* Experienced:  Teams that have been functioning for at least one year.

* Missionary: Teams that are working in a culture other than their own, with plans to develop national leadership for the church.

* Church Planting:  Teams actively working to establish a church capable of reproducing a culturally relevant ministry with its own leadership.

* Teams:  Teams with a designated leader.

* English speaking:  The research will be conducted in English.

* Internet access:  The research will require internet access and email capability.

*** Missions Strategy in the Local Church

*** Caring for Missionaries

*** Caring for Missionary Kids

*** Effective short term mission trips

Find more information at

http://www.traininternational.com

or call Mark at 417-621-8962

I am adding this foreword to this article to clarify my stance on Insider Movements.  I am in opposition to Insider Movements that subjugate the Gospel to culture and/or redact culturally offensive material from the Bible.  (There are some other minor issues that I would not personally practice, but these two are primary and are deal-breakers for me.)  For the most part everything I do and teach is compatible with those who practice Insider Movements.  Unfortunately, the term “Insider Movement” has become identified by traditional Christians and leaders with those who subjugate the Gospel to culture and/or redact culturally offensive material from the Bible.  This means the term has become problematic and raises high passion on all sides of the yelling match (it is not a conversation).  I have dealt with the term “Insider Movement” from the negative side of the argument, including the reasons that cause me to reject the terminology.  It is up to those who embrace the “Insider Movement” terminology to clearly state what they do and do not believe and practice.  I certainly understand that traditional Christians and leaders often say one thing and do another.  But, when the accusations come, it is up to us to Biblically defend our beliefs and practices.  History and tradition have tremendous weight, and those of us who stand against that weight are forced to defend our beliefs and practices, even though the accusers are not held to the same standard.  

Blessings!

David Watson

——–

There is a disturbing trend in missions known as Insider Movements.  I am not going to address all the good things that have come out of Insider Movements. In fact, I have contributed to the body of knowledge related to Insider Movements, and I have incorporated into my work many of the things I have learned from Insider Movements.  I want to address two aspects of Insider Movements that cause me to be in opposition to Insider Movements as they are currently being expressed – The subjugation of the Gospel to culture; and the redaction of culturally offensive material from the Gospel in order to appease a culture.

Insider Movements start with culture and subjugate the message of the Gospel to a particular culture.  Truth starts with the Creator and His message via His Holy Spirit to mankind and through His expression of Himself as the Son of God, Jesus.  (This sentence in an inadequate expression of the nature and function of the Holy Trinity)   The primary authoritative source of God’s communication with mankind is the Bible.  If, because of culture, we choose not to present the entire Word of God to those from any given culture because parts of the message may be offensive, then what we are presenting is NOT the Gospel and it is potentially heretical.  Yeah, I get progressive revelation.  But this is not the same as letting God’s story unfold in all its beauty and ugliness as expressed by mankind, regardless of cultural bias.  It’s changing the story to make it acceptable.

By the way, much of the Western church is guilty of Insider Movement mentality.  We don’t talk about hell.  We avoid controversial issues like homosexuality, adultery, divorce, abusive relationships, the murder of unborn children, and much more.  We don’t demand obedience to the Word of God, love for God and our neighbors, and holiness as the normal expression of devotion to God for those who call themselves Christian.  You can add to the list the things we don’t address from the Bible with new and other Believers, as well as seekers.  Our doctrines have become watered-down, and in some cases heretical, to appease the sensibilities of our Western culture.  Is it a surprise that our mission efforts are following the same trend?

I know.  Insider Movements are trying to be culturally sensitive.  Culturally Sensitive Expressions remove or never incorporate Western or other-culture expressions of leadership, worship, governance, and etc.  Culturally Sensitive Expressions ask the question, “How do we obey the Word of God in our context, regardless of what it may cost us?”  It is not being culturally sensitive to change the message of the Bible, which was given to us by God.  It is being heretical.  This is true whether you are removing the “Son of God” language to appease Muslims, or if you are saying the commandments of Jesus were just for the 11 Apostles and we don’t need to worry ourselves about obeying them in our churches today, or if you are teaching that there is no hell.

Muslims will die for one letter of the Quran.  What message do we send when we are willing to change and/or ignore entire passages of the Bible in order to be culturally sensitive?  Why will we fight for “grace”, “mercy” and “forgiveness”, but ignore “repentance”, “obedience” and “good works”?  Has our desire to be culturally sensitive in order to reach people for Christ taken us away from Christ and made it impossible for us to lead people to Christ?

The most disturbing issue related to Insider Movement mentality is the willingness or demand to redact the printed Word of God in order to be sensitive to the culture.  Whether it’s the removal of the “Son of God” language, the changing of the “Father God” (gender) language, or the removal of anything that someone may consider offensive; any change to the Word of God begs the question, “Where does it stop!?”  There is a difference between scholarly interpretation/translation of the Bible with peer review and changing the thrust and meaning of the Bible to appease culture.  The Bible should address the sinful and/or misguided worldviews of mankind, not comply with them.  God is the standard, not our culture(s).

The moment we put any culture above the message of God, we become a hindrance to that culture knowing and obeying God within their context.  We become the source of heresy.  We must come back to the central doctrine of Scripture – it is given by God for us to obey.  God’s love language for mankind is certainly grace and mercy.  But mankind’s love language for God is obedience to all the commands of Christ.  Anything less or anything else takes us from God, not to God.  When we are moving from God, how can we show others how to find God?

Blessings!

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“Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. There is his commission, his work. ‘The kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people. O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ! If Christ had done what you are doing who would ever have been spared’ (Luther).”

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community)

http://www.creativeresultsmanagement.com/courses/coaching01.htm

for details. Or email

https://trainandmultiply.com

http://paul-timothy.net/

We’ve mentioned them before in Brigada, but it’s been a while. Allan, one of the guys in our Equipping Dept. at Team Expansion, sent out a note to our staff about them this past week and it reminded me it had been too long since we mentioned them here. Last we heard, the Paul-timothy materials are free and available in English, Chinese, Spanish, and various languages of India. Train & Multiply comes with a fee and, in Allan’s words, “is also in a bazillion languages.” (That must be a scientific number/term because, if I recall, he has his Ph.D. in Chemistry or Physics. Thanks Allan.)

http://wipfandstock.com/store/The_Facilitator_Era_Beyond_Pioneer_Church_Multiplication

(That line will wrap. If you have trouble, just use the link below to navigate to the Brigada page, then click and find the book from there.)

Another Guest Post from David Broodryk.  I spent the last three weeks with David in South Africa.  We discussed many of the topics covered in this post.  David is working hard to develop Disciple-making approaches for a post modern culture.

Discovery and the Inductive Approach

There are two main approaches to Bible study.  One is inductive.  The other is deductive.  Discovery groups work with an inductive approach.  They fail when using a deductive approach.  The struggle we have in particularly Christian-background cultures is that most seminaries and churches teach a deductive approach to scripture.  When this Christian baggage is carried into our Discovery groups, it causes serious problems.

The Deductive approach

A deductive approach begins with generalizations, conclusions or doctrines and moves for support of these by using scripture.  In other words, it begins with a prior belief and then attempts to make scripture support this predetermined belief.  Deduction is subjective and often prejudicial.  It is narrow by nature and is concerned with testing or proving hypotheses.  It produces Christians who dictate to the Scriptures, rather than disciples who listen to the Scriptures.

When we talk about placing the Word of God in the hands of ordinary people, many church leaders express a fear that heresy will develop (A fascinating return to pre-reformation thinking!).  This fear arises from their deductive training.  A deductive Bible study or sermon begins from a point that the teacher is trying to make, and then uses a number of scripture verses and examples to support that conclusion. Most Western churches are built on this deductive approach to scripture.  So are most cults.  A cult begins when a powerful leader begins with a premise and then brews a concoction from scattered pieces of scripture to construct support for his premise.   Cults are formed when God’s people become too lazy to form their understanding of truth on Scripture itself, but rely on a strong teacher or denomination to interpret scripture for them.  Cults use the deductive approach in order to keep people ignorant of the scriptures and dependent on the leaders of the cult.  This “top down” approach is the root cause of most heresies.  The result of the church adopting this approach to scripture is that most churches are “heresy management centres.”  They are continually trying to counter heretical deductive reasoning with truth arrived at by using the same deductive approach.  The result is all kinds of arguments about often petty issues that ignore the simplicity of plain obedience to scripture.  The best defence against heresy in small groups is not a deductive process, but rather an inductive approach to scripture.

This is not to say that there is no place for the deductive approach.  Not all deductive study is dogmatic or heretical (making scripture say something it actually does not say).  At its most basic level, deductive Bible study is simply instruction in Biblical doctrine.  As long as doctrine is formed by correctly handling scripture, it is of some benefit.  Of course, in deductive Bible study the student places a lot of trust in his teacher to guide him through the doctrines.  This creates a problem in our “insight-based” culture.  Too often, leaders under pressure to reveal their “latest insight” fall into weaving a web of interpretations that appear to support their desired view.  They deceive themselves and their audience by impressing their own thinking into the Bible rather than allowing the Bible to impress it’s thinking on them.  They are less concerned with what the scriptures say than they are about protecting their own personal insight.  The result, regardless of the teacher’s intent, is that the listeners are misled (2 Peter 3:16).  It is therefore vital that we teach believers to be like the Bereans, who tested what they heard against the scriptures (Acts 17:11-12).  This is the strongest defence against heresy.  Scripture teaches this practice, continually warning us to guard against fables, babblings and contradictions that are falsely called knowledge (1 Timothy 1:3-4; 6:3-5; 6:20-21; 2 Timothy 2:17-18; 4:3-4).  The only way to truly test what Scripture says is to use an inductive approach.

The Inductive Approach

A better approach in a small group is an inductive approach to scripture (what we call a Discovery Group).  An inductive approach is objective and impartial. It demands that we first examine the particulars of the Scriptures and then make conclusions based on those particulars. It begins with the plain text of scripture, and encourages participants to read the passages and draw conclusions directly from what the text itself says.  Inductive reasoning, by its very nature, is more open-ended and exploratory.  It uses questions asked by a facilitator in order to elicit thought and learning.  It is a highly effective learning method, especially in a self-correcting group process.  Facilitators of an inductive study group are trained to ask questions, not provide answers.  People are trained to study the scriptures.  They are taught to ask questions which help them understand what is going on, what is being said, and how that relates to the rest of the passage.   Inductive Bible study on the basic level is simply careful instruction in the meaning of the Biblical text.  It produces students of Scripture rather than students of doctrine.

A simple inductive study involves three steps:

1)      Observation of the scripture (what does it say?)

2)      Interpretation of the scripture (what does it mean?)

3)      Application of the scripture (what will I do in response?)

The purpose of inductive Bible Study is not to build doctrine (although over time people do begin to form doctrinal understandings based on the scriptures they have read).  Rather, it is textual in nature, demanding careful examination of the Biblical texts in order to know what they mean and how we should apply them to our lives.  The primary purpose of the inductive approach is to lead students into a knowledge and understanding of scripture that moves them towards practical application (2 Timothy 3:15-41).  The ultimate goal of a faithful Bible teacher should be to raise his students up to his level of understanding and obedience, so that they may eventually instruct and correct him (Ephesians 4:11-16).

A common objection to the simple inductive process is that people will become so focused on the details of the text, that they overlook the larger picture.  It is true that a person or group looking at one text or passage can interpret that passage incorrectly.  In our post-modern age of personal insight and personal application that is a valid concern.  However, the objection ignores the fact that over time, the group will self-correct if taught correctly.  Any imbalance is corrected over time through a balanced approach to the entire body of Scripture.  As new scriptures are introduced, the group learns a vital principle of interpretation – that scripture interprets scripture.  Without fail, they adjust and grow in their understanding of scripture at a deeper level than the deductive approach would ever have produced.

How Deductive reasoning destroys groups

The biggest failure of the deductive approach is that it does not lead naturally to obedience.  Rather, it most often leads to disagreements and arguments between group members.  This sometimes happens so subtly and suddenly, that an inexperienced facilitator is easily caught off guard.  Christians, especially, are so programmed to think deductively that some of them almost never “get it.”  For example, let’s look at an all-too-common interaction when Christians attempt the Discovery process:

Facilitator: What is this passage in Genesis 1 saying?

John (unbeliever): It says to me that God made everything (inductive conclusion).

James (new believer): This passage tells me that God made everything around me.  If that is true, then we have a responsibility to look after it.  This week, I will make a point of picking up litter and looking after the world that God created (inductive conclusion and obedience statement).

John (unbeliever): It seems to be saying that God made everything in six days and then rested on the seventh day.  I have been working a lot lately, but if God saw the need to take time to rest, then I also need rest.  I will take time this week to rest and spend time with my family (inductive conclusion and obedience statement).

Mary (believer): Well, I don’t believe God made the world in six literal days.  If you allow me, then I can show you that the days were not literal, but figurative.  Also, Jesus did away with the Sabbath.  In Hebrews it says . . . (approaching scripture with a doctrinal premise and using scriptures to try prove a point).

Facilitator: Mary, let’s try to stick with this passage and learn what God is saying to us through it – how we can obey Him.

Mary (gets offended): Well, if you don’t want to hear what I have to say then tell me so.  I think it is important for these new believers to understand what the Bible really says!  They can easily fall into error, you know!

What is taking place in this interaction?  The unbeliever and new believer easily follow the inductive approach.  They deal with the passage before them and instinctively follow the process of “simple truth simply obeyed.”  The believer enters the discussion loaded with deductive reasoning and defensive doctrine.  She believes that she is the defender of truth.  Unaware of the consequences of her actions, Mary continually interferes with the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the others present.  She uses her doctrines to avoid simple obedience.  Her statements muddy the waters, making it difficult to see the simple truth in the scriptures before the group.  The ideal is to never have unbelievers and believers together in the same group.  In reality, this is not always possible.  In this case, Mary will need to be confronted gently until she changes or leaves.  Left unchecked, her behaviour will destroy the group.

How deductive reasoning destroys replication

The inductive process keeps the Word of God as the central authority in the group.  This is easily replicated.  The group does not need a Bible expert to lead the group – they simply need a Bible.  Members of the group quickly understand this and develop a boldness to start groups of their own.

However, when the group falls into a deductive mode, members become passive.  Stronger leaders that dominate the conversation quickly emerge.  These leaders become the “experts and defenders” of Biblical truth.  Members of the group stop participating for fear of being shot down by the experts.  Replicating the group becomes impossible, or at best extremely slow, because each new group needs another expert in order to survive.  Groups based on deductive reasoning cannot effectively replicate.

 Inductive rules

A simple set of rules have helped us to keep the Discovery groups faithful to the inductive process.  These rules guide the group discussion. 

Rules for a Discovery Group:

1)      The passage preaches, not any person.  Stick with the passage of scripture in front of the group – no “hyperlinking” to other passages!

2)      No individual may impose his or her “insight” on others – stick with the plain and simplest meaning of the passage in front of the group.

3)      Any individual may challenge any other individual in the group with one simple question, “Where does it say what you are saying in this passage of scripture?”

The rules are not fool-proof.  We still have people resorting to deductive reasoning.  But the rules have helped us to stay reasonably faithful to the process – even in a churched context.  In order to work, every member of the group must “own” the rules.  Every member of the group becomes a policeman of the process.  And yes, people with a Western church background are by far the most difficult to manage in this process!

Curriculum Design

It is vital that those who design and determine curriculum, have a deep understanding of the inductive process.  Curriculum cannot be scripture-based – it must be scripture-only.  Curriculum designers cannot begin with a premise and then attempt to piece together passages that support that premise.  The meaning must flow from the simplest interpretation of the passages.  This becomes even more complex when working with various translations, cultures and languages.  The basic test for curriculum designers is, “Does the simplest interpretation of this text inside the target culture and language, using the translation that people will be reading, consistently lead to the desired truth discovered and obeyed?”  Application is often personal, but the interpretation should be consistent.  This kind of curriculum is something that is only arrived at through careful research, practical testing, intensive review and a dynamic process of continued self-correction.

Conclusion

The Discovery process is a powerful method for leading people to become obedient followers of Christ.  But in order to work, it needs to stay with an inductive approach to scripture.  Curriculum designers must stay engaged through a dynamic process of testing and self-correction. Outside leaders must carefully train the inductive method.  Facilitators must ensure that the approach to scripture remains inductive.  Any member of the group that enters into deductive reasoning can potentially destroy the process.  When every person in the process becomes a guardian of the inductive process, it never leads to heresy, but rather releases the life-transforming power of the gospel.

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