In Christian missiology, an insider movement is a group or network of people from a non-Christian religion who consider themselves followers of Jesus while remaining relationally, culturally and socially a part of the religious community of their birth. Though members of insider movements do not typically join Christian churches in their area or region, they may see themselves as part of the wider Body of Christ. It has been observed that as members of these groups follow Jesus and the Bible, they personally reject, reinterpret, or modify the non-biblical beliefs found in their religious communities. This process makes them different in some ways from their co-religionists, yet when groups can faithfully follow Jesus without formally disassociating themselves from their religious communities, insider movements can occur. Such movements have been observed among a number of religious groups, most notably among Jews, Muslims and Hindus.
Since the 1990s there has been considerable debate among students of missiology as to whether there can truly be faithful followers of Jesus who remain vitally within their former religious culture. Many observers of insider movements have concluded in the affirmative based largely upon their personal relationships with these followers of Jesus. Critics of insider movements are extremely skeptical that persons or groups can effectively reject or modify non-Biblical beliefs and practices within their cultural/religious communities due to the strong social and spiritual pressure of those communities. Therefore, critics believe that any attempt to stay within a non-Christian religious community will lead to a blending of religious beliefs that is syncretistic, untenable, or heretical: an essentialist view of world religions.Joseph Cumming, "Muslim Followers of Jesus?" Christianity Today, December 2009 http://www.christianitytoday.com/globalconversation/december2009/ and Timothy Tennent, "Followers of Jesus in Islamic Mosques," IJFM 23:3 (July-Sept 2006), pp. 101-115 http://www.ijfm.org/PDFs_IJFM/23_3_PDFs/Tennent.pdf, and other articles in St. Francis Magazine, http://www.stfrancismagazine
Definitions Lewis (2007) offers the following widely used definition of an insider movement: An insider movement is any movement to faith in Christ where (a) the gospel flows through pre-existing communities and social networks, and where (b) believing families, as valid expressions of the Body of Christ, remain inside their socio-religious communities, retaining their identity as members of that community while living under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of the Bible.Rebecca Lewis, "Promoting Movements to Christ within Natural Communities," International Journal of Frontier Missions, 24:2 (Summer, 2007), pp. 75-76, http://www.ijfm.org/PDFs_IJFM/24_2_PDFs/24_2_Lewis.pdf
Higgins' (2004) definition is similar to that of Lewis: A growing number of families, individuals, clans, and/or friendship-webs becoming faithful disciples of Jesus within the culture of their people group, including their religious culture. This faithful discipleship will express itself in culturally appropriate communities of believers who will also continue to live within as much of their culture, including the religious life of the culture, as is biblically faithful. The Holy Spirit, through the Word and through His people will also begin to transform His people and their culture, religious life and worldview.“The Key to Insider Movements: The ‘Devoted’s’ of Acts,” IJFM 21:4 (Winter 2004): pp. 155-165. http://www.ijfm.org/PDFs_IJFM/21_4_PDFs/Key_Insider_Higgins.pdf
Emergence of insider movements as a social phenomenon
The Bible describes Jesus as preaching to Jewish, Samaritan and gentile communities and his apostles and the early church did the same.John Ridgway,"Insider Movements in the Gospels and Acts," International Journal of Frontier Missions, 24:2 (Summer 2007):77-86. http://www.ijfm.org/PDFs_IJFM/24_2_PDFs/24_2_Ridgway.pdf According to insider movement advocates, Jesus preached about the Kingdom of God, not about forming a new religious tradition. Over time, however, this basic message of faith took on cultural and linguistic expressions of the peoples and societies where the message was being embraced. The most prominent of these expressions was Christianity, which began as a Greek community and movement of Jesus followers.
In the last two centuries, millions of people from animistic, tribal, and ethnic religious traditions responded to the gospel message, but relatively few responded from the larger, often state-supported faiths of the world's major religious traditions such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, Judaism and Sikhism. Due to the effects of Western colonialism,Stephen Neill, A History of Christian Missions, New York: Penguin, 1977. mission efforts were often seen as attempts to Christianize. These colonial period mission efforts often combined faith in Jesus with aspects of western culture (Westernization) and the religious forms and practices of Anglicans, Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists, and other missionary sending denominations from Western countries.
As Western colonies began to gain their independence in the later half of the 20th century, mission practitioners and missiologists began to question many paradigms of colonial mission practice. Concepts such as people movements, indigenization, contextualization, and incarnational ministry began to challenge earlier methodologies.
At the same time, some adherents of the world's major religious traditions became attracted to Jesus, yet were not drawn to the religion or institution of Christianity. In the 1960s, for example, numbers of Jews, after significant study, came to the conclusion that Jesus was indeed the long-awaited Messiah. Yet they had no emotional or cultural link to the Christian religion, which was often seen as a part of Christendom, and associated with countries that had historically mistreated Jews. Therefore, when these Jews embraced Jesus as Messiah, many opted to remain within Judaism rather than convert to Christianity. Since the 1980s, similar phenomena have been seen among those of other non-Christian religious cultures, most notably among Hindus and Muslims.Woodberry's footnotes document that all of the five pillars have Jewish, Christian or biblical origins and can thus be redeemed and reused by Muslims who follow Christ. Many Jews do not regard Messianic Jews as being true Jews anymore, however. Furthermore, some Jewish followers of Christ have come to consider that the term Messianic Judaism was a mistake, because it placed "the emphasis on rabbinic Judaism instead of Jewish culture".
Proponents of insider movements claim the term does not refer to the blending of two or more religions, morphed into a new religion, as found in the Chrislam sect of Nigeria. Rather, in their view, insider movements refer to grass-roots movements to Jesus, often beginning with healings, dreams, care shown by Christ-following friends, and other spiritual encounters. The way is then often open for further discovery of Jesus through the Bible, radio broadcasts, and other means. If these groups of people who decide to follow Jesus choose to remain within the non-Christian religious communities of their birth, observers often refer to them as insider movements. According to this framework, insider movements are not initiated by outsiders, nor are they a type of missionary strategy or methodology. Rather they are a social phenomena which emerge as entire families, communities, and social networks decide to follow Jesus together within their cultural tradition.
Controversy
The essentialist view and the cultural view of world religions Underlying the question of following Jesus within various religio-cultural systems is an understanding of the nature of world religions. An essentialist approach suggests that each major religion has a core set of beliefs that differs from all the other major religions. Religions are seen as monolithic, with a prevailing interpretation of core doctrine that defines the worldview of its adherents. A cultural approach to world religions, however, holds that they are a conglomeration of diverse communities, defined more by traditions, history and customs than a singular stated core theology. While the essentialist view has traditionally been held, current research in the field of religious studies challenges the essentialist view. Evidence points to a great variety of doctrines and practices within each of the major religious traditions. In practice, many Hindus, Muslims and Christians follow religious traditions with very minimal personal understanding of core beliefs.Cf. Lewis and Slater, “Umbrella terms as Christianity and Buddhism are deceptive. They tend to obscure the rich diversity of belief and practice to be found within these and other traditions.” (Hywel Lewis and Robert Slater, World Religions: Meeting Points and Major Issues, The New Thinker’s Library, London: Watts, 1966, p. 2.)
In terms of insider movements, opponents generally adhere to the essentialist viewpoint, and hold that any mixing of religious traditions involves confusion and compromise. Those who support the validity of following Jesus as a part of an insider movement, on the other hand, tend to adhere to the cultural view of religions, rejecting an essentialist view, although they do affirm two essentials: a commitment to living under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of the Bible. They note the diversity of thought and practice within any given religious label, and see leeway in non-Christian communities for a legitimate expression of following Jesus to develop. They thus contend that a Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist follower of Jesus does not necessarily create confusion or compromise, but can represent an appropriate expression of personal identity.For a critical survey of the development of the concept of world religions see Tomoko Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions, or, How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005, which includes incisive analysis against conceiving of Buddhism as a single religious tradition. Against Hinduism as a singular tradition see Richard E. King, Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India and “The Mystic East,” London: Routledge, 1999. On the erroneous development of the idea that Islam is a monolithic religious tradition see Dietrich Jung, Orientalists, Islamists and the Global Public Sphere: A Genealogy of the Modern Essentialist Image of Islam,London: Equinox, 2010, . Regarding Christianity see the classic work of Wilfred Cantwell Smith, The Meaning and End of Religion: A New Approach to the Religious Traditions of Mankind, New York: MacMillan, (1962).
Religious identity and cultural heritage