Thabiti M. Anyabwile on the CAMEL Method

Thabiti M. Anyabwile is an MBB and a council member for the Gospel Coalition where he also blogs.  He has recently written a book called,  The Gospel for Muslims: An Encouragement to Share Christ with Confidence.  He says this about his book:

The burden of the book is to offer a simple but transformative encouragement: If you know the gospel of Jesus Christ, you already know everything you need to know to see your Muslim friend, neighbor and co-worker made new in Christ.  Apologetics is helpful.  Knowledge of history useful.  But only the gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who believe.  When we open our mouths to share the message the power of God comes flowing out!  We need confidence in the message.

I really appreciate this exhortation, “When we open our mouths to share the message the power of God comes flowing out!”  Amen! 

While on his blog I noticed someone asked him about the CAMEL method.  He said this:

I’m not a big fan of the CAMEL method. My general concern with some of these methods is that in order to establish common ground and contact, they sometimes concede too many things that are not true from a Christian perspective. So, for example, I think it’s a bad idea to treat the Qur’an as though it’s revelation from God. I know Muslims believe that and will defend that, so we should take their belief seriously. But in the process, we should not affirm the error. Much of the common ground and points of contact we seek is readily available without affirming things we’ll later have to reject. In that sense, our methods should always include “truth in advertising.”

I just want to offer some very brief comments on this.  It is possible (desirable) to use the CAMEL method and not affirm the inspiration of the Qur’an.  Jesus and the Apostles modeled for us to start sharing the gospel with people where they’re at.  For Muslims, we simply enter into their story and lead them to the Biblical Jesus: his life, work on the cross, and establishment of the Kingdom.  We begin affirming the truth Muslims already know, and then move on from there.  You can do this without treating the Qur’an as revelation.  Muslims already have preconceived ideas about Jesus.  We want to move them to Biblical truth, and the CAMEL method can be one place to start.

You may not know about the CAMEL method.  Here are a couple of their videos:

UnderstandingMuslimWorldview from Camel Method on Vimeo.

Isa Knows the Way to Heaven from Camel Method on Vimeo.