Cooperating for a Biblically Sound, Inclusive, and Outreaching Ecclesiology Between Believers in Diverse Religious Contexts

In this dissertation the author researches the cultural dynamics of Indonesian believers within their Christian and Muslim socio-religious contexts to develop a missional ecclesiology that is scripturally sound, culturally inclusive, and deliberately outreaching. This becomes a framework for pioneering the way Christian background institutions can overcome the cultural hinderances between Muslim background believers and Christian background Indonesians. It also takes advantage of the cultural opportunities that are present in their context to have more fruitful contextual ministry.

This study was prompted by the increase of bold new experiments in contextual ministry being conducted by Indonesian ministers who have been inspired to rekindle the vitality of their ministries. He argues from precedent literature that the fields of interreligious dialogue, Contextualisation practices in Muslim ministry, and an assessment of current expression for unity between believers within these diverse socio-religious contexts. He then proposes a modification to Herman’s dialogical self-identity framework to help identify the various voices of identity that are present in the socio-religious milieu. He uess a comparative case study method to investigate the specific cultural challenges and opportunities present in the Indonesian context and to assess the alignment of the cases with missional ecclesiology. Three case studies are developed, two that compare Christian institutions and one that triangulates with a free medical clinic event.

He uses document analysis, participant observation, focus-group interviews, and semi-structured interviews to collect data. He identifies forms of worship, language, and fear as significant challenges to overcome. He also identifies the use of context-fitted language and the strong relational cultural values as opportunities that can facilitate missional ecclesiology.

He concludes that Indonesian Christian institutions that desire to overcome these challenges and take advantage of the opportunities need to adjust their organizational culture accordingly. He develops a change plan to be introduced at the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Indonesia (ETSI) where he teaches. This change plan is designed to gently encourage the seminary to rejuvenate their Church planting program with new insights from contextual ministry informed by brothers and sisters within the Muslim believer context.

Dugan, Donovan. 2021. “Cooperating for a Biblically Sound, Inclusive, and Outreaching Ecclesiology Between Believers in Diverse Religious Contexts.” D.I.S., United States — California: Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Intercultural Studies.