tip of the iceberg of tured and society is very unstruc- an Insider Movement? countless Insider Movements around tured, India is quite the opposite.” the world, it does present us with We find another case to consider in While Indian society is tightly a legitimate, quantifiable phenom- the post-Communist Republic of ordered with myriad endogamous enon. However, before we dive into Azerbaijan. During the decade of castes and communities, religion this important case study, let’s scan the 1990s Christianity began build- tends to spill over its banks like the the horizon for other examples of ing steady momentum as hundreds, Ganges in monsoon. Hindus flow “popular movements to Christ that and then thousands professed their easily from one festival to the next bypass both formal and explicit personal commitment to Jesus and feel no compulsion to exclu- expressions of the Christian reli- Christ. In a published Baku news- sive loyalties. In South India, even gion.” Surprisingly, one doesn’t have paper article, government officials popular Islam exhibits an unparal- to look far. expressed concern that 5,000 Azeris leled generosity of spirit as seen in the capital city had converted to in the annual Festival of St. Mary Other Cases of Christianity. By the year 2000, esti- which draws millions of Christians, Churchless Christianity mates ranged from 12,000 – 20,000 Hindus, and Muslims into the Two examples immediately come to Azeris had been baptized. With this streets for worshipful celebrations. remarkable turning, there should mind from within the Muslim world: Reducing Tamilian churchless have been hundreds of new churches the first in North Africa, the second Christianity to mere syncretism, started. Instead, there were only a in the Caucasus. After decades of though, is to miss a second more handful to be found. missionary work in French North significant point that demands our International Journal of Frontier Missions 21:4 Winter 2004 152 Church Planting Movements vs Insider Movements David Garrison 153 attention. According to Hoefer most of these Tamilian churchless nvestigations by Southern Baptist IMB Christians are not polytheistic at all. researchers in numerous fields reveal attrition Rather, they are exclusive devotees of Jesus Christ. What is most peculiar rates as high as 50-80%. about them is that they have come IWestern patterns of church. Let’s silent homage to their missionary to this allegiance outside the church briefly review each of these elements founders. Despite sweltering climate and continue to feel little attraction before shifting our attention to an of Tamil Nadu’s subtropical setting, for the thousands of churches that alternative in the form of Church building designs look remarkably they see around them every day. Planting Movements. like their European and American What are we to make of this rejec- As one inquires across South India counterparts. Congregants sit on tion of the local church? While it today, it is striking how few of the wooden pews and listen to a message may be true that this phenomenon region’s church buildings have been delivered from behind a wooden is unique to India’s religious nature, constructed with local resources.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • June 7, 2011 Dr. Roy Taylor Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church In
    June 7, 2011 Dr. Roy Taylor Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in America Office of the Stated Clerk Administrative Committee 1700 North Brown Road, Suite 105 Lawrenceville, GA 30043 Dear Dr. Taylor, Warm greetings in the precious name of Jesus Christ. I am an Iranian Christian and have been involved in ministry among Muslims for fifty years. I served for 18 years with the United Bible Societies, being heavily involved in Scripture distribution in Iran, the Middle East and North Africa. In 1990, by God’s grace, I founded Elam Ministries with a goal to strengthen and expand the church in the Iran region and beyond. One of the primary ways of outreach has been through Scripture translation, production and distribution. Elam has published nearly 1 million Scriptures in Persian during these 21 years. I understand that you are discussing the issue of the ‘Insider Movement’ (IM) at your event, and I am writing this letter to express my serious reservations regarding this subject, particularly with regard to the altering of words in Muslim friendly Bible translations. I have spoken with many Iranian church leaders and I have not found one that is sympathetic to the movement. In the following paragraphs I would like to outline some of our concerns. The Authority of the Word of God: • God’s Word cannot be changed. It is deeply shocking to Iranian Christians that some feel they have the liberty to change God’s Word in order to make the Gospel more palatable to Muslims. Our methods must never compromise the inspired Word that has been passed down to us.
    [Show full text]
  • A Collective Response to Understanding Insider Movements Eight Southern Baptist Missiologists
    The Five Pillars of the Insiders: A Collective Response to Understanding Insider Movements Eight Southern Baptist missiologists (six in the United States and two elsewhere) join forces here to respond briefly to a new volume on Insider Movements (IMs).1 It is an initiative most of us had no intention of taking as little as three months ago, but feel compelled to take now. Quite frankly, some of us were surprised when we received a copy of the book in September 2015. We had rejoiced to see the movement of God as the gospel crossed all kinds of anthropological barriers in our changing world. However, that was not the same as endorsing IMs—or all their promoters claim for them. In fact, we believed that cogent arguments of respected evangelical scholars, against disturbing elements of IMs, had relegated them to the periphery of evangelical missions efforts. Unfortunately, we were mistaken. Advocacy for IMs, as exemplified in the book at hand, is alive and well. It now appears that a major task lies before us. What we present here is simply a preliminary effort which we hope to supplement in months to come. It consists of an overview of the volume, five reflections of a biblical and theological nature, and two missiological insights. It is by no means the last word on the subject. However, as we offer this very limited response to some of the specifics in Understanding Insider Movements, we hope the reader will understand why we are concerned. Ant B. Greenham Ayman S. Ibrahim An Overview of Understanding Insider Movements—and its Five “Pillars”2 The long-awaited volume Understanding Insider Movements has finally been released.
    [Show full text]
  • A Humble Appeal to C5/Insider Movement Muslim Ministry
    The Jerusalem Council Applied A Humble Appeal to C5/Insider Movement Muslim Ministry Advocates to Consider Ten Questions by Gary Corwin with responses from Brother Yusuf, Rick Brown, Kevin Higgins, Rebecca Lewis and John Travis Gary Corwin: Introductory Comments s a long-time participant in the ISFM, and a long-time reader of and occasional writer for the IJFM, I am exceedingly grateful to A God and to the leaders of both entities for the attention being given to Insider Movements. It is difficult to think of a subject more timely and important as God’s people move forward in the 21st century to make disciples among the least reached peoples of the earth. I have been praying for a number of years now that the kind of dialogue we are having here in Atlanta in these days would soon happen. While it was hap- pening to a limited degree in the pages of both EMQ and the IJFM, neither has been adequate to provide the kind of give and take that a face-to-face gath- ering with a broad representation of views can provide. I was also concerned that C5/IM (Insider Movement) advocates seemed to be traveling the world to talk to one another or to influence the uninitiated, but were not engaging as broadly as needed with their peers in the larger mission community. On a personal level, over the last several years I have serendipitously enjoyed several hours each with a couple of the leading advocates of C5/Insider Movements among Muslims. While helpful in deepening understanding of concerns both for and against, these meetings only increased my sense of need for a broader discussion that was both thoughtful and thorough.
    [Show full text]
  • 16-23 Insider Movements
    An Extended Conversation About “Insider Movements” Responses to the September-October 2005 Mission Frontiers Editor’s note: our September-October cover theme, “Can We Trust Insider Movements?”, prompted a lot of response, and in these pages we give you a sampler of the subsequent conversation. The September-October issue included an article by John and Anna Travis, who said, “As we have seen the resistance toward changing religions and the huge gap between the Muslim and Christian communities, we feel that fighting the religion-changing battle is the wrong battle. We have little hope in our lifetime to believe for a major enough cultural, political and religious change to occur in our context such that Muslims would become open to entering Christianity on a wide scale.” That comment, and others like it, prompted John Piper, Gary Corwin, and others to write responses. Listen in on the conversation. Minimizing the Bible?: Seeker-Driven Pastors and Radical Contextualization in Missions John Piper John Piper is the Pastor for Preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church (Minneapolis, Minnesota) and the author of more than 20 books, including Desiring God. This article is reprinted, by permission, from www.desiringgod.org. have been pondering a possible relationship your glory in your person and in your deeds. Please between the minimizing of the Bible in so- don’t let me turn away from the ministry that puts I called seeker-driven churches and in some of all the emphasis on the ‘gospel of the glory of Christ the radical forms of contextualization that have who is the image of God’” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
    [Show full text]
  • Inside Out: Probing Presuppositions Among Insider Movements
    On Religious Identity Inside Out Probing Presuppositions among Insider Movements by Dick Brogden Dick Brogden has ventured a response to Rebecca Lewis’ article on Insider Movements from aLewis: This statement implies IJFM 26:1 (available online at ijfm.org). He’s done us all a great service by allowing Lewis missiologists invented “insider movements” and to make a running commentary on his article so that this journal can help surface the assump- are promoting them as a new technique. In fact, these type of movements started to happen and we tions lurking beneath this continuing debate for or against the “insider” phenomenon. While are being forced to evaluate if they are biblically contention seems to surround the inappropriate validation of Islamic religion, finer nuances legitimate. When Paul and Peter stood before the Jerusalem council, they were reacting to events, and complexities emerge in this exchange. Rebecca Lewis then formulates a more comprehen- not introducing a new “creative missiological” sive biblical apologetic in the article that follows. This journal hopes this approach will encour- approach to the Gentiles. They were asking “If age genuine dialogue and reasoned exchange between what are increasingly divided camps. God is accepting these people by giving them the Holy Spirit, what should our response be?” We are forced by events to ask similar questions today. nsider movements are the current creative missiological rage.a According to I Rebecca Lewis, Insider movements can be defined as movements to obedient faith in Christ that bLewis: No communities are value neutral remain integrated with or inside their natural community.
    [Show full text]
  • Insider Movements: Honoring God-Given Identity and Community
    here has hardly been any translation work done in very small languages and . there is not not likely T to be much more. Additional Perspectives Insider Movements: Honoring God-Given Identity and Community by Rebecca Lewis All movements to Christ are amazing works of God! But not all movements are the same. How Is an “Insider Movement” Different from Other Movements to Christ? Three distinct types of movements to Christ among unreached peoples have been described in the last century: “insider movements,” “people movements,” and “church planting movements.” Insider movements can be defined as movements to obedient faith in Christ that remain integrated with or inside their natural community. In any insider movement there are two distinct elements: 1. The gospel takes root within pre-existing communities or social networks, which become the main expression of “church” in that context. Believers are not gathered from diverse social networks to create a “church.” New paral- lel social structures are not invented or introduced. 2. Believers retain their identity as members of their socio-religious community while living under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of the Bible.1 In contrast, people movements—identified by J. Waskom Pickett (1933), then analyzed by Donald McGavran (1950)—are mass movements in which whole communities decide as a group to leave their former religious affiliation in order to become Christians. People movements, like insider movements, keep the com- munity intact, but unlike insider movements, the community’s religious affilia- tion and identity are changed. Believers in the third type of movements, church planting movements (CPMs), as described by David Garrison, also “make a clean break with their former religion and redefine themselves with a distinctly Christian c identity.” 2 CPMs promote movements by simplifying church structure and empowering local leaders, but they do not require3 either of the two key elements of Rebecca Lewis has worked with her insider movements.
    [Show full text]
  • Conversion in the Pluralistic Religious Context of India: a Missiological Study
    Conversion in the pluralistic religious context of India: a Missiological study Rev Joel Thattupurakal Mathai BTh, BD, MTh 0000-0001-6197-8748 Thesis submitted for the degree Philosophiae Doctor in Missiology at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University in co-operation with Greenwich School of Theology Promoter: Dr TG Curtis Co-Promoter: Dr JJF Kruger April 2017 Abstract Conversion to Christianity has become a very controversial issue in the current religious and political debate in India. This is due to the foreign image of the church and to its past colonial nexus. In addition, the evangelistic effort of different church traditions based on particular view of conversion, which is the product of its different historical periods shaped by peculiar constellation of events and creeds and therefore not absolute- has become a stumbling block to the church‘s mission as one view of conversion is argued against the another view of conversion in an attempt to show what constitutes real conversion. This results in competitions, cultural obliteration and kaum (closed) mentality of the church. Therefore, the purpose of the dissertation is to show a common biblical understanding of conversion which could serve as a basis for the discourse on the nature of the Indian church and its place in society, as well as the renewal of church life in contemporary India by taking into consideration the missiological challenges (religious pluralism, contextualization, syncretism and cultural challenges) that the church in India is facing in the context of conversion. The dissertation arrives at a theological understanding of conversion in the Indian context and its discussion includes: the multiple religious belonging of Hindu Christians; the dual identity of Hindu Christians; the meaning of baptism and the issue of church membership in Indian context.
    [Show full text]
  • Complete Dissertation
    VU Research Portal Church Planting Practices among Muslim and Druze Communities in the Near East Porter, G.F. 2018 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Porter, G. F. (2018). Church Planting Practices among Muslim and Druze Communities in the Near East: A Conversation about Mission in the Light of the Early Church. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 04. Oct. 2021 VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT Church Planting Practices Among Muslim and Druze Communities in the Near East: A Conversation about Mission in the Light of the Early Church ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad Doctor of Philosophy aan de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, op gezag van de rector magnificus prof.dr. V. Subramaniam, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van de promotiecommissie van de Faculteit Religie en Theologie op maandag 5 november 2018 om 13.45 uur in de aula van de universiteit, De Boelelaan 1105 door Grant Francis Porter geboren te Adelaide, Australië promotoren: prof.dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Measuring Insider Movements? Shifting to a Qualitative Standard by Kevin Higgins
    Reassessing the Frontiers Measuring Insider Movements? Shifting to a Qualitative Standard by Kevin Higgins n the world of mission, the topic of movements is in vogue. Books about movements, training programs to equip people to produce movements, and organizations claiming to catalyze movements are a major growth Iindustry. We might even say we’re in the midst of a “movement-movement.” L. Waterman recently inquired into this development when he asked a very 1 appropriate question: do insider movements actually qualify as movements? His inquiry was framed by the descriptions of movements put forth by David 2 Garrison, David Watson and others, and focused on how we can know if the movement aspect of insider movements was true. This article is intended as part of the ongoing discussion of that question. Let me be clear: I am not addressing the insider aspect of such movements, but I’m asking instead just what sort of criteria we should use to evaluate the movement aspect. I begin with a quick overview of recent thinking about movements to provide some context. Then I want to narrow down the many crucial questions to the Kevin Higgins has served in the two that seem to me to be at the heart of all our measurements of movements. Muslim world in two countries of After examining those questions, I conclude with the criteria that I see used South Asia, helping to develop work in emerging movements to Jesus that in the New Testament, and apply this to my own assessment of insider move- now extend to more than a dozen ments, as movements.
    [Show full text]
  • IJFM 29 4-07-Richard Subba Rao.Indd
    ISFM 2012: Still an Exotic? Syncretism in a Hindu Insider Movement: K. Subba Rao’s Legacy by H. L. Richard Editor’s note: Th is article is the revised version of a case study presented at a special ISFM-sponsored track held during the 2012 North American Mission Leaders Conference (Missio Nexus) in Chicago, Illinois. urrent discussions and controversies related to insider movements are overwhelmingly related to issues in the Muslim world. But the dis- Ccussion of insider movements has been deeply impacted from Hindu contexts, where insider phenomena have deep roots. India has produced more notable insider individuals than insider movements, Brahmabandhab Upadhyay (1861-1907) and Kandaswami Chetti (1867-1943) being two early examples.1 By far the most striking insider movement story in church history is the account of the Secret Sannyasi Mission told by Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889- 1929); however there is no historiographical reason to believe that such a mission ever existed.2 A peculiar variety of insider movement developed in the city of Sivakasi in the far south of India starting in the second decade of the twentieth century and continues to the present time, the main peculiarities being that the movement has been predominantly among women and relates in intriguing ways with existing churches.3 Th e movement that developed around K. Subba Rao in Andhra Pradesh, south India, beginning in the 1940s is the best documented and most viable insider movement to have appeared in the Hindu world. Subba Rao was syncretistic in his teaching and practice, and that will be the focus of this analysis of the Hindu insider move- ment that developed around his life and work.4 The Life and Work of Kalagara Subba Rao (1912-1981) Subba Rao’s movement is a specimen of folk religion, and as such there has been little concern within the movement for its history or for the documents H.
    [Show full text]
  • God's Truth, Christianity, and Other Religions
    JAM 12:2 (2010):139-169 God’s Truth, Christianity, and Other Religions: Towards a Broader Understanding of Christian Conversion and Discipleship, with an Appraisal of Insider Movements within Islam LARRY W. CALDWELL* This article argues that elements of God’s Truth may be found in religions outside of Christianity. As a result, new followers of Jesus do not need to abandon those Truth elements—including the Truth elements found within their cultures—in order to become Christians. This more positive view of the religion and current culture of these new followers of Jesus has enormous implications for Christian missionaries. Often these missionaries seek after a point of conversion without reference to the Truth found in the religion of the potential believers and then follow this up with a discipleship process that forces new believers to turn away from their culture. This article argues instead that an emphasis upon relationship is the key to Christian conversion and discipleship: relationship with followers of Jesus; relationship with Jesus himself; and relationship with Jesus in fellowship with other Jesus followers. Two case studies on conversion and discipleship from Chinese and Muslim contexts illustrate this relationship element and pave the way for an appraisal of insider movements within Islam in light of all that has been discussed. _________________________ Introduction hat does it mean to “convert” from one thing to another? I myself have “converted” many times in my life: from an W old computer with a Windows XP operating system to a new computer using Windows Vista; from the Adidas brand of Larry W.
    [Show full text]
  • (CTCR) — Evaluation — Churchless Christianity
    Churchless Christianity (Movements to Jesus I Insider Movements) An Evaluation from the Theological Perspective of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod December 2012 History, Beliefs, Practices Identity: The phrase "churchless Christianity" does not represent a particular religious movement, but an approach to Christian evangelism. The approach is sometimes referred to as "movements to Jesus," and in the context of foreign missions, as "insider movements," "C5 insider movements," or "people movements." Insider movements are defined as "popular movements to Christ that bypass both formal and explicit expressions of the Christian religion."1 "Insiders" are new disciples of Jesus who remain "inside" the relationships and communities of their social and religious culture. Insider discipleship is said to "express itself in culturally appropriate communities of believers who will also continue to live within as much of their culture, including the religious life of the culture, as is biblically faithful."2 It is hoped that new believers will remain within their religious and cultural context in order to share their faith in Christ with family and friends. In the context of American culture similar ideas are expressed in terms of outreach to people "who love Jesus but not the church." Founder(s): While there are no founders for these movements to Jesus, influential writings include those by John Travis (a pseudonym, a missionary among Asian Muslims), Herbert Hoefer (missionary to India), Charles Kraft (missionary and professor at Fuller Theological Seminary), Ralph Winter (also of Fuller Theological Seminary), and Phil Parshall (a missionary among Muslims). Statistics: There are no statistics available for "movements to Jesus," especially as insider believers may remain "hidden" within their own social and religious cultures.
    [Show full text]