"A Magnificent Obsession": A History of Frontiers' Mission to Muslims

Abstract “A Magnificent Obsession” A History of Frontiers’ Mission to Muslims David C. Keane [email protected] 1. Introduction The aim of this dissertation is to contribute the story of Frontiers to the knowledge of and literature that examines the history of Christian mission to Muslims. Frontiers is the largest Christian mission to all Muslims and only Muslims. This original research provides an analysis of its beginning and contributions to evangelical mission efforts. 2. Methodology The question guiding this research is, in light of the long history of Christian mission to Muslims, what did Frontiers do differently from its predecessors as an evangelical mission among Muslims, and to what extent did it make a difference among contemporary evangelical mission efforts? The question is approached in three steps. First, what was happening in the field of mission to Muslims before Frontiers? Second, what were the significant influences on founder Greg Livingstone and the first generation of people who gathered to him? And third, what were Frontiers’ organizational and field innovations? The first step involved historical analysis of primary and secondary sources regarding mission to Muslims. Two conferences in the 20th century, 72 years apart, provided summaries of work among Muslims at those times, 1906 and 1978. The second step involved unstructured interviews of 80 men and women who were present at the founding of the Frontiers. Triangulating the data from these interviews with the primary and secondary source documents from Frontiers’ unstructured archive allowed me to approach the history of Frontiers. It must be noted that since I have been employed by Frontiers USA since 2003, critical distance was addressed from the beginning of this project. On the other hand, my long association allowed me high quality access to people, which makes it more likely that I was able to produce high quality data. The third step, analysing Frontiers’ innovations, involved not only bringing together the data from parts one and two with archival material and publications, but also objectively addressing arguments against some of Frontiers’ practices. 3. Key Findings Evidence suggests that the documented complicity of Protestant missions with Western colonial abuses largely did not pertain to the Muslim world, primarily because missionaries were mostly forbidden by colonial authorities from serving in Muslim communities. Frontiers’ impact on mission among Muslims is seen through two lenses: internal organization and field experimentation. As a coalition of semi-autonomous teams under the oversight of the International Council (IC), Frontiers is unique in populating the IC with its team leaders. This structuring was an attempt to preserve the field focus of the organization. No organization has followed the Frontiers model of giving ultimate authority to the team leaders, but more are sending teams. Field experimentation yielded three significant innovations: moving into Muslim neighbourhoods, the seven phases of church planting, and the C-Scale. The latter was created to describe the various kinds of “Christ-centred communities” found among Muslims, but quickly created controversy around the C-5 designation. 4. Implications That missionaries under colonial rule were not allowed to engage Muslims peoples in much of the Muslim world implies that care must be taken when describing or analysing mission in the colonial age. Evidence presented in this thesis demonstrates that Frontiers did indeed change the world of evangelical mission to Muslims through its field innovations. The most significant impact is the changed conversation from being about Islam to being with Muslims about Jesus. It demonstrated that though many Muslims are opposed to Christianity, they may not be opposed to following Jesus as found in the Bible. This suggests that Greg Livingstone could be designated “the apostle to Muslims.”