Understanding Insider Movements

Disciples of Jesus within Diverse Religious Communities

Harley Talman, John Jay Travis, Harley Talman, John Jay Travis

• Publisher: William Carey Library
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780878089932
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

For the first time in history, large numbers of people from the world's major non-Christian religions are following Jesus as Lord. Surprisingly for many Western Christians, they are choosing to do so within the religious communities of their birth and outside of institutional Christianity. How does this work, and how should we respond to these movements? This long-awaited anthology brings together some of the best writings on the topic of insider movements. Diverse voices explore this phenomenon from the perspectives of Scripture, history, theology, missiology, and the experience and identity of insider believers. Those who are unfamiliar with the subject will find this book a crucial guide to a complex conversation. Students and instructors of mission will find it useful as a reader and reference volume. Field workers and agencies will discover in these chapters welcome starting points for dialogue and clearer communication. The first book to provide a comprehensive survey of the topic of insider movements, Understanding Insider Movements is an indispensable companion for those who want to glimpse the creative, unexpected, boundary-crossing ways God is at work among the peoples of the world in their diverse religious communities.

PART 1

SETTING
THE STAGE

INTRODUCTION TO PART 1

Our goal must not be to populate the Christian religion but to bring people into a genuine relationship with God. We must make a clear distinction between the religion of Christianity and the revolution that Jesus began 2000 years ago.

—Erwin McManus^*

“Isaac” was a holy man, a Sufi master. He lived in a remote and traditional region of the country, where he had a large following. Several thousand people were looking to him for spiritual guidance, for blessings for their crops, for prayers for health, and most of all for intercession for their eternal salvation. Master Isaac, however, was worried about his own salvation, and it troubled him that his thousands of followers believed that he himself could save them on the day of judgment. So he began to pray in earnest that God would show him the sirat mustaqim, the true path to salvation.

One night in 2002, while Isaac was praying to be shown the way of salvation, the Lord Jesus appeared to him in radiant white clothing. Jesus told him to travel to such-and-such a town and consult a holy man from such-and-such a village whose father was named so-and-so and whose grandfather was so-and-so. Jesus showed him in a vision the way to the house. Isaac realized that this man’s grandfather had been his very own Sufi master, and this excited him.

Although it was still very early in the morning and there was a terrible rainstorm outside, Isaac vowed not to eat or drink until he met the man of God to whom Jesus had directed him and had discovered from him the way of salvation. So he walked through the storm to a bus station, boarded an early bus, and traveled some forty miles to the town.

It was about six o’clock in the morning when Isaac reached the place that Jesus had revealed to him in the vision. When he knocked on the door, he was surprised to see a man wearing ordinary clothes rather than the robes of a Sufi master. It was Brother Jacob, who was the leader of an “insider movement” of Muslim followers of Jesus. When Isaac asked Jacob about his father, his grandfather, and the village he came from, he realized that this was the very man Jesus had told him to consult. So he told Jacob about the vision and asked him to reveal the way of salvation.

Citing passages from both the Qur’an and the Bible, Brother Jacob told Isaac the story of God creating the world as a good place, about Adam and Eve and the temptation of Satan, and about their disobedience of God. He declared that as a consequence of their sin, Adam and Eve became alienated from the presence of God and enslaved to darkness, sin, and death. So how could their relationship with God be restored? How could they return to the garden of Eden?

Brother Jacob went on to talk about Cain and Abel, the descent of the world into evil, and the rescue of Noah and his family. He noted that God called Abraham from Babylon to follow him and gave him eight sons. He talked about the descendants of Abraham, about David, about the disobedience of his son Solomon and his descendants, until it came to the true son of David, the true heir of Abraham’s promises, the second Adam, Jesus, who was the first human being in history to completely submit himself to the will of God. He said that it was the will of God that Jesus the Messiah should suffer death on the Cross to save humanity, and that God raised him back to life. God exalted Jesus to sit at his own right hand as Lord and Savior of the world.

Brother Jacob said that the Lord Jesus had appeared to him as well, in 1969, and had shown him that he was the way of salvation. He read in the Gospel where Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Jesus, he said, was himself the sirat mustaqim. Master Isaac said he believed in Jesus and was ready to serve him and wanted to be baptized right then and there. Brother Jacob, however, counseled him to wait. He said, “God has made you a great leader, and he wants all of your followers to know that Jesus the Messiah, and he alone, is the way of salvation. Go home and tell your wives and children first that Jesus is the Lord and Savior, and then tell your closest disciples.” Isaac agreed, and they set a date for Jacob to come and share the good news.

About two weeks later, at the appointed time, Jacob arrived to find a gathering of two hundred or more of Isaac’s leading disciples. The Sufi master began by telling them all the story of his prayer and the vision he was given by God. He described traveling during a storm to get to Brother Jacob’s house to ask him the secret of salvation. He then asked Brother Jacob to tell them all the way.

So Brother Jacob told the story again, starting with the Qur’an and then moving to the Bible. He told the story of Creation, the Fall, and the descendants of Adam down to Jesus the Messiah. He called them to put their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. All of the leaders agreed, but they said they must first share this news with their wives and children.

A few weeks later Master Isaac sent word to Brother Jacob to come back. Brother Jacob arrived to find that the Sufi master and 250 of his leading disciples were ready to be baptized. So Brother Jacob baptized Isaac and his wives and son. Then he told Isaac’s wives to baptize their daughters. He then instructed Isaac to baptize the 250 senior leaders of his movement and to send them home to baptize their own wives and children, share the word with others, and baptize those who believed. On that day several thousand people were baptized, thus beginning a movement to Christ within a culturally Muslim community.

Brother Jacob had brought along three cases of New Testaments, and he gave these to Master Isaac for distribution to his leaders. But three days later Isaac returned the cases, saying they were obviously not for his people, as they were not in his language—at least not the way they used it. There were too many foreign and ecclesiastical terms, and too many occurrences of words that pertained to a different ethnic group. Brother Jacob, however, had a poetic paraphrase of the gospel story that he had prepared, using familiar and acceptable language, and he offered that. Master Isaac thought this book was wonderful, and he took a large quantity back with him for his flock. At that point Brother Jacob realized that these new disciples of Christ needed a Bible in familiar and intelligible language, and so he initiated a Bible translation project for them, starting with the Gospel of Mark.

These two movements continue as culturally sensitive house-church movements, in spite of various forms of persecution—both from some church people who do not like this approach and from those Muslims who are not happy to see people following Christ. Master Isaac has died, but the movement he led continues under the pastoral care of his sons. They are confident that since it was the Lord Jesus himself who directed them to Brother Jacob and his insider approach, the Lord will also guide and protect them and through them bless the Muslim community to which they belong.¹

The preceding story describes a Jesus movement within a Muslim community—but there is more to it than that. These Muslims became disciples of Jesus in what we could call a “house-church movement,” but which remained part of the Muslim community. Following the guidance of God’s Spirit, they were not integrated into the existing national church, as most Christians would expect.

What happened with Brother Jacob and Master Isaac may be unusual, but it is not unique. Similar stories have emerged, at times causing controversy or conflict within the Christian community (both local and global), not to mention their own non-Christian communities. Within the Christian missions community, this kind of discipleship-to-Jesus movement has often been referred to as an “insider movement” (IM).

As the title indicates, the aim of this book is to aid the reader in “understanding insider movements.” Part 1 sets the stage. Six articles orient the reader to these “disciples of Jesus within diverse religious communities” by providing definition, historical background, conceptual perspective, answers to common questions and objections, and critical reflection on our assessment criteria.

Chapter 1, “Insider Movements: Coming to Terms with Terms” by John Jay Travis, offers a working definition of IMs based on a description of their fundamental characteristics.

In chapter 2, “Historical Development of the Insider Paradigm,” Harley Talman notes that IMs resemble what took place in first-century movements, where original socioreligious identity was retained, but that they differ from the traditional paradigm of Protestant missions. Nevertheless, we can trace the emergence of IM ideas in the modern era back to the late nineteenth century.

Chapter 3, “Muslim Followers of Jesus?” by Joseph Cumming, gives a balanced presentation of two opposing viewpoints, along with a response by an Arab Christian, Martin Accad.

Chapter 4, “When God’s Kingdom Grows like Yeast: Frequently Asked Questions about Jesus Movements within Muslim Communities,” comes from the pens of John Jay Travis and J. Dudley Woodberry, two recognized authorities on IMs in Islamic contexts. (Please keep in mind that IMs occur within communities of other religious traditions as well.)

Chapter 5, “Myths and Misunderstandings about Insider Movements” by Kevin Higgins, Richard Jameson, and Harley Talman, addresses concerns commonly raised by critics.

Chapter 6, “Seeing Inside Insider Missiology” by Len Bartlotti, examines the “lenses” through which we analyze and assess insider movements. It may be that some of our core convictions and theological standards reflect assumptions and personal preferences rather than biblical mandates.

CHAPTER 1

Insider Movements

Coming to Terms with Terms

John Jay Travis

Both Scripture and church history indicate that when people discover Jesus, they want to tell others about it. Similar to the woman at the well, who joyfully shared with fellow Samaritans,¹ many others over the centuries have told their families and friends about Jesus in ways that have led to movements. This present volume explores insider movements, whereby people of non-Christian religions follow Jesus as Lord and Savior while remaining integrally part of the family and socioreligious community of their birth. This first chapter focuses on the meaning and usage of a number of key terms and important related concepts found throughout the book.²

“Socioreligious” and “Religiocultural”

The terms “socioreligious” and “religiocultural” are used to describe the close relationship that is often observed between religion and culture. Millions worldwide understand their religion or religious identity as something inseparably bound to their ethnic, national, social, or family identity. It is instructive that many people with little or no belief in God or interest in spiritual matters still view themselves as members of a religion. This phenomenon might help explain why in the United States, for instance, a recent poll indicates that 77 percent of the population self-identify as “Christian”³ even though it is hard to imagine that this many Americans are actual followers of Jesus. Similar statistics involving religious identity are found in other countries as well, causing some to speak of “cultural Jews,” “cultural Muslims,” or “cultural Christians” (note: while observers may use this terminology, members of these religions do not usually add the word “cultural” when referring to themselves). By using the terms “socioreligious” and “religiocultural,” we remind ourselves that for most of the world, a change of religions is not simply a shift in personal beliefs; it means separation from family, community, and society.

“Christian,” “Christianity,” and “Follower of Jesus”

The way the terms “Christian” and “Christianity” are generally used in this book differs from the narrower meaning that evangelicals typically give them (i.e., denoting true saving faith in Jesus; being “born again”). Rather, most of the authors, having spent much of their lives in cross-cultural ministry, use the terms “Christian” or “Christianity” to designate socioreligious categories, as do many cultures of the world. Thus these terms are applied to both committed and nominal “Christians,” be they Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, or other. The terms “follower/disciple of Jesus” or “follower/disciple of Christ” are more commonly used in this book to refer to those with true faith and heart allegiance to Jesus—what most evangelicals mean when they use the term “Christian.” The initially strange-sounding phrase “non-Christian followers of Christ,” therefore, would indicate people who are socioreligiously not “Christian”—they identify as Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, etc.—yet are spiritually, morally, and biblically true followers or disciples of Jesus.

“Insider,” “Insider Movements,” and Related Terms

Although the term “insider” can be used in a variety of ways, here we mean “a person from a non-Christian background who has accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior but retained the socioreligious identity of his or her birth.” This means that in following Jesus, insiders have not left the religious community in which they were raised, nor have they joined a denomination or branch of Christianity.

Several good definitions of “insider movements” have been published and widely used since 2004.⁴ In the following section is a working definition of this term based on key characteristics of these movements. First, though, we look at two other, related expressions: “Jesus movements within” and “the Insider Movement.”

The term “Jesus movements within” (JMW) is often used in place of “insider movements.”⁵ Many prefer this term because of the clear focus on Jesus and the ability to indicate the religious community in which the movement is occurring: “a Jesus movement within the Hindu community,” o...

Table of contents

• Contributors
• Abbreviations
• PART 1: SETTING THE STAGE Introduction to Part 1
• 1. Insider Movements: Coming to Terms with Terms
• 2. Historical Development of the Insider Paradigm
• 3. Muslim Followers of Jesus?
• 4. When God’s Kingdom Grows like Yeast: Frequently Asked Questions about Jesus Movements within Muslim Communities
• 5. Myths and Misunderstandings about Insider Movements
• 6. Seeing Inside Insider Missiology: Exploring Our Theological Lenses and Presuppositions
• PART 2: EXAMPLES, TESTIMONIES, AND ANALYSIS Introduction to Part 2
• 7. Jesus Movements: Discovering Biblical Faith in the Most Unexpected Places
• 8. When “Christian” Does Not Translate
• 9. Living and Discipling in the Hindu World
• 10. “Why I Am Not a Christian”: A Personal Statement
• 11. The New Buddhists: How Buddhists Can Follow Christ
• 12. Comments on the Insider Movement
• 13. My Enemy . . . My Brother: A Palestinian Christian Meets His Muslim Brothers
• 14. And the Spirit Fell upon Them: Testimonies of the Holy Spirit’s Activity in One Insider Movement
• 15. Jesus Movement: A Case Study from Eastern Africa
• 16. Insider Movements among Muslims: A Focus on Asia
• 17. Pandita Ramabai and the Meanings of Conversion
• 18. Christ Followers in India Flourishing—but Outside the Church: A Review of Herbert E. Hoefer’s Churchless Christianity
• 19. Ecclesial Identities of Socioreligious “Insiders”: A Case Study of Fellowship among Hindu and Sikh Communities
• PART 3: BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Introduction to Part 3
• 20. The Kingdom of God: A Biblical Paradigm for Mission
• 21. The Old Testament and Insider Movements
• 22. Conversion in the New Testament
• 23. Jesus Living and Discipling among the Lost
• 24. Jesus in Samaria: A Paradigm for Church Planting among Muslims
• 25. The Key to Insider Movements: The “Devoteds” of Acts
• 26. The Incarnational Model of Jesus, Paul, and the Jerusalem Council
• 27. Acts 15: An Inside Look
• 28. The Integrity of the Gospel and Insider Movements
• 29. The Supremacy of Scripture: The Transcultural and Timeless Authority for Local Theology in Global Conversation
• 30. Church in Context
• 31. All Things Are Yours
• PART 4: CONTEXTUALIZATION, RELIGION, AND SYNCRETISM Introduction to Part 4
• 32. Liberating Christ from Christians, Christianity, and the Church
• 33. The Gospel as Prisoner and Liberator of Culture
• 34. A Necessarily Wary Enterprise?: North American Evangelicals and Contextualization
• 35. A Third Reformation? Movements of the Holy Spirit beyond Christendom
• 36. The Incarnation, Communication, and Insider Movements
• 37. Reflections on Religion
• 38. (De)Franchising Missions
• 39. Considering Religion(s): What Does the Word Really Mean?
• 40. Religious Syncretism as a Syncretistic Concept: The Inadequacy of the “World Religions” Paradigm in Cross-cultural Encounter
• 41. Contextualization, Syncretism, and the Demonic in Indigenous Movements
• 42. Avoiding Syncretism: The Testimony of a Jesus-following Buddhist
• PART 5: APPROACHES IN WITNESS
• 43. Shall We Try Unbeaten Paths in Working for Moslems?
• 44. An Approach to Witness
• 45. Contextualization among Muslims: Reusing Common Pillars
• 46. Christian Attitudes toward Islam and Muslims: A Kerygmatic Approach
• 47. Roles of “Alongsiders” in Insider Movements: Contemporary Examples and Biblical Reflections
• 48. Become Like, Remain Like (Take Two)
• 49. Evangelizing Whole Families
• 50. Planting Churches: Learning the Hard Way
• PART 6: CONCERNS AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS
• 51. The C1–C6 Spectrum after Fifteen Years: Misunderstandings, Limitations, and Recommendations
• 52. Responding to Christian Concerns 497
• 53. Muslim Followers of Jesus and the Muslim Confession of Faith
• 54. “Is Allah God?”: Five Reasons I Am Convinced
• 55. In the World but Not of It: Insider Movements and Freedom from the Demonic
• 56. Possible Pitfalls of Jesus Movements: Lessons from History
• 57. Where We Agree . . . and Don’t?
• PART 7: IDENTITY Introduction to Part 7
• 58. Insider Movements: Honoring God-given Identity and Community
• 59. Dual Identity and the Church in the Book of Acts
• 60. Consuming Peanuts in the USA and India: Reflecting on the Controversy over Insider Movements
• 61. Heart Allegiance and Negotiated Identity
• 62. Searching for Models of Individual Identity
• 63. Societal Factors Impacting Socioreligious Identities of Muslims Who Follow Jesus
• 64. God’s Creativity in Drawing Muslims to Jesus
• A Look to the Future
• Appendix 1: The Samaritan Religion
• Appendix 2: World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Evangelical Relationships Commitment
• Appendix 3: Review of A Theological Analysis of the Insider Movement Paradigm from Four Perspectives by Doug Coleman
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index
• Many Religions, One Gospel
• Presenting Christ as a Middle Easterner
• Letter from a Jesus Muslim to Christians
• What Marks a Movement as True to the Gospel?
• The Costs of Circumcision for Gentiles
• Not Syncretism, but Assimilation
• Syncretism and Muslim Disciples of Jesus
• Insider Movements: Disputes over the Meaning of Religion
• Fear of Syncretism
• Digging Wells or Building Fences
• Examine Your Attitude
• “Identity Studies,” a Complex Minefield
• The Necessity of Dual Belonging
• End Notes