DD Welcome! To begin, please share a bit about the origin of the term Alongsider, and what this expression means.

JJT I’m not sure who first coined the expression Alongsider, but I remember already using it in the early 2000s. The term caught on because it described so well what many, ourselves included, were trying to do in helping initiate and nurture movements to Jesus in areas that had very few Jesus followers.

The main idea of being an Alongsider is to add crucial spiritual value to an emerging movement of new followers of Jesus without taking over roles that could and should be held by the new followers of Jesus themselves. A foreign cross-cultural worker will often have advanced education and biblical knowledge, well-honed witnessing skills, leadership abilities and well-developed spiritual gifts in areas such as healing or deliverance. This outside cross-cultural worker can seem so gifted that new followers of Jesus can be inclined to think they will never be as competent or able as this well-equipped, well-trained foreign worker—they could think to themselves, “why should I try to lead?”. An Alongsider, even from the earliest start of a fellowship or movement, recognizes this challenge and works to develop leaders from inside or within the unreached people group (UPG) where the fellowships or movements are forming.

Connected to the expression Alongsider is the term insider. In fields like anthropology and missiology, insiders are those from particular cultural, religious, or linguistic groups who see themselves distinct in some ways from other such groups. As insiders from different UPGs begin to follow Jesus and have a vision to reach out to others within their group, they often look to foreign, non-insider followers of Jesus, who could walk alongside them in their faith journey with Jesus to help equip them for ministry. Thus the term, Alongsiders. By the way, I need to mention that in this interview, I am using the term “insider” in the broader sense of the word to simply mean anyone who comes from and is “inside” a particular cultural, ethnic, religious and/or linguistic group or community.

While not wanting to inappropriately assume leadership of movements, Alongsiders I have known still dedicate themselves to understanding deeply the language, religion, and hearts of the people they are called to serve. They learn to see the religious or cultural “other” as a fellow human being, also in need of the love, grace, and life transformation that only Jesus can bring. An Alongsider can be a spiritual mentor or guide, but the way of mentoring or discipling is by walking side-by-side with insiders rather than in front or pushing from behind. Alongsiders move at the pace of the insiders, attentive to ways they can add spiritual value to the lives of those in emerging kingdom movements.

In short, the goal of the Alongsider is to work to present “every person mature in Christ,” while at the same time not stifling or holding back naturally developing leaders from among the insider community. It is important to emphasize that Alongsiders can be men or women, young or old, and come from any educational, cultural, national, or socio-economic background. I think this Alongsider function will make more sense as we talk later about the roles Alongsiders can assume in helping nurture developing fellowships and movements to Jesus. Most of the Alongsider work I have done has been among Muslims, therefore my examples in this interview will come from that context. But I have friends doing Alongsider work in other contexts, often among Hindus, and the principles are the same.

DD Thank you so much for this background information and     descriptions. Tell us about what was happening in your own ministry that led you to Alongsider thinking and practice.

JJT In our first 14 years on the field, we did not experience what people today are calling a movement to Jesus or a “kingdom movement.” We did, however, in those first years, go deep into language learning and cultural bonding. We led a multinational ministry team as well as a national team of Muslim and Christian background followers of Jesus. And during this time, we saw about 100 Muslims become followers of Jesus with four small fellowships planted. Also during those first 14 years, we helped produce a Bible translation for Muslim readers. This came about as a result of our years of living closely with Muslims. It didn’t take long before we realized that Muslims and Christians in the country were often speaking about the same spiritual topics but using different vocabulary. Church Bibles often used vocabulary that was not inviting for Muslim readers. We were convinced that a fresh translation of the Bible for Muslims was needed. By the grace of God, we were able to see such a Bible translation produced, and it is now in its ninth printing.

Our desire to see movements birthed was because we wanted to see whole families, communities, and networks of people come to faith together. We longed to see families and communities transformed by the Spirit and Word of God. We prayed, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We believed God wanted more than just handfuls coming to faith here and there (even though just one believer is reason to rejoice!). But frankly, we were discouraged at not seeing movement-like growth. We said to ourselves, “Well, maybe this is as good as it gets!” At that point, for the first time, we took a one-year sabbatical in our home country.

On the sabbatical, we learned a lot about intercessory prayer. Coming back to the field, we helped form a group of national and foreign Christians who spent a lot of time weekly in prayer and fasting for a spiritual breakthrough in our area. Other groups also sensed the same urgency for prayer. At the end of that four-year period of concentrated prayer, we met a woman we will call Fatima, who identified herself as a Muslim who follows Jesus. We had met other Muslims who followed Jesus, but there was something unique about Fatima. She would talk about her calling to her own Muslim people. She would say, “I need to make sure that in my lifetime all my family and friends understand who Jesus is, and how they can follow him.”

Before we met Fatima, she had already received a lot of spiritual input from other Alongsider-oriented workers. For several years, she had been reading the contextual New Testament that we had helped produce. Now she was on task to reach her own people, and we were walking alongside her in the process. My wife and Fatima became very dear friends. Fatima would interact with us and pray with us, but she was very clearly the one in charge of a small growing network of home fellowships… well, God of course was the one in charge… but she was the human vehicle God was using. Fatima gathered around her a group of four women and one man who became a small team that then went around sharing with family and friends about the good news of Isa al-Masih (Jesus the Messiah). This was 20 years ago and it is still going to this day. We have tracked with Fatima and this small movement all these years as Alongsiders. We text with Fatima and the leaders of this small movement on a very regular basis and we actually plan to see them, God willing, next month.

One key factor in this small movement is that from the beginning it was led by Fatima and her team of fellow cultural insiders. The four fellowships we were connected with in our first 14 years before we met Fatima were started and led by national Christians, some of whom were of Muslim background. Even though these national workers were very “contextual” in their language, clothing, and lifestyle, they were never really viewed as insiders by the insiders. With Fatima and her team leading, however, the fellowships and movement felt very natural and indigenous from the beginning.

DD Very good, wow! That’s wonderful. Thank you for sharing that. I know you and your wife wrote an article on the roles of cross-cultural Alongsiders in the December 2013 issue of IJFM. In that article, you described the seven distinct roles in the lives of Alongsiders you’ve known. What are those roles, and could or should all Alongsiders engage in all seven roles?

JJT We learned a number of things about being Alongsiders through our own experience, but also through interacting with other like-minded cross-cultural workers. It seemed to us there were at least seven roles Alongsiders can assume without overwhelming or negatively affecting an emerging movement. I’ll begin with being an intercessor.

1. INTERCESSORS

Intercessory prayer is a foundational aspect of being an Alongsider. This role can begin before one actually moves to a UPG. Intercession impacts everyone involved. It can also open doors for witness as Paul talks about in Colossians 4. This role will likely continue for a lifetime.

2. LEARNERS

Ideally, every type of cross-cultural worker should have a learner’s posture, even those workers who feel their main task is to communicate a message and not necessarily learn what insiders are thinking. The Alongsider approach seeks to first understand before trying to be understood.

This principle is quite similar to all forms of training and education. In the education process, effective teachers or communicators first try to understand what’s already in the minds and experience of their students. Then they are able to make connections between what’s already understood and accepted and what new information or material are needed.

Being a learner is also a very important point in applying principles of contextualization. If we, as Alongsiders, do not really understand what people are thinking, feeling, and believing, we could very well be throwing out the baby with the bathwater, rejecting insider beliefs and practices that are already in keeping with biblical teachings.

3. FRIENDS

Alongsiders often stress how those they walk beside have become some of their best friends. They are not just a focus of prayer or a UPG to study but cherished friends and coworkers. This was certainly the case for my wife and me with people we have walked alongside. True friendship runs deep, is heartfelt and will likely last a lifetime. Taken together, friend, learner, and intercessor are three foundational roles that greatly shape the heart and mind of Alongsiders.

4. WORKERS OF MIRACLES

“Worker of miracles” is the expression we’ve used to describe those who regularly pray for healing of the sick, the emotionally hurt, and those tormented by demons. It became our practice to regularly pray for miracles for Muslims who were in need. Muslims in our area greatly appreciated these prayers, as the Quran speaks of Jesus as healing the sick, miraculously feeding the hungry, and even raising the dead. Again, this is a way that an Alongsider can serve that does not take over leadership in an emerging movement.

In fact, there was a one-year period where, along with five national coworkers, I went out in a van every Thursday morning into the surrounding countryside offering to pray for the sick and troubled. In the van, we would pray, “Lord, lead us to where should we go.” We would sense this place or that place and go there. We’d get out of the car, talk to a few people, and then just say, “We pray for the sick and those in trouble. Does anyone here need prayer?”

Amazingly, within 30 minutes of stopping, we were almost always in a Muslim home praying for someone who was very sick or troubled. We would then go back to the same house the following Thursday to see what happened during the week. That went on for a year. The result was that my coworkers, some who had never prayed for a Muslim before, became comfortable in doing so and numbers of Muslims were touched by God’s power. A beautiful thing was that in terms of empathy, we were entering into the struggle and the pain of people, and we were following in the pattern set by Jesus when he sent out the 12 and the 70 to heal the sick, cast out demons, and proclaim the kingdom of God (Mark 6:12-13; Luke 9:1-2; 10:9).

5. PROCLAIMERS

As just mentioned, the followers of Jesus prayed for the sick and demonized while also proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. There are many ways, however, that proclaiming or communicating the gospel can take place, and this is one role that an Alongsider could and should do. In fact, as insiders see Alongsiders proclaiming good news, it can serve as a model or encouragement to insiders.

Three means of proclamation we have seen that are very effective are Discovery Bible Studies, general inductive Bible studies, and relatedly, using scripture during times of praying for healing.

A Discovery Bible Study (DBS) involves inviting a group of insider friends to read a number of select Bible passages over time on certain themes, for example, sacrifice. The facilitator (Alongsider in this case) is not the teacher or expert. Rather, he or she helps the group read the passage or passages several times, maybe retell what they just read, and then answer at their own pace a set of probing questions.

This type of Bible exploration is closely related to an inductive Bible study where, say, an entire book of the Bible is read and studied. I have known some Alongsiders that take a year to carefully study Luke-Acts with new followers of Jesus. Another movement I know of tends to do the same with the book of Mark, where both followers of Jesus and pre-followers read and explore as a group. Both DBS and inductive studies can connect well with Muslims because technically, Muslim theology acknowledges the validity of the Old and New Testaments, calling them the Kitab Taurat, Kitab Zabur, and Kitab Injil. More precisely, Muslims view the Taurat (Torah) as the book of Moses, the Zabur (Psalms) as the book of David, and the Injil from the word evangel as the book of Jesus (Gospel or New Testament). For all intents and purposes, these three books acknowledged by Muslims cover the contents of the present-day Bible.

Finally, linking together miracles and proclaiming, many times I prayed for Muslims in the hospital, reading first a passage from the Injil (New Testament). For example, if someone had a fever, I would go to Luke 4, where Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever. This proved to be a very fruitful way to show the power and goodness of God through Jesus.

6. EQUIPPERS

As insiders are developing their own Jesus-centered fellowships and movements, some Alongsiders will serve in equipping roles. This is usually going beyond just the basics of following Jesus to more specific questions and issues where outside input and equipping could be of help.

An example may be ways of resolving interpersonal or group conflict in honor-shame societies. There are some cultures in the world where conflict resolution is almost unheard of. Interpersonal conflict just means broken relationship, maybe for years! The people of a culture may be utterly amazing in hospitality, but totally at a loss to mend a broken relationship. God, it seems to me, has gifted different parts of his Body with different gifts or strengths.

Something else we introduced into movements in multiple places was a simple model of inner healing prayer. Inner healing is actually seen in Scripture at many points, such as with Peter in John 21, the woman at the well in John 4, the woman who cried over the feet of Jesus in Luke 7, and the story of Zacchaeus. In each case, Jesus met people in their trauma, pain, or shame and by accepting and loving them, reset the course of their lives. The stories are in Scripture, but a model is very helpful. One model we used a lot as Alongsiders is explained in the book called Two Hands: A Guide for Inner Healing Prayer by Ann Muller.

Other equipping activities may be in Bible translation, videos, and literature. Some Alongsiders have assisted with job creation. Some very trusted Alongsiders have helped insiders think through issues of critical contextualization, in other words, what elements of one’s religion and culture are biblically acceptable, which aspects may need to be modified in light of the Bible, and which elements would need to be either marginalized or rejected outright.

7. STEWARDS

“Stewards” are Alongsiders who continue serving and partnering with movements as members deepen in their leadership, vision, and kingdom transformation.

Stewards pay careful attention to the recognized needs of movements, as well as to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. The Lord can work through relationships between trusted stewards and indigenous leaders to bless movements in various ways, as well as bring needed correction and wisdom in areas where spiritual blind spots may exist. Transformation in the lives of individuals, families, and societies is the hope, and synergy of local leaders, and Alongsiders may yield valuable insights.

Being a movement steward can also involve helping impart vision to the movement to reach out to other UPGs. In this way, members in one movement can be used to help start other movements. An Alongsider can help at this point in the equipping of appropriately gifted people in movements.

Some have thought that Alongsiders should ideally distance themselves from movements once a movement is taking place. The concern is that an Alongsider’s influence may stifle indigenous leadership or create unhealthy dependencies. My observation, however, has been that in highly relational or communal societies, friendships are expected to last, and that sharing, even of material resources at times, can be strategic and not necessarily harmful.

A final aspect of this stewardship role is being a bridge person with the larger outside Body of Christ who may wonder about movements. As questions arise, Alongsiders can share what they have seen take place in the field. In fact, Duke, this is what we see Paul, Barnabas, and Peter doing in Acts 15 at the Jerusalem council, where they explained the miracles God was doing among Gentiles, as well as why these newly emerging fellowships were rejecting circumcision and other aspects of Jewish law and tradition. I have often shared about movements with various Christian groups, trying to show how these new expressions of faith in Christ are Biblical even though they are different in some ways from other more traditional expressions of following Jesus. This bridge-person role is important, therefore, for the sake of understanding and unity in with the body of Christ.

DD Thank you. That’s excellent and very helpful. And that’s interesting to hear you talk about all that, even for my own understanding. It’s a much more active role than one might assume. I think perhaps the stereotype is because there’s some level of contrast to a more traditional ministry approach, that the Alongsider just sits back and whatever the local believer says, that’s okay. But you’re describing very active roles in which you’re doing a lot of input and a lot of activity within the culture, with people. There is even leading and modeling happening. I’m just saying that in my own mind, I think when people think about a different approach, they sort of go to the other extreme, which says that since it’s another culture, those from that culture must always know best, therefore we can’t say anything. But you’re describing something that’s not that, which is very interesting for me.

JJT Absolutely. Thank you, Duke, for helping connect some of the dots here. Yes, it’s a very active role. One of the main reasons for ministering in this way is to help indigenous leadership flourish from the beginning without inadvertently being undermined. And going through all the seven roles I discussed earlier, Alongsiders are being shaped as they share life and ministry closely with cultural insiders.

DD Thank you again. You’ve been doing this for a couple of decades, reflecting on it, putting it into some kind of form that’s understandable for others. But, of course, you didn’t start here. How has the Alongsider paradigm changed in your thinking since you first stepped into it and what do you imagine the future holds?

JJT Great questions. Several things come to mind.

First, I am thinking about the Alongsider role more broadly than in just what are called insider movements. I have written elsewhere about these kinds of movements. Insider movements are where the new followers of Jesus maintain a cultural and social identity within the religious community of their birth. With these kinds of movements that grow inside a non-Christian socio-religious context, the Alongsider must work with tact and wisdom.

The Alongsider approach in serving any type of movement where the believers wish to fully maintain their cultural distinctions, is very important. As the disciples of Jesus reach out to the rest of their people, they wish to be regarded as ambassadors of Jesus, not as “agents of foreigners,” a charge I have too often heard.

Second, I imagine Alongsiders from the earliest days encouraging not only multi-generations of believers (as in 2 Tim 2:2) but also emphasizing the next biological generation. In the movement with Fatima, we hope to see her and her team soon to discuss this crucial issue. It will also be interesting to see in what ways second-generation followers of Jesus may be different from the generation of their parents.

Third, I am thinking about specific approaches or ministry models that an Alongsider carefully and prayerfully could or should share with leaders of emerging movements. I mentioned earlier, for example, introducing models of inner healing, models for conflict resolution, models of Bible study, as well as equipping in areas of job creation, Bible translation, and media communication. Are there other such areas?

I imagine this will vary from place to place and from one movement to another. One developing movement I am thinking a lot about lately is where a particular Alongsider is relating closely with tribal chiefs in Africa. He has a long-term Alongsider perspective and is very committed to seeing kingdom transformation take place. He has been involved superbly in the seven roles mentioned above. In the area of proclaiming, he has done something fairly unique. He has developed a five-page narrative he calls God’s Story. Whenever he meets with Muslim village chiefs, they take half an hour or so to hear again the big picture of the biblical narrative from Genesis to Revelation, beginning with God creating people in his image. This Alongsider is seeing that by telling this story over and over again, it is seeping into the thinking of these leaders, offering a narrative that, in time, will change their worldview, bringing both salvation in Jesus and kingdom transformation to this people group.

Fourth, the internet and social media. The world is so different today than even how it was 20 years ago. People everywhere can now read everything. Information is no longer in a vacuum where religious leaders on the ground can control the flow of spiritual ideas. Alongsiders should use the internet in the best ways possible to help resource movements with videos, articles, and especially Scripture on phone apps. These things are already happening, but they should be carefully and prayerfully happening all the more in the years ahead.

DD Thank you for your time and for helping us better understand what it means to be an Alongsider and to catch a vision for what God does as we step into this kind of ministry.

JJT Thank you for the opportunity.