I just recently did a short talk on Folk Islam. Not the center of my expertise, but our regular speaker was not able to make it. So I tried to position the talk from an area of greater strength for me... anthropological reflection. So I showed the classic cultural triangle. "Western" Cultures are more interested …
Continue reading Fear and Power in Ministry, and Five Encounters
Successful missionaries, mission programs, and mission movements in Christian history seem to have four characteristics. They don't always have all three, there is a priority to them. Now some that have been numerically successful (such as the invasion and subsequent colonization and "Christianization" of South America) fail to meet the criteria of sound Christian missions, …
I often find myself on the side of downplaying "spiritual warfare" and "power encounter." I see myself doing this not so much because I see these as purposeless. I have seen missionaries working in particularly difficult places coming down with horrible maladies. I am not sure I can simply chalk that up to stress and …
Continue reading Ambivalent Reflections on Spiritual Warfare
I have been a bit down on "Power Encounter" as a missiological method... especially in this blogsite. Power Encounter has been popularized by Charles Kraft whose understanding has been affected by his work in West Africa. He found the animistic beliefs there made the people receptive to Christianity marketed in terms of power. And perhaps …
One of the two most popular posts on this blog is: From Power Encounter to Love Encounter In that post, I argued that the common missiological model of encounters, Truth Encounter, Allegiance Encounter, and Power Encounter, is flawed. Power Encounter, the challenging of the powers of evil with the power of God for missiological purposes …
Continue reading Power Encounter, Love Encounter, and Pandemic Love
<A related, follow-on article is Power Encounter, Love Encounter, and Pandemic Love.> In Missions there is often 3 types of "encounters" discussed. Charles Kraft, in particular, has a lot in this area and include: Truth Encounter Allegiance Encounter Power Encounter Truth Encounter is the challenge of God's truth against the various lies that are encountered …