DAR AL HARB-U.S.A.-MISSOURI: "CONVERSION IS THE JOB OF THE HOLY SPIRIT"

Followers of Jesus share Christ with Muslims
By Tim Townsend
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
(MCT)

ST. LOUIS - In a tent decorated to resemble the shelter of a Bedouin, a half-dozen college students sat cross-legged on Middle Eastern rugs. The adhan, or Islamic call to prayer, streamed through their wireless headphones as a screen in front of them lit up with images from the Muslim world.

Outside the tent, erected by the Christian mission agency Frontiers, the doors to the America's Center exhibit hall had recently opened, and the massive room buzzed with excitement. This was what Urbana `06 was all about - a chance for mission agencies to recruit Christian college students bent on adventure and evangelism.

Inside the Frontiers tent, the adhan faded, replaced with Christian rock band Switchfoot's "Dare You to Move." Images of turbulence and peace, violence and beauty from the Muslim world flashed to the inspirational lyrics.

This was a call to prayer all its own.

And Urbana, a triennial gathering of what organizers say is the largest collection of mission organizations in the world, is an answer to many prayers. At the conference, held in St. Louis last month, Christian college students investigated how to serve their faith through mission work, and mission agencies looked for young, energetic believers willing to live tough lives in order to fulfill their duties as evangelical followers of Jesus Christ.

In the final scene of the Gospel of Matthew the resurrected Christ appears to his disciples on a mountain in Galilee and tells them to make new disciples by "teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you." Evangelicals take this instruction from Matthew's Gospel - often called "The Great Commission," literally. They see it as their religious duty to make converts, to spread the Gospel, or "good news," of Jesus Christ.

But when it comes to Islam, evangelical Christians have always had a tough time winning converts. Islam is itself a faith that seeks converts - one of the reasons Christianity and Islam both spread so quickly through the centuries. And Muslims can face persecution and even death in some Islamic cultures if they leave the faith for another.

The world of evangelism to Muslims even has its own lingo. So as to shed any unwanted historical baggage, Christians call themselves "followers of Jesus." Muslim converts are called "Muslim Background Believers," or MBBs.

A few aisles over from the Frontiers booth, volunteers from Arab World Ministries wearing red keffiyeh, a traditional Arab headdress, engaged students as they walked by.

Paul T. Martindale, Arab World Ministries' director of marketing and training, said the job of a missionary is to preach the gospel, not to convert. "Conversion is the job of the Holy Spirit," he said.

Muslims, said Martindale, don't understand what Christian evangelicals do. "They think the Christian missionary works the way they work," he said.

The Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement started in Egypt, "plans to Islamicize the USA through peaceful means in 30 to 50 years," said Martindale. "By getting people elected to Congress, they hope to make the U.S. an Islamic country. We don't have plans to make anyone's country into a Christian nation."

Despite the difficulty of proselytizing in the Muslim world and the physical dangers the missionaries face, evangelical Christians have never stopped trying to win Muslim hearts for Jesus.

A look at the "Islam" section of Urbana's temporary bookstore at America's Center - "Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out," "Cross and Crescent: Responding to the Challenge of Islam" - and at the names of some of Urbana's many seminars - "Sharing the Hope with Muslims," "Young Leaders Meeting Jesus in the Muslim World" - suggests that Christian evangelism to Muslims is only increasing. That job has been made even easier in the modern technological age.

Like so many who work for mission agencies that target the Muslim world, Dennis Wiens of the Christian satellite ministry SAT-7 is sensitive to language and how it can be interpreted. SAT-7 is a Christian evangelical television station broadcast for free, via a European satellite, to anyone in the Middle East and northern Africa who has a satellite dish and wants to watch its programming. But SAT-7 does not target anyone, said Wiens, and agency personnel use the phrase "Arab world," not "Muslim world," to describe the ministry's geographical focus.

"The ethos of SAT-7 is `for Christians by Christians,'" said Wiens. "All of our programming is geared toward the Christian viewer." But, admitted Wiens, 80 percent of the channel's 7 million weekly viewers are non-Christians, and SAT-7 regularly flashes phone numbers to 16 "telephone counseling centers operated by SAT-7 partner ministries" throughout the Middle East and Europe, according to the ministry's annual report.

Terence Ascott, SAT-7's CEO, said in a promotional video distributed at Urbana `06 that the ministry was expensive to run, but worth it. "There aren't other ways people in some of these areas can hear the Gospel," he said.

The ministry introduced Iranian Christian Broadcasting in 2002. In the promotional video, a narrator says, "It is nearly impossible for believers in Iran to import Bibles and basic Christian teaching materials, but satellite television is able to overcome physical and societal barriers."

SAT-7 produces most of its programming - in Arabic, Farsi and Turkish - in Egypt and Lebanon. The 10-year-old nonprofit group is based in Cyprus, and its board is based in the Middle East. According to its annual report, SAT-7's income last year was $10 million. Nearly 60 percent came from North American donations. SAT-7 is supported by more than 25 partner organizations, including several Baptist organizations in the United States.

SAT-7 is one ministry that is benefiting financially from Urbana. The event itself is an expensive proposition for college students. Urbana registration fees can be more than $400 per student, plus accommodation, travel and some dining costs. On top of that, Urbana asked each person attending - and there were more than 20,000 - to contribute $60 to an offering, which is then distributed to a dozen mission agencies, including SAT-7.

But Urbana is not just about recruiting and fundraising. The convention offers hundreds of seminars so students can narrow the focus of their area of mission interest. Several of the seminars dealt with Islam, including one presentation, called "Loving Muslims in an Age of Terror," given by David G. Cashin, a professor of intercultural studies at Columbia International University, an evangelical Bible college in Columbia, S.C.

Cashin told the 300 or so students assembled for one of his presentations that he hoped their hearts "were filled with compassion for people lost in a system that cannot save them," and urged them to "develop a heart for the lostness of Muslims."

In another seminar, "Sharing the Hope with Muslims," Fouad Masri, founder of the Crescent Project, which helps Christians share the Gospel with Muslims in North America, said the evangelical movement "needs Americans, but wouldn't it be better to send Iranians to witness in Iran?"

Masri said he had an e-mail group that prays for Muslims at noon every Friday - the traditional time of Muslim prayer.

"Your job is not to convert Muslims, your job is to love them," Masri told the 500 students in his seminar. "Muslims know Islam does not work - it's like a house with a leaking roof. We need believers to tell them there's a better house, the house of Jesus.

Back in the exhibit hall, at the Arab World Ministries booth, students were picking up copies of a brochure called "Islam: A Practical Overview." Inside were "The Ten Commandments for Sharing with Muslims." After such commandments as "Be a genuine friend," "Don't argue" and "Never denigrate Muhammad or the Quran," came No. 10: "Persevere."

"We must not give up if our Muslim friend does not respond to the Gospel right away," it reads. "Muslims have a lot of rethinking to do when they are challenged with the Gospel message. But rest assured that the Word of God will do its work, in His good time."


Pertinent Links:

1) Followers of Jesus share Christ with Muslims