Book Review
EMQ » January–March 2019 » Volume 55 Issue 1
Receptor-Oriented Communication for Hui Muslims in China, with Special Reference to Church Planting
By Enoch Kim
American Society of Missiology Monograph Series, Volume 34
Pickwick, 2018
Eugene, OR
274 pages
ISBN: 978-1532602078
USD $63.00
Helping Muslims follow Jesus is a challenging task in most parts of the world. China is no exception. The Hui, a Muslim minority people in China numbering over 10 million, are the focus of this book. The vast majority have had little or no contact with the gospel. Enoch Kim, who served as a missionary among this people, addresses this challenge by providing a well-researched, in-depth analysis of the social situation, sense of identity, and key cultural themes of the Hui, with a particular focus on young, educated, urban Hui. Building on this understanding, Kim carefully explains the building blocks for a strategy for planting churches among the Hui.
Throughout the book, Kim maintains a clear focus on how to reach the Hui with the gospel. He begins by identifying a subgroup of the Hui who are likely to be more open to the gospel than others. Drawing on a wide range of literature on the Hui and responses to questions he and fellow researchers asked of over 200 Hui in Islamic restaurants, Kim shows how modernization has impacted young, educated, urban Hui (YEU-Hui). He suggests those who have lived in a city for more than three years and who have many friends among the Han Chinese are the YEU-Hui most likely to be open to the gospel.
After outlining contextualised approaches to sharing the gospel which are likely to speak to the cultural themes and felt needs of the Hui explained earlier in the book, the second half of the book turns to developing a strategy for church planting. Kim builds on insights from communication theory and also his own research on the YEU-Hui’s use of the internet to create an integrated church planting strategy to reach the most open subgroup of the YEU-Hui. His proposed strategy innovatively combines online and face-to-face methods and envisages expatriate Christians and Han Chinese churches working together towards the establishing of indigenous Hui churches.
Kim effectively weaves together insights from his own original research among the Hui with a wide range of literature to develop a convincing church planting strategy. Missionaries serving among the Hui will find here a treasure trove of ideas to guide their work. Other cross-cultural workers will benefit from this volume too. It is an excellent model of the kind of careful thinking that missionaries working among any unreached people group should engage in. It would also serve as an instructive case study for a seminary course on cross-cultural church planting.
Reviewed by Richard Hibbert, director of the Centre for Cross-Cultural Mission, Sydney Missionary and Bible College, Australia.
For Further Reading
Little, Don. Effective Discipling in Muslim Communities: Scripture, History, and Seasoned Practices. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2015.
Love, Rick. Muslims, Magic, and the Kingdom of God: Church Planting among Folk Muslims. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2003.
Sinclair, Dan. A Vision of the Possible: Pioneer Church Planting in Teams. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2012.
