Mission Begins with Love
Being a witness for Jesus in Muslim contexts is often difficult, complicated, and even discouraging. Over the past forty years, Phil Parshall, a leading authority on Muslim outreach, has demonstrated that making friends with Muslims—whether in the West or abroad—is where our witness usually begins.
‘Brother Phil’ and his wife, Julie, were missionaries in Bangladesh for more than twenty years and later worked among Muslims in the Philippines. During his tenure as a missionary leader, Parshall authored a dozen books that helped shape current missiological perspectives about Muslim outreach. In this volume, the only edited work dedicated to exploring Phil Parshall’s legacy, seven respected missiologists interact with those ideas.
While all the contributors to this book have been inspired by Parshall’s life and work, some of them believe that Parshall’s methods of contextualization could have been taken even further. They ponder: How can we further remove obstacles to following Jesus? How do we navigate the fine lines between Muslim cultures and Muslim religious ideas? What cultural and social aspects of Muslim life could cross-cultural workers adopt when living among Muslims? Here they share some of their victories and challenges, encouraging Christian workers to press ahead on paths of outreach to Muslims that are fitting for the twenty-first century context.
Daftar Isi
Preface by Mark S. Williams
Introduction by Kenneth Nehrbass
Chapter 1: The Life and Legacy of Phil Parshall by Gary R. Corwin
Chapter 2: Standing on the Shoulders of Others: When Innovations Surprise the Innovator by Kevin Higgins
Chapter 3: Only One Offense: Why Cultural Immersion Still Matters by Miriam Adeney
Chapter 4: Urban Muslims: Holding Multiple Memberships by Enoch Jinsik Kim
Chapter 5: Confronting Gospel Barriers: Obliteration or Negotiation? by Harley Talman
Chapter 6: Two Decades of the Letter “C”: Reflections on the C1–C6 Spectrum
Chapter 7: Living Cross-Culturally in Muslim Contexts: Reflections on Key Themes in the Writings and Ministry of Phil Parshall by John Jay Travis
About the Contributors
Appendix: academic Works by Phil Parshall
Tentang Penulis
Mark S. Williams (Ph D, Ateneo de Davao University, Philippines) served in ministry to Muslims for twenty years (1990–2010) with SIM in the Philippines. He published articles in the Journal of Asian Mission and Missiology and was a contributing author in Missionary Methods: Research, Reflections, and Realities (William Carey Library).