Developing Community is the Most Crucial Muslim Contextualization Issue?

"Christian workers frequently want to make the transition to Christianity easier for converts from a Muslim background. They try to strip all the external, unnecessary trap from Christianity and flt it into the Muslim setting. They dress as Muslims, develop Jesus mosques, and place a Muslim façade on Christianity in an attempt to make it less offensive. But they seldom develop community.Theologically, the new convert is able to see and understand the gospel; he can exercise faith and experience gifts, and is able to enter into ministry. What he struggles with most is the idea of leaving his community..... I have discovered that in I have discovered that in most settings where large numbers of Muslims have turned to Christ, the common attraction is not contextualization but rather the presence of community."

("Contextualization and Community. Roland Muller. in Encounter the World OF Islam, Lesson 7 extra Readings online to text.)

Real Theological Issues of Muslim Contextualization: Avoiding Reductionism of the Issue!

"At the other end of the spectrum, missiologists sometimes advance theories as facts and simply assert that God is doing a new thing...... A prime case in point is the debate in recent years that has gone on about contextualization in Muslim contexts. Some have asserted or implied that watershed differences exist over cultural issues, when in fact those differences are primarily theological in nature.

The reality is that pretty much everyone agrees that a Muslim who becomes a follower of Christ shouldn’t have to cease being a good cultural Algerian, Nigerian, or Indonesian of whatever ethnicity into which he or she was born. The person does not have to be “extracted” from his or her roots or claim the title “Christian” in the cultural sense in which the term is often equated with perverted Western lifestyles. The individual can continue to honor his or her family and heritage, and do the things that members of his or her society do, up to a point. And that point is reached when doing something communicates falsehood about who Jesus is and what faith in him means.

Falsehood is hyped when the issue is treated as if there are only two choices—extraction or remaining a good Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist, The fact is that the issue is a complex one. While there is an almost universal commitment to avoiding extraction and keeping new believers functioning in their home societies, there is a continuum of understanding as to where lines must be drawn in order to maintain faithfulness to Christ and the gospel. To paint the issue otherwise is to engage in a misleading reductionism, an effort that has the appearance of being intentionally confusing in order to gain acceptability for one’s views."

(A Second Look: The Audacity of Hype and Humility. Gary Corwin Editor EMQ. EMQ January 2009 Vol 45, No 1 pp 7)

Mission Is Leading People to Discover The "True"

" Every lurch forward in the christian tradition springs from the recovery of the true, not the discovery of the new"

(So Beautiful, Lenonard Sweet. David C. Cook, 2009, pp29)

Muslim Cultures see Extraction Evangelism as Abhorrent!

A case for family conversion & methodologies

"Note also the remarks of Michael Youssef, who says, “As a Christian Arab, I know that Arabs do not like alienation. Their whole life is centered upon family, friends and peer groups. We, therefore, have put unnecessary barriers before them in emphasizing the individualistic approach in evangelism.”

This last point is of greatest importance. Up to the present, the most common form of evangelism employed by Westerners has been to win individuals to Christ. This has, in group-oriented cultures, led to extraction from society and, often, to total alienation. This approach should be repudiated. In Western culture, which sees individualism as a positive trait, this is an acceptable form of evangelism. In Muslim countries, however, it is abhorrent. New approaches must be probed that allow for whole groups to come to Christ at once. The high value given to the interrelatedness of society must be retained. This is a good and positive sociological characteristic that must be appreciated and preserved.

(Muslim Evangelism: Contemporary Approaches to Contextualization. Phil Parshall. Gabriel Publishing. 2003 p. 90-91)

The Principle of Identification: Essential to Identify with the people We serve- But do not loose our Identity or Authenticity!

This may give some balance to some modern contextualization issues.

“And this principle of `identification with out loss of Identity’ is the model for all evangelism, especially cross-cultural evangelism.

Some of us refuse to identify with the people we claim to be serving. We remain ourselves, and do not become like them. We stay aloof. We hold on desperately to our own cultural inheritance in the mistaken notion that it is an indispensable part of our identity We are unwilling to let it go. Not only do we maintain our own cultural practices with fierce tenacity, but we treat the cultural inheritance of the land of our adoption without the respect it deserves. We thus practice a double kind of cultural imperialism, imposing our own culture on others and despising theirs. But this was not the way of Christ, who emptied himself of his glory and humbled himself to serve.

Other cross-cultural messengers of the gospel make the opposite mistake. So determined are they to identify with the people to whom they go that they surrender even their Christian standards and values. But again this was not Christ’s way, since in becoming human he remained truly divine. The Lausanne Covenant expressed the principle in these words: “Christ’s evangelists must humbly seek to empty themselves of all but their personal authenticity in order to be come the servants of others” (paragraph 10).”

(“The Bible in World Evangelization,” John Stott, Perspectives on the world Christian Movement, 1999, William Carey Library, Pasadena California Pg24)

Missions Requires a Fidelity to the integrity of the Bible:

“Since it comes from God we must guard it; since it is intended for modern men and women we must interpret it. We have to combine fidelity (constantly studying the biblical text) with sensitivity (constantly studying the contemporary scene). Only then can we hope with faithfulness and relevance to relate the Word to the world, the gospel to the context, Scripture to culture.”

(“The Bible in World Evangelization,” John Stott, Perspectives on the world Christian Movement, 1999, William Carey Library, Pasadena California Pg 23)

What is Syncretism?

A good definition with a few comments.

“………….. translation involves more than putting ideas into native forms, for these forms may not carry meanings suitable for expressing the Christian message. If we, then, translate it into native forms without thought to preserving the meaning, we will end up with syncretism- the mixture of old meanings with the new so that the essential nature of each is lost.

If we are careful to preserve the meaning of the gospel even as we express it in native forms we have indigenization.”

(Crucial Dimensions on World Evangelisation, Arthur F. Glasser, Paul G. Hiebert C Peter Wagner, Ralph D. Winter. William Carey Library 1980 pg 58)

Contextualization at Times Overrated?

"Sometimes contextualization is not even necessary. Contextualizing the gospel to reach the many Muslims in Nigeria and Iran who are disillusioned with their religion, for example, would be counterproductive. James Peterson of the Lutheran Orient Mission Society tells of receiving a phone call several years ago from a Kurdish woman claiming to be meeting with about 30 other women in the name of Jesus.

"Have you left Muhammad?" he asked her. "Of course, Brother," she replied. "We need the gospel.""

(During an interview recorded in "World Pulse", 19 Feb, 1999, pg 5)

(Stan Guthrie, Missions in The Third Millennium, pg 110. 2000, paternoster Press, )

Muslim Contextualization Warnings:

"Islam is an anti-Christian religious system. Claiming, as some missionaries do, to practice Islam but to love Jesus Christ is an untenable contradiction. Islam, which came into the world in the 7th century after Christ, says it is the final revelation of God, that the Christian Scriptures are corrupted, that Jesus did not die on the cross, that one must practice the Five Pillars of Islam, and that Muhammad is a prophet. Claiming to be a part of Islam and a part of Christ's church seems to come dangerously close to linking light with darkness. "

(Stan Guthrie, Missions in The Third Millennium, pg 108. 2000, paternoster Press, )

"A study of a contextualized group in a region code-named Islampur reveals some of the dangers of syncretism. Members were allowed to worship in the mosque and read the Qur'an, in addition to learning from the New Testament and gathering together for worship. Leaders of the group, which has an estimated 45,000 converts, were surveyed for their religious practices and beliefs. Two-thirds maintained that the Qur'an was the greatest holy book; 45 percent did not affirm the Christian Trinity; and about a third went to the mosque more than once a day."

(Stan Guthrie, Missions in The Third Millennium, pg 109. 2000, paternoster Press, )

Warning on C1-C5 Contextualization Issues- Insider Movements

Letter to Editor

Insider Movements and Outsider Missiology

Thanks to Gary Corwin for his pro found commentary, “Insider Movements and Outsider Missiology” (January2006). He hits the nail on the head when he says that “a common phase in.. .conversion. . .is being made by many into an ultimate objective or strategy.. .called insider movements.” The fact that a person can be saved while holding faulty theology has been made a justification for encouraging individuals to remain in a state of weak theology and inadequate fellowship. An earnest desire for increased results has led many workers to abandon biblical perspectives and try out a Pandora’s box of compromises, with the rationale that the end (reaching as many “focus” people as possible) justifies the means.

Perhaps even more problematic than some of the experiments being tried on the field is the host of young workers heading to the field who have heard a good “insider movement” sales pitch, and thereby concluded that anyone not open to “C5” minis try is not in tune with the latest word in missiology. Rather than thinking biblically about the issues, they assume they have learned the key that is going to bring the glorious community movements that eluded their “stodgy” predecessors.

We are all in favor of Christ-followers continuing to live as much as biblically possible as “insiders” in their community. But when “insider” becomes a code word for encouraging entrenched compromise and doctrinal confusion, it is time to ask for clearer definitions and more biblical thinking. Thanks, Gary, for pointing us in that direction.

—A field worker in Southeast Asia

( EMQ. October 2006 Vol. 42, No. 4 Page 420 )