Get Outfitted
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9 NIV
Discipleship
“Go and Make Disciples”
In your experience, which is more difficult, evangelism or discipleship?
Immediate answer? Discipleship. In the Muslim country where we lived, those who came to faith in Christ faced huge challenges and temptations that most of us can’t even begin to imagine. You might not believe me if I told you all the things even one of those people experienced!
Prayer
Impacting Your World
Have you ever felt deeply moved by an experience in prayer?
I was praying through the “30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World” prayer guide a few years ago, like I do every year, and the area featured on one of the days was Rajasthan, in India. The spiritual need was so compelling that I wanted to drop everything and go there with the gospel!
We may not be able to do everything our hearts long to do, but we can give more of our time and our lives to praying for the nations and for our neighbors right next door.
Local Awareness
Meeting Your Muslim Neighbors
“Nobody from the mosque has ever visited our home. The people from the church come to see us.” This is what a refugee family from the Muslim world said to some of our church’s English as a Second Language (ESL) ministry volunteers.
When our church started an ESL ministry a few years ago, all of our students were refugees from Syria.
Islam and Muslims
My Journey toward Understanding
One of the first Muslim people I ever met was a very friendly and welcoming African man. It was many years ago on a university campus in Philadelphia, and I was just trying to strike up conversations with people about faith in God. Would anyone be willing to talk with me about the gospel?
Lama shared with me his struggle around religious identity, since he was brought up in a Muslim family but had attended a Christian school. Which faith was true? Every now and then I find myself wondering what happened to Lama. Did he find clarity? Would he call himself a Muslim or a Christian today?
Outreach Resources
Being Ready – Personal Experiences
You may have met the kind of people who always seem ready to give a Bible or New Testament to a total stranger they strike up a conversation with. I have always admired people like that.
Or maybe you have met people who can entertain children they have never met with some kind of game or magic trick. I was always fascinated by the rope trick where three different length ropes all end up looking like they’re the same length, to illustrate that no matter how good or bad we may think we are in ourselves, we are all equally in need of the Savior, Jesus. We will never forget a friend of ours who did these kinds of things while hosting our team on mission trips.
Training
Preparing for Practical Outreach
Several years ago I attended an apologetics conference where one of the main speakers presented textual problems in the Qur’an. That speaker has since begun publishing his research in books, like this one we highly recommend: Corrections in Early Qurʾān Manuscripts: Twenty Examples.
To a lot of Christians, learning how to point out problems with Islam or how to refute Muslim arguments against the Christian faith may be synonymous with training for outreach to Muslims. While such things can be very helpful when applied in the right way, is there more to training?