PART I: Letters from a Missionary Wife, Part 1

PART II: Letters from a Missionary Wife, Part 2
In response to our home office asking us our thoughts on IM:

Dear Leadership,

Being a believer in Christ has always been counter to the culture, a going against the flow – a light in the midst of darkness.  The gospel is an offense to the natural man and only by God’s grace and mercy is a person called into His kingdom.

As field workers I think that you know we stand firmly against the “Insider Movement” or C5/6 – for J and myself it is “another gospel” and we are supportive of every effort to see it purged from our Mission movement.  Under the guise of being a “model” or more “culturally appropriate” way of leading people to Christ – it presents a false Christ in our view – it is nothing more than a deception.  How can it be that redeemed Christians think they need to “help out God” by being “relevant” – Christ’s message shared during His time lead him to the cross and He only promised us persecution and eternal life with Him.  Our only mandate is to teach the truth – Jesus is the way, the truth and the life – salvation only through Him.  I would fear my judgement before God if I were to have handled the Koran in such a way that I implied it was another “holy book” from God.  I can be respectful – but to imply that I thought there was any other holy man except Christ – and any other word of God except for our scriptures would be to deceive.  To teach people that is is OK to continue in the practices, traditions and ways of darkness is no salvation at all.

Why has it (C5/6) received so little support amongst MBB’s?  Because they truly have followed Christ and counted the cost – they understand the turning from sin in their lives – the break from false belief – I believe that workers who follow the C5/6 model have not done this themselves.  They have measured their success by numbers and felt wanting – and have searched for yet another “method” to follow – to give them hope.  They may have had no results for one of two reasons: 1)  they are still sowing and the God of the harvest has not brought it in yet or 2)  they are not boldly sharing the gospel in the first place – how will they know if they have not heard?  To practice the C5/6 says that God’s sovereignty is not at play – that His word will not bring back a harvest – that the truth alone will not set people free – that His sheep will not know His voice.  God needs our help because he doesn’t understand cultures and our present situation.  Oh dear!!!  How sad that amongst Christians we even have to be discussing this.

There is an Arab person who is traveling in and out of North Africa presently and has been advocating this “insider model” for some years and says things in public to M people that is very dishonoring to Christians.  A North African church leader was present at one of these public sessions and openly challenged him on what he was saying.  The North African church leader identified himself as such to the audience and challenged what this person was saying.  If you would like you can speak directly with this North African leader.  His attitude is that Foreign workers do not know any better concerning Insider Movement – he is not going to challenge them directly but he has very strong opinions about this Arab person who is as far as we are concerned a deceiver.  This may sound harsh but the time has come to call things as they are – we are not talking about those lost outside of the church but about those who say they are part of it and are supposed to be representing Christ.  This is a very different thing.

We have had MBB friends approached by C5/6 workers and told that they were “denying” their heritage as NA people by calling themselves Christians.  These workers were trying to convince converted people that they should have not made the changes in their life that they did – what kind of teaching is this??  It is no surprise to me that sending churches are reacting negatively against hearing about this movement – my first thought actually upon hearing about it was – I wonder if home churches would support a worker if they knew exactly what they are doing?  Do they really know and understand Insider Movement?

We have had to make very direct statements with many national believers and fellow co workers to disassociate ourselves with this movement – we unfortunately were being lumped in with this.  The follow up system that we have been very involved in for media has made some very strong statements to its workers that this will not be part of what we do. Unfortunately in our country in North Africa we had to remove workers from our own mission from the system of receiving contacts because they could no longer be counted on.

Dear leadership – this is where we firmly stand.  Our Mission Agency may be known for “pushing the boundaries”  but at what price?  We now stand on sinking sand with this issue and must make a firm break from it.  God will not be mocked by this and our mission’s movement will reap what it sows if it continues to allow it (C5/6) to take root.  To allow members to continue on this path brings the whole movement into disrepute.  The very fact that I had to sit at a conference through an hour long presentation of the model to explain and convince me of it should send warning flags to all – it sure sent off every warning bell we had!!  We were sorely grieved by it.  The only model that works is telling the truth and telling it clearly – not all will come – but those who Christ has called will.

We trust that your time taken apart will be clarifying for you – leading is SO hard and you will have to make unpopular decisions but stand on the word and you cannot fail.   I have been reading Romans as of late – wow!!  Our next week is full with the NA partnership conference – the big one – I am sure this issue will come up.

We bless you today,

J and J

PART IV: Letters from a Missionary Wife, Part 4