My colleague Spencer Reece and I recently had this brief article published in the magazine Anglican World. It is about some of the ministry going on here in Spain among Arabic-speaking migrants here.
Click Anglican World Article to read the PDF.
Tag: News
“Thinking about Mission the Anglican Way” in *The Living Church*
I’m glad to share a new article just published at the blog of The Living Church. I am basically asking why Anglicans have a concrete approach to music, theology, and architecture, but don’t seem to have anything like this when it comes to global mission. Here is the lead:
Like most Christians, we Anglicans tend to love our traditions and cherish our identity, from the prayer book and particular holy days, or to the very idea of being a via media, Reformed and Catholic at the same time. We are excited when a new church plant or satellite campus opens, and in some Anglican circles there has been a veritable revival in church planting in North America and the United Kingdom. We usually appreciate our diversity — that one can be catholic or evangelical or liberal, though the last decade has tested some important boundaries. We like to send our ordinands off to seminaries within our tradition, we read books by our tradition’s authors (though not exclusively, of course), and we even have our styles of architecture and hymnody.
But then something funny happens on the way to world evangelism. When it comes to cross-cultural missionary work, we quickly forget about our Anglican distinctives. This doesn’t happen in other areas, so why does it happen with cross-cultural and global mission?
Check it all out here.
Stephen Bedard reviews *Two Stories of Everything*
Stephen J. Bedard has an excellent blog, Hope’s Reason, and solid presence on Twitter (@sjbedard).
I’m happy to share with you his recent review of my book Two Stories of Everything: The Competing Metanarratives of Islam and Christianity. Here’s one section:
There are a number of things that I appreciated about Miller’s book. One is that it is both a good introduction to Islam and also a nice summary of the Christian metanarrative. I also liked Miller’s honest and humble perspective. In his conclusion, Miller says, “I hope that I am as critical of Christianity as I am of Islam, and I see the umma doing a number of things correctly that I don’t see the Church, by and large, doing correctly” (p. 134). Two Stories of Everything is not a polemic against Islam, even though Miller is transparent about his own Christian faith. In addition, each chapter includes reflection questions and there is a handy glossary at the end of the book.
Go to his blog to read the whole review.
Christian witness among Muslims and ‘encroachment ‘
Fred Farrokh has recently published an article titled “Contextualization and ‘Encroachment’ in Muslim Evangelism”. Farrokh is introducing a new, specialised meaning of the word encroachment:
This essay introduces the concept of encroachment as another important fine-line tension which has emerged in ministry to Muslims. Encroachment occurs when Christian messengers enlist and redefine sacred Islamic texts, persons, and identifiers in a way that usurps from the indigenous communities those texts, persons, and identifiers.
Farrokh goes on to explore some popular missiologists’ encroachments—Kevin Higgins and Kevin Greeson being key among them. He also does a fine job showing that re-envisioning the ‘prophethood’ of Muhammad and filling the word ‘Muslim’ with a new meaning are also encroachments. He also mentions how the sword cuts both ways and notes some Muslim encroachments on Christian terms and vocabulary.
The fine insight behind the introduction of this new technical definition—something that has been stirring in my mind for some time—is that communities are the arbiters of their own boundaries. It is for Muslims to decide the meaning of the word Muslim. It is for Muslims to decide the significance of Muhammad being the “seal of the prophets”. It is not for Christian thinkers or missionaries, regardless of their intentions.
One can hope for thoughtful responses to Farrokh’s irenic and well-researched paper.
Al Kresta interviews me for Ave Mario Radio
Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of talking with Al Kresta, the host of Kresta in the Afternoon for Ave Mario Radio. He’s a sharp guy and always has some good questions. Here is the most recent interview on my new book, Two Stories of Everything: The Competing Metanarratives of Islam and Christianity.
Here is the link to the audio at Ave Mario Radio, or just listen to it right here from my own blog:
The interview with me begins at 21 minutes, but the first section, with John Allen on the Vatican and China, is also very interesting!
Ordination to the Priesthood
On February 18th of 2018 at the Anglican Cathedral of Madrid I was ordained as a presbyter of the Anglican Communion by the Rt. Rev. Carlos Lopez Lozano. Below is one picture, though you can find more pictures and details at the cathedral blog (though in Spanish).
Paul Martindale reviews *Living among the Breakage*
I’m happy to share with you Paul Martindale’s very positive review of Living among the Breakage: Contextual Theology-making and ex-Muslim Christians (Pickwick, 2016). Martindale teaches missions at Gordon-Conwell and the review was originally published in Evangelical Missions Quarterly. Here is a section:
There is tremendous value in reading through this work as it shows how the life within developing communities intersects with new identity formation, the process of inculturating the gospel in a new context, new power structures within the Church, conversion, and the development of new ‘liberation’ and wisdom theologies.
Drawing from specific case study interviews and a wealth of excellent missiological sources, Miller has helped to expand the field of ex-Muslim studies in constructive directions. Serious students of religious conversion and contextualization in former Muslim communities and church-planting in Islamic contexts will want to read and carefully consider this work.
Read it all at the EMQ website.
