CONTEMPORARY

MISSIONARY MOVEMENTS
ADP3113
WEEK 8th
 Previous lecture
• Have discussed the expansion and
missionary efforts/works of the Christian
Missionary Movements in Malaysia – post
war period up to the present day.
• The establishment of CFM and
MCCBCHS – lead by the Christian
movements.
METHODS OF MISSIONARY
WORK IN MALAYSIA
 Objective
• To explain what are the methods used by
the Christian missionaries in spreading
their words.
• To discuss the role of the Contemporary
Missionary Movements in spreading
Christianity
 Introduction
• The Christian Missionaries have been
actively preaching and spreading their
message to every corner of the globe.
 Introduction
• Missionaries work in various ways for
example:
• Through education
• Health
• Church development and missionary activities
• Donation
• Mass Media
• Translation and Publication
• Dialogue
 Cont’d.
• All of these methods can be categorized
under four major classification.
• Evangelism
• Contextualization Approach
• Psychological Approach
• Political Approach.

(Ghazali Basri, 2004:25-35)

 Evangelism
• Evangel means Gospel or ‘good news’.
• Evangelism is the verbal proclaiming of
the Christian Gospel or, by extension, any
other form of preaching or proselytizing.
• The spreaders of the good news –
disregard which denominations they
belongs to- call themselves as evangelist.
 Reason for Evangelism
• Based on the Biblical evidence.
• “Go and make disciples of all nations ,
baptizing them in the name of the
Father and the Son and the holy Spirit
and teaching them to obey everything I
have commanded you”. (Matthew 18-19)
 Cont’d
• The need to every Christian to spread the
Gospel and to establish the Christian
churches as a manifestation of his/her
faith in God

(Richardson, 1977:26).
 How they operate?
• Work in denominations or organizations
e.g. Billy Graham Evangelist Association
 APPROACHES TO
EVANGELISM
• Christians have used many methods to
spread Christianity via Evangelism.

• They began with only a few different

evangelical approaches, but over the
years, many different forms of evangelism
have been employed by various groups to
spread the faith.
 APPROACHES TO
EVANGELISM
• Many of these forms of evangelism have
been controversial, and are often
employed in only certain parts of the world
by Christians in different geographical
areas.
• Most new approaches to evangelism today
have arisen out of Europe or the US
especially when new technologies are
utilized for the effort of evangelism.
 Evangelism Approach
• There are basically three approaches used
by the evangelist namely;
• Small group or one to one basis.
• Comprehensive approach
• Infiltration approach.
Small group or one to one basis
1. Open-air preaching
– One of the earliest open-air preachers of Christianity,
according to the Gospels, was Jesus Christ, who's
first specifically recorded sermon was the Sermon of
the mount which took place on a mountainside in the
open air.
 Cont.
• 2. Trickle-down evangelism
– is an approach to evangelism primarily
concerned with converting high ranking
members of a society, so that their influence
can serve to help spread Christianity
throughout the society in question. It was
practiced especially often during the Middle
ages.
 Cont.
• 3. Door to door preaching
– Door to Door preaching is an approach to
evangelism where a Christian will go from
household to household in a certain area to
evangelize the residents, often in conjunction
with passing out gospel tracts (leaflet).
 Cont.
• Groups such as the Jehovah witness and
Mormons are famous for spreading their
message by direct preaching to the public at
their homes, which Jehovah's Witnesses in
particular believe to be obligatory.
• This is sometimes viewed with annoyance by
people who do not necessarily share the
evangelist's beliefs.
– Mormon is a term used to describe the adherents, practitioners, followers or constituents of
Mormonism. The term most often refers to a member of The Church Jesus Christ of Latter-
day-saint (LDS Church), which is commonly called the Mormon Church.
 Cont.
• 4. Evangelizing through a sermon
– Many churches regularly have a gospel
message preached in a sermon. Often, this
will include an altar call where people are
invited to come forward and "accept Christ".

– The use of altar calls is somewhat

controversial, some object it in the grounds it
creates false conversions.
 Cont.
• 5. Lifestyle evangelism
– is an approach to evangelism characterized
by someone demonstrating their faith by their
actions in the hope that people around them
will be impressed with how God affects that
person's life, and become a Christian.
 Cont.
• Supporters also often point out that Jesus
drew people to God by showing them
kindness and performing good deeds.

• This is more effective than direct

evangelism
 Cont.
• 6. Friendship evangelism
– Similar to lifestyle evangelism, friendship
evangelism is an approach to evangelism
characterized by Christians developing
relationships with people in order to show
them kindness and talk to them about God
eventually.
 Comprehensive Approach
• Commonly applied by the
Congregationalists such as Presbyterian,
Lutheran and Church Missionary Society.
• Focus the evangelistic efforts on four
major area; job sector, academic sector,
career and charity e.g. Donation rich country to poor
country, orphanage etc.
 Infiltration Approach
1. Publications and distributions of
Christians literatures and the holy book
(using local language).
• Considered as one of the effective ways in
reaching out the Muslims.
• …The printed page enters close doors,
especially in Moslem lands….(Peter,
1979:398).
 Cont.
• 2. Televangelism
– is an approach to evangelism characterized
by an evangelistic message presented
through the medium of television
 Cont.
• 3. Internet evangelism
– is a form of evangelism where the gospel is
presented on the internet. This may include a
website defending the accuracy of the Bible,
someone discussing their faith in a chat room,
or other methods of using the internet to
spread Christianity.
 Psychological Approach
• Intend to influence one’s emotion and
thought.
• Establish a sincere relationship with the Muslims
• Be honest, respectful, friendly, considerate, tolerance and
open.
• Be courteous and loving.
• Emulate the Muslim ways of life - avoidance of liquor
• Invite a Muslim friend to a function at church in order to
develop friendships with other Christians. When
appropriate, offer to take your Muslim friend to a church
service.
 Cont.
• Some tips witnessing to Muslims.
• Dialogue- Be a good listener;
– Reflect interest in their beliefs. Allow them time to articulate their
views.
– Be acquainted with their basic beliefs.
– Be willing to examine passages of the Qur'an concerning their
beliefs.
– Stick to the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith but also take
time to respond to all sincere questions.
– Do not express malicious attitude to the Muslim prophet and
their Holy Quran.
– Don't get into a battle of the books, - the Qur'an versus the Bible.
Let the Bible speak for itself. The straightforward assertions of
the Bible are powerful, and through them the Holy Spirit works.
 Cont.
– Do focus the conversation on Jesus Christ after you establish a
relationship of trust and friendship. Use the Word of God. Avoid
all pictures of God, Jesus, or other biblical personalities as white
with blue eyes and blond hair.
– Don’t use the word "Trinity" because this word often connotes
the worship of three gods to the Nation of Islam. You can let
them know from the Scriptures that God is indeed one Being,
and this one Being exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit — three persons.
– Do give literature about Jesus and the Bible.
– Do become well informed about Islam. Books about missionaries
to Muslims or Muslim converts to Christ are especially inspiring.
 Contextualization
• It is primarily an attempt to gradually
indoctrinate non-Christians into
Christianity while allowing converts to
keep those aspects of their culture and
religion that do not clearly contradict
Christian teaching.
 Cont.
• In other words, contextualization is
preaching of the Christianity within the
context of prevalent cultural and
environmental factors.
 Reasons for Contextualization
• According to Khalid (1990: 5) the approach is a
desperate strategy or devise of the CM to
evangelize the Muslim-
– have never experienced any significant success in converting Muslims
because of the requirements that converts conform to a western –
imbued concept of Christianity that was entirely alien to any potential
converts from Islam.

• Fear of the rapid spread of Islam in 1970s

throughout the entire world that even extended
to Christian strongholds.
 Cont.
• CM organizations have fervently
embraced the tools of contextualization in
their on going battle to gain a significant
foothold within the heartland of Islam.
• Evangelical conversion literature for
example provides concrete guidelines
for gaining Muslim converts to Christianity
without necessarily ostracizing the convert
from the greater Muslim ummah.
 Strategies
• To make the transition from Islam to
Christianity as simple and painless as
possible, Christian missionaries have
begun to implement some of the following
strategies:
 Cont.
1. Encouraged to conform to Islamic
dress norms. –By blending into the Muslim Ummah, it
becomes easier for them to preach their words.

2. Abandonment of building western-

style ornate churches that makes
Muslims extremely uncomfortable.- some of
the Muslim countries churches are being patterned after the
Moslem mosque.
3. The Islamic form of prayers involving
physical prostrations are allowed to
continue- Biblical verses in the indigenous language are said
in place of the Quranic verses that are normally recited during salat.

4. The moving of the weekly

congregational prayers from Sunday to
Friday- to avoid culture shock.
5. Fasting the Islamic Holy Month of
Ramadhan is encouraged by the Church
as a demonstration of Christian strength
and solidarity.
6. Celebrate two Islamic Eids and
acknowledged the eids as special
Christian holidays.
 Cont.
• Misinterpret the Quran by claiming that
the Quran itslef states that Jesus is the
son of God. –this is done through a process of selectively
quoting phrases from the quran completely out of their respective
contexts and the applying Christian interpretation on them.
 Political Approach
• In the past (perhaps until these days) this approach was
conducted through military aid.
• For example the Crusades in which the Christian forces
invaded some of the Muslim’s provinces and killed them.
In Spain the Muslims were forced to leave their religion
for Christianity. The Crusaders were also recorded to
establish several Christian kingdoms in the East.
• The objective of this approach according to Ghazali is to
prevent the expansion of Islam throughout the world as
well as to lay the Muslims under their control.
 The Role of CMM

• Planning and managing missionary

activities- Send missionaries throughout the world.
• Provide guidelines for missionary
recruiting
• Translating the Bible and distribute it.
• Devise plan and strategies to convert the
non-Christians.
• Established Research Centre- Malaysia
e.g Catholic Research Centre
 Cont.
• Establish unity of Churches - uniting all Christian
organizations regardless of their various denominations
for the sake of all interests- CFM
• Promote Religious Cooperation - active participation with
other communities via effective communication and inter
religious dialogue- MCCBCHS
 The Role of CCM in Malaysia
• CFM the leading opponent against the
process of Islamization.
• Oppose the full implementation of Islamic
law. Advocate secular government.
• Al-Kitab for the Bible
• Oppose the govt regulation that prevent
the using of some of Islamic/Arabic terms
in the Bible.
 Cont.
• Express dissatisfaction over the issue of land- to
build churches, and access to the mainstream
electronic media.
• Advocate liberalization in terms of religion where
the Muslims can convert to Christianity.
• Criticizing some of the govt policies particularly
the policies which protect and safeguard the
sovereignty of Islam and the Muslims.
• Encourage dialogue with the Muslims
because that is the only platform where
their voices will be heard.
• Evangelism through contextualization.
THE END