Defining and Strategizing Outreach to UPGs in NYC - Part 1: The Islamic Dilemma

Christians who truly believe that God is sovereign over all things will lead a life of self-sacrifice for the sake of all peoples. Why is that so? Because true followers of Jesus recognize that the last command He gave us before He ascended to Heaven was to “go and make disciples of all nations”.

Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matt 28:19-20, NIV)

Six chapters prior to that command, Jesus told an expert in the law that the two greatest commandments of Scripture were to love God with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. I would suggest that we can do neither if we ignore the Lord’s final commission. There are many charities that could be listed that bear the Christian name but do nothing in regard to making disciples. What value is it if we feed the hungry and cloth the poor but never tell them about Heaven and Hell, or the tragedy of sin and the reason for Christ’s sacrifice? What value is it if we are not making disciples for Jesus out of those people whom we help physically, and yet ignore spiritually? Or if we give them food and medicine and yet leave them to a Christless eternity? Whether we are working at home or abroad, the only way that we can be obedient to Christ, in the midst of our charity, is if we are actively making disciples. So, in order to discuss how we are to make disciples of all nations, it is appropriate to define what the Great Commission is. Let’s begin by taking a closer look.

Prologue

It is important to understand from the outset that what I am about to advocate in no way negates the importance of local missions and local ministries. Local missions and ministries are totally necessary for the church, both as a witness to unbelievers as well as for the edification the church’s own wellbeing. However, there is a great need in the church to confront the fact that global missions have been tragically neglected throughout its history.

The Tragedy of Missions among Muslims

Perhaps the most glaring example of this neglect can be seen in the history of missions among Muslim peoples around the World. Although the trends of failed missions among Muslims are just beginning to be reversed, we must come to grips with the fact that for almost 1,400 years the church’s attempts at reaching People Groups from Muslim backgrounds have been unsuccessful. In David Garrison’s book, “A Wind in the House of Islam: How God is drawing Muslims around the World to Faith in Jesus Christ” he states,

To recap our review of the history of Muslim movements to Christ, in Islam’s first 12 centuries we found no voluntary, and only a handful of coerced, conversions to the Christian religion. Not until the end of the 19th century, twelve and a half centuries after the death of Muhammad, did we find the first voluntary movements of Muslims to Christ that numbered at least 1,000 baptisms. These two movements, the Indonesian movement led by Sadrach and the Ethiopian movement by Shaikh Zakaryas, accomplished what no other Christian had seen in more than a thousand years. [1]

But as Garrison continues to point out in his book, it wasn’t until the end of the twentieth century we saw these trends being reversed:

… in the final two decades of the 20th century, there was a surge of 11 additional movements. These occurred in Iran (2), Algeria, Bulgaria, Albania, West Africa, Bangladesh (2) and Central Asia (3). By the close of the 20th century, 1,368 years after the death of Muhammad, there had been a total of 13 movements of Muslim communities to faith in Jesus Christ.

It is this long history of frustration, a history that has seen tens of millions of Christians absorbed into the Muslim world that makes the current events all the more striking. In only the first 12 years of the 21st century, an additional 69 movements to Christ of at least 1,000 baptized Muslim-background believers or 100 new worshiping fellowships have appeared. These 21st-century movements are not isolated to one or two corners of the world. They are taking place throughout the House of Islam: in sub-Saharan Africa, in the Persian world, in the Arab world, in Turkestan, in South Asia and in Southeast Asia. Something is happening—something historic, something unprecedented.

A wind is blowing through the House of Islam. [2]

When we speak of strategy in trying to win Muslims for Christ, we need to understand that we are still dealing with virgin territory. The majority of these relatively new movements to Christ in the Muslim World are happening through the expansion of multiplying house churches in countries where Christianity is illegal, where it is banned by society, and where Christians undergo much persecution for their decisions to follow Jesus. Such strategies, which have been effective in those parts of the world where Christianity undergoes much persecution, have not been effective in trying to reach Muslims in the West. This is why at

, we believe that in order to be effective in reaching Muslims in the west, it is important to take what has been working in the Muslims World and tweak those strategies so that they become more relevant for our western societies.

[1] Garrison, David. A Wind in the House of Islam: How God is drawing Muslims around the world to faith in Jesus Christ . WIGTake Resources, LLC. Kindle Edition, loc 360.

[2] Ibid, loc. 368.