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Insider Movement – An assessment – Jay Smith
General Description of Contextualization:
The following is a brief summary of the contextualization scale developed by John Travis
to describe models of contextualization.
 C1- Traditional church using non-indigenous language. Christian churches in Muslim
countries entirely removed from the culture. Christians exist as an ethnic/religious
minority.
 C2- Traditional church using indigenous language. The cultural forms are still far
removed from the broader Islamic culture.
 C3- Contextualized Christ-centred communities using Muslims’ language and nonreligiously indigenous
cultural forms. Style of worship, dress, etc., are loosely from
the indigenous culture. Local rituals and traditions, if used are purged of religious
elements. May meet in a church or a more religiously neutral location. The majority
of the congregation is of Muslim background and call themselves Christians.
 C4- Contextualized Christ-centred communities using Muslims’ language and
biblically permissible cultural and Islamic forms. Similar to C3 except believers
worship looks like Muslim worship, they keep the fast, avoid pork and alcohol, use
Islamic terms and dress. Community is almost entirely of Muslim background.
Though highly contextualized, believers are not seen as Muslims by the Muslim
community. Believers call themselves “followers of Isa Al-Masih, Jesus the
Messiah.
 C5- Christ-centred communities of “Messianic Muslims” who have accepted Jesus as
Lord and Saviour. Believers remain legally and socially within the Islamic
community. Aspects of Islam incompatible with the Bible are rejected or if possible,
reinterpreted. Believers may remain active in the mosque. Unsaved Muslims
may view C5 believers as deviant and may expel them from the Islamic community.
If sufficient numbers permit, a C5 mosque may be established.
 C6- Small Christ-centred communities of secret/underground believers. These can be
individuals or small groups isolated by extreme hostility. Openly sharing faith is
typically not attempted.
SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES FOR SUPPORT OF C-5
1)
Acts 21:20-26 Paul is asked by James and the elders to do the purification rites, to show that he is still
“living in obedience to the law”. Since Paul was willing to continue following Jewish custom, so should our
Muslim friends.
Answer: He does as they suggest, to pacify them, yet this still does not satisfy the Jews, who assault him, have
him arrested, and try to kill him (see also chapter 22). Also, in Chapter 21:25, the elders tell the Gentile believers
to no longer eat meat sacrificed to idols, suggesting that customs outside of Judaism, dedicated to other gods, are
forbidden. Would not this include prayers and worship to Allah, a pagan god?
2)
1 Corinthians 9:19-22 “Becoming like” Paul is basically saying that we should contextualize ourselves to be
relevant.
Answer: Yet Paul would not say that we should become a pagan or Muslim, anymore than someone working with
drug addicts should take drugs, in order to be like them.
3)
us.
1 Corinthians 7:17-19 Paul is intimating here that we are “Stay like” that condition in which Christ found
Answer: Yet Paul does not say that Gentiles should stay as pagan worshippers in their local temple (or mosques),
but speaks specifically of staying in your station in which Christ found you, i.e. your job or position in society.
4)
Matthew 5:15 To remain and influence one’s ‘oikos’, the new believer should be a ‘light on a stand’ in
that oikos, and not be extracted, where they no longer have any influence, as a light would.
Answer: Putting a lamp on a stand within ones Muslim oikos certainly doesn’t mean to remain a Muslim, as a
lamp shines against, or destroys the darkness, and is opposition to that darkness (i.e. they will be in opposition to
Islam). A true person who is a lamp will actually confront the darkness of Islam, and publicly, as a lamp confronts
the darkness and destroys it.
BOOKS AND ARTICLES WHICH EXPLAIN THEIR PRADIGM:
Mazhar Mallouhi’s Paradigm, from his book, “Pilgrims for Christ on the Muslim Road” (particularly Chapter 5):
1)
Mallouhi seems to have experienced rejection and insensitivity at the hands of American, Western
Christians, and feeling their rejection went back to his Muslim roots, believing this was the solution.
Answer: How can this be the solution? It will only isolate him even moreso from the Western and American
Christians whose acceptance he seeks.
2)
Mallouhi assumes Christianity is just another religion, on par with all religions.
Answer: What he forgets is that Christianity has had 2,000 years of becoming like ‘Christ’, adapting Christ’s
character, teaching and example within each culture.
3)
Mallouhi continually equates Arab and Islam, as if the two are mutually interchangeable.
Answer: Is it not possible to separate an Arab identity from that of Islam? Are there not Christian Arabs; do they
not have an identity, and can not that identity be entertained, adopted, and even used as a model for MBBs
coming out of Islam?
-Is it not possible to create Arab Christian identity markers in worship, music, food, dress, poetry and prose,
which are not Muslim? Other cultures have done it (i.e. Bhajans in Hindu India, etc…)
4)
Mallouhi believes the Sufi Muslim paradigm is a solution, since it is so close to Christianity, attempting to
find and adopt a personal relationship with god.
Answer: He fails to realize that the foundation of their Mysticism is a false and dangerous god, to whom we are
not to pay any allegiance (Acts 21:25), and that orthodox Muslims find it just as heinous as Western Christian
models, and will bring about as much or more persecution upon them.
5)
Mallouhi’s Christology: “Mahatma Gandhi…a Hindu by allegiance, but a Christ follower by affinity. And I
fully expect to see Gandhi when we are privileged to enter God’s presence in eternity”
Question: Would Gandhi ascribe a triune divine status to the ‘Jesus’ he followed? If this is the Jesus the Insider
Movement is claiming, than it is not the Jesus I know and love.
Article by David McCallum, entitled, ‘Become like – Stay like’
1)
We must not use Extraction, because it is due to this that persecution is caused, which is unbiblical,
therefore it is best to let them remain in their ‘Oikos’, where they are safe, and where they can continue with
their Muslim rituals, unheeded, yet still be redemptive in that environment.
Answer: It is simplistic and incorrect to say that when we ask Muslims to ‘become Christians’, causing extraction
from their ‘Oikos’, that this is “unbiblical” (see the price expected of all disciples in Matt. 10:35-39)
-To denigrate the idea of ‘becoming Christian’ because they will be evicted, divorced, fired, and killed is to
cheapen the gospel, and stands against the experience of the early church, to say nothing of the persecution
experienced by Christians for the last 2,000 years, and continuing today.
-Is it safe, or wise to leave a new Christian within their Muslim oikos, where they can be influenced & reverted
back to their worship of Islam?
-Remaining in one’s ‘oikos’ = going to the mosque, praying, fasting, using the Qur’an means that they retain
Muslim ‘identity markers’ which have enormous spiritual values & power, and can be deceitful as well.
2)
A new believer must not go back into the old wine skin of Christianity, but be poured into the new wine of
Islam.
Answer: McCallum has the parable backwards, since, if they are coming out of Islam (the old wine skin) they are
then putting New Wine into New Wine skins (Christianity), and not Old Islam.
3)
One can accept the term Muslim, as defined in Sura 5:111.
Answer: How can we accept the term Muslim as defined in Sura 5:111, since it includes accepting Muhammad as
a legitimate prophet? Also, do we really accept the Allah of the Qur’an as the same god as Yahweh of the Bible?
Questions for the Insider Movement:
Christology: Who is the Jesus the Insider Movement are introducing? If he is simply ‘Lord and Saviour’, how is
that defined? We need a definition which includes Jesus as ‘the triune, incarnate God, who died on the cross to
save us and redeem us back to himself’.
-The few ‘Messianic Muslims’ who have been questioned believe in heresy when it comes to Jesus (Nikides
article), forcing one to be suspicious of exactly what or who they have been converted to.
Quarantine: -If the Insider MBBs remain isolated in their ‘Jamaat’s’, then how are they going to grow in the Lord,
and what’s to protect them from sinking into heresy, especially if the only contact they will get is with other
Muslims?
-If Insider MBB’s ‘stay like’ (i.e. remain in their Muslim culture, 1 Corinthians 7:17-19) they will find it even more
difficult to assimilate with the larger Christian community, Western or other, and vice versa, and become a ghetto
unto themselves.
-What’s more, if the Insider MBBs have to be quarantined from other Christians for their protection, then how
are we going to enjoy fellowship with them as ‘Brother’s in Christ’?
Identity Codes: By adopting Muslim dress, name, fast, prayer and worship, insider missionaries and insider MBB’s
trivialize the importance of those identity codes for Muslims, and could lead to confusion at best, or persecution
at worst.
Security: Current uncertainty and mistrust of new Muslim converts by Christian MBB communities and churches
will be exacerbated by insider MBBs who remain ‘Muslims’, as the Christian church won’t know who they are,
what their agenda is, and who their allegiance is to.
-What will Muslims do when they find out what the Insider Movement is doing to their believers? How will they
react? (i.e. Dispatches ‘Unholy War’ and Stephen Bell)
Deceit: When we go in with deceit, as we do to get into the Muslim world, it unfortunately makes it that much
easier to continue that deceit, and then not know when to stop.
-Deceit seems to be given a lower priority for ‘insiders’, and is acceptable because it ‘seems to work’ (‘ends justify
the means’)
Publicity: What will happen once the Western press finds out what we are doing (i.e. Dispatches)?
-If American Christianity is the problem, and Arab/Muslim identity is the solution, what then do American
missionaries have to offer?
Persecution: If our motivation is to eradicate persecution, then what are we going say to our brothers in other
areas of the world who willingly face persecution…are their lives cheaper than our Arab brothers?
Conclusion: I get the distinct impression that those who propose the Insider Movement are motivated by the fear
of extraction for their ‘converts’, and the fear of persecution for them, and possibly even towards themselves. I
also wonder if another motivation might be a desire for increased and quick numbers (i.e. if you want to get great
statistics, then assimilate, which will give you the desired responses, as confrontation tends to do the opposite). I
also feel that many of them start from a position of embarrassment of their own American culture (this is
primarily an American paradigm), as well as an embarrassment of the Western church, at a time when it easy and
comfortable to be so inclined. It seems that they have begun with a premise impregnated with post-modern
thought (i.e. that there are no absolutes), especially in culture, so that every culture (and even religion) is equal,
making it easier for them to accept and adapt their missiology to incorporate Islamic ‘culture’, which is really
Islamic religion. Because American Christianity has been able to adapt to the forms of our culture (names, styles
of dress, worship, etc…), insider proponents seem to think that the same works for Islam, without understanding
the enormous spiritual forces at work in Islamic forms, which is not only simplistic, and naïve, but dangerous. I
am not sure who they are converting their believers to, or how they hope to incorporate them into the wider
Christian community, once ‘converted’.