Alongsider terminology has been widely embraced in Frontier Ventures. While the term and concept have been used in various contexts, the following definition focuses on contexts of significant cross-cultural difference, which we suggest should be its primary use. This is not a search for a silver bullet that will solve all problems, rather a crystallization of biblical and historical insights related to cross cultural engagement.
An insider is a person who has an inherent understanding of his/her culture because they have grown up “inside” that culture. An outsider is a person who enters another culture with little, and no intuitive, understanding of it. An Alongsider is a person who began as an outsider but has over time learned much about a second culture and developed deep relationships with insiders to that culture which enable continually deeper learning.
An Alongsider is a person whose posture as a witness for Christ is to walk beside others as a listener, learner, discerner, influencer, and fellow traveler, in cross-cultural and cross-religious contexts. Alongsider, thus, represents an approach to engagement with others, or a style of life based on a recognition of social and spiritual realities. It is rooted in an attitude of humility, servanthood, and a recognition of limitations and liabilities in engaging situations with which one is not adequately familiar.
At least at some level, older cross-cultural (mission) practices generally assumed a leadership/parental role for the outside missionary (1). This new (Alongsider) approach eliminates a presumption or practice of control and places the outside cross-cultural worker alongside (not in front of, certainly not over) people encountering Christ. Thus, an Alongsider works reciprocally, both learning and contributing, towards appropriate discipleship to Christ in the insiders’ complex socio-religious contexts. This posture of mutuality values the insights of both the Alongsider and the insider while leaving decision-making with the insider.
Yet the Alongsider is most certainly a change agent, and particularly at the pioneering stage where no known believers are present, he or she uniquely represents the kingdom of God. Therefore, the Alongsider needs to prayerfully discern to whom, how, when, where and what to speak (2).
It is helpful to recognize that Jesus and Paul were insiders in the contexts of their ministries. Declarative/prophetic modes of ministry are most effective when they come from insiders (and this certainly happens, almost necessarily in insider movements). The intimate insider/alongsider partnership being defined here shows that complicated contextual matters will be discussed and prayed over to the point that any prophetic insight from an Alongsider would have been both influenced and embraced by an insider(s) who would more appropriately speak to the local situation.
Becoming an Alongsider is a transformative process; everyone begins as an outsider and progresses towards becoming genuinely part of the new socio-religious context based on deepening relationships with friends and communities (and other sources, including academic texts) who provide nuanced perspectives on cultural and relational realities in local contexts. Yet Alongsider terminology has been developed and embraced due to the recognition that outsiders can never fully become insiders; the Alongsider will defer decision-making to insiders and will be reticent with opinions and advice particularly in the early years or even decades of growing in the understanding of another context.
Every Alongsider (and insider) will be different and will bring different gifts to different contexts, thus no step-by-step approach or pattern can be laid out (3). What is clear is that insiders will inherently understand, feel, and internalize local situations far more deeply than any Alongsider could. Alongsiders can bring knowledge of the Bible, maturity in Christ, and a breadth of experience and insight from beyond the local context, along with access to resources (sociological and historical studies of the local context, for example) that are often very helpful, even necessary, to insiders.
An Alongsider also brings to any context the reality that in Christ all are part of a body that transcends the local. All humans and societies are ethnocentric and profit from outside perspectives that are wisely offered. Yet the Alongsider approach deeply affirms the centrality of local contexts to all issues of discipleship to Jesus. It is insiders who reap the costs and benefits from decisions and actions made within their context. Alongsiders may well face hostility from local families and society, but also are given leeway as they are recognized as different. Alongsiders simply do not take on the same level of risk of broken families or social isolation as do insiders, and therefore embrace a secondary role.
While the concept of the cross-cultural worker as an Alongsider arose in the worlds of insider movements, the core principles are valid far beyond those contexts. Even a local church pastor can, and we suggest should, lead a congregation in ways that reflect Alongsider principles. Much more could be said about this and many other secondary applications of the term, but this FV definition focuses on the original context of deeply cross-cultural engagements.
Since the Alongsider approach is in many ways contrary and counter-intuitive to previous mission history and present practice, it is recognized that most Christians need serious re-formation in the theory and practice of this way of being, living and doing. This is why spiritual formation in FV is intentionally diverse and open. There is deep value to participating in practices that are not part of one’s own background or tradition, as it both allows people to get alongside each other and also to grow in understanding God’s multicultural ways. And as we engage in this re-formation, we become sensitized to alongsiding dynamics and are prepared to more effectively live as Alongsiders.
Appendix: Alongsider Understanding in FV Writings
In a review of the “Alongsider Literature” within Frontier Ventures, Andy Bettencourt came up with six significant points affirmed by all, as well as some less unanimously stated but still important points for consideration. This summary is to provide context for the definition above.
Common Points:
1. Alongsiders have a deep spiritual formation and engage in a variety of spiritual practices that are recognizable and accessible to their neighbors.
2. Alongsiders meet people on their own sociocultural ground, strategically ministering alongside Jesus movements.
3. Alongsiders engage with insiders under Christ and scripture, examining identity issues and cultural practices to the end of more clearly expressing Christ within their unique sociocultural heritage.
4. Alongsiders must remain humble and show restraint, recognizing how much they must learn and how any consequences of errors will fall to others, as well as identifying with the needs, concerns, and questions of the multiple contexts (including the neglected, downtrodden, and oppressed) within any given broader context.
5. Alongsiders are open to, and expect to see, new expressions of ekklesia (church). Ekklesia is how God’s people associate, assemble, and worship, and many forms of expression are appropriate.
6. The Holy Spirit is central to the work of Alongsiders both in their personal transformation and in discerning God’s moving and its expression within the communities and cultures where they live as Alongsiders.
Other Significant Points:
1. In their formation, Alongsiders reinterpret or unlearn ideas and practices from a posture of spiritual brokenness, reconstructing and reengaging their home cultural context in a healthy manner.
2. Alongsiders are checked, supported, and bolstered through their interaction in humble supportive relationships with other Alongsiders, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Sikhs, Nones, and persons of other religious and irreligious heritages.
3. Alongsiders submit to local leaders, so that they may influence in a way that empowers the local community rather than themselves.
4. Alongsiders reflect deeply on the history of church and mission and Christ-followers-within-other-religious-traditions, examining, learning from, and critiquing the attitudes, practices, and successes and failures of churches, ministry movements and Christ-followers in their own and other contexts.
5. Alongsiders reflect deeply on the interpretation of Scripture, embracing an expansive hermeneutic open to insights from many directions, especially from the contexts where they serve as Alongsiders.
6. Alongsiders serve as evangelists in meeting heart to heart with the other and working patiently, as they see evangelism through the lens of a process or journey rather than in terms of a particular decision.
Footnotes
(1) This is reflected in the four stages of Protestant expansion that “most mission efforts pass through”: pioneer, parent, partner and participant. (Steven C. Hawthorne, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: The Study Guide, 2009, William Carey Library: Pasadena, CA, p. 74, [Lesson 7])
(2) Tim Shultz helpfully describes the Alongsider in pioneer evangelism in Disciple Making Among Hindus (William Carey Library, 2016): "…the disciple who initiates ministry is a cultural outsider, and they actually need help from the people they are trying to introduce to the gospel to be able to communicate effectively.…Thus Hindus actually help their mentor evangelize and disciple them!... In this scenario the Hindus help their mentor interpret the biblical teaching and apply it to their lives wisely and practically, and the mentor lets them do so, because they trust the work of the Holy Spirit and humbly accept that the Hindus are fully capable of understanding how to live out biblical teaching in their own lives." (pg. 97)
(3) The comments that follow particularly relate to Western Christians in Alongsider roles. Alongsiders from near-group movements to Christ are in quite a different situation, but still need to leave decision-making to insiders.