And You Are?

Tell us more about you.

We’re off to a successful start here at Off the Agenda. Hopefully you’ve had a chance by now to get to know our team, and some of the people within the church community who have joined us to help shape the conversation here. And we really hope the posts you’ve read so far already have encouraged you, challenged you, and equipped you for the leadership roles you handle day to day.

But now that you know who we are, it’s time to get to know you.

We’d love to see you comment to this post to tell us a bit about yourself.

We’d like to hear a little bit of your story–where you’re from, where you lead, what kind of leadership role that you oversee. If you’d like, we’d love to hear some background on your church, the strengths you enjoy within your role, and the challenges you currently face.

As people respond to this post, take some time to read the comments from your peers. When an opportunity arises, respond to offer encouragement or ideas–or just to share in someone’s triumph, big or small.

- More from Matthew J. Branaugh

Pastors

The Next Caption Contest

What are your captions for this cartoon? We know Out of Ur and Leadership readers will have some great ones on this NASCAR theme.

Winning entries will be published in the Winter 2008 edition of Leadership. Please include your name, your church’s name, city, and state.

Pastors

How do you preach a sensitive and uplifting message during times of crisis?

Jill Briscoe

Jill Briscoe is executive editor of Just Between Us magazine and minister-at-large of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

Always come from Scripture. I like to pray and think about an incident or passage that bears some way on whatever the crisis is.

Some examples:

When an unexpected death occurred, I spoke on 2 Kings 4 and the little widow who lost her husband and sounded as if she was losing her faith in a good God. Elisha has the answers and the widow ends up amply supplied.
When the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, happened, I was in the air trying to get back home from Russia to Chicago. I stayed six days in Newfoundland on a Salvation Army floor. While there, I revisited 2 Corinthians 7, where the Apostle Paul is facing some general crisis and advises, “Because of this present crisis…”

Live single-mindedly—whether you’re married or not.
Un-clutter your life—don’t be engrossed in the things of the world.
Revel in God—in undivided devotion to the Lord.

All of this because the time is short and the days are evil, and Jesus is coming soon!

There’s nothing like a good crisis to wonderfully focus our attention on what’s really important! It proved a pertinent word to preach when I eventually got back to a United States in crisis.

It helps if you have experienced some crisis yourself! Don’t use the chance to vent, but a small illustration may create the empathy you feel, the help from God you received—and you can make a bridge and a blessing of it.

- More from Jill Briscoe

Pastors

What should I do when someone is under spiritual warfare?

Jill Briscoe

Jill Briscoe is executive editor of Just Between Us magazine and minister-at-large of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

Everyone in the world is under spiritual warfare. We are on a battleground, not a playground (Ephesians 6). We need a solid theology of God and Satan, of good and evil. Along the pathway of everyday, we need to be in tune with God and the work he has to do in and through us. Interruptions should be regarded as his appointments for he will send us people to help in the battle. Believers are soldiers of the cross, while the lost are to be rescued through the gospel of grace and freedom.

This will mean we meet with the Lord early—remembering "sleep deprivation is better than God deprivation" (Isaiah 50:4 f)—the picture of God's perfect servant who rises early to be instructed by the Master Teacher. In my Bible I have put these words: "I am His servant. Get up and listen to Him so you can go out and listen to them, and match the word received in the morning with the need of the one who is weary along the way."

We can pray for them, with them, and encourage them to pray for themselves when under attack, claiming their birthright in Jesus, using the words of scripture. We can ever-learn to be a better soldier for our Savior and Lord (2 Timothy) and we can appropriate the Spirit's power over all Satan's attacks that come our way.

- More from Jill Briscoe

Pastors

Called and Chosen

Amy C. Boucher

One woman articulates her calling and advises others on how to think through theirs.

What would you say if someone asked you to state in a few sentences who you are? I wondered if the task was possible when asked to write a short piece on my calling. How could I articulate something so central to my identity—and without sounding presumptuous or egotistical?

You can be the judge. As you read, though, bear in mind that one’s calling is tied inextricably to one’s identity and is not easily stated. Like a diamond, one’s character and personality have many different facets. And on the matter of conceit, we know that God is our source and the one who calls us to create with him; our goal is to answer his call. My hope in putting down a few thoughts is to spark a conversation on a topic that affects us all.

Discerning my calling continues to be a process of discovery. As I become more of a whole person, the vision of my life’s purpose becomes clearer. To put it simply and somewhat generally, a central heart’s desire is to help others become stronger, more committed followers of Christ. Professionally, I currently live this out through the pen, editing and working with materials that have a Christ-centered emphasis. Some works are designed to help Christians think deeply; others expose idols of our age; still others are devotional books.

At this stage of my life, the sphere of paid work is a central component of my calling. It should be underlined, however, that one’s career does not equal one’s calling; other aspects may complement or supersede it during different seasons of life.

Commit to spending six months thinking and praying specifically about your life purpose. Each day ask the Lord to give you discernment and direction about his plans for you. Ponder and think about your heart’s desires. What motivates you? Fascinates you? Moves you? Look back at your life and think of things—activities, awards, projects, and so on—of which you are proud. Is there a connecting factor, motivation, or theme?

After praying, waiting on the Lord, keeping a journal, and exploring activities and areas of interest, talk to a trusted two or three others about what you have learned. Tell them the direction in which you would like to head. Ask them if your vision squares with what they know of you. Then listen to their words, asking God to highlight the truth and discard the rest.

As God’s beloved children we are called and chosen to love and glorify him always. This is our highest purpose; this is our most glorious command. And we follow a Father who loves to lead us down the path to life—the road that will bring him the most glory and us the most fruitfulness, joy, and peace.

- More from Amy C. Boucher

Pastors

Sexual Training in Righteousness

Allan Meyer

One pastor’s ministry of sexual discipleship for men

During my first year as youth pastor, I was invited to guest preach for a man who was a hero in his denomination. He had come to Christ at the age of 47, put himself through Bible college, and followed a call to buy a tent and evangelize South Australia. He and his wife planted a string of churches across the outback, including the vibrant church where I spoke.

A few months after my visit, I learned this man was no longer in ministry; he was involved sexually with women in his congregation. I was shocked.

First, he was a hero of the faith—the churches planted through his sacrificial ministry bore testimony to his love for Jesus.

Second, he was nearly 70 years old. Even at that age, his sexual appetite had brought him down.

Just 30 years old at the time, I wondered, Doesn’t sexual temptation ever let up?

A few years later, I found myself attracted to another woman in our congregation. To this day I can’t explain why. My wife is vivacious, gorgeous, and passionate. Yet nothing I did would make the attraction cease. I survived because the fear of God moved me to ask for help before I fell.

My first step was to tell my wife. It was risky, but I knew the attraction had become so relentless I was in danger of doing something inappropriate. Helen was wonderful. She said, “This is an attack on both of us, and we are going to fight it together.”

The distressing attraction still didn’t go away, so I very reluctantly took a second step: I told my senior pastor what I was going through. He drew near me like a father and coached me like a son.

Still, for all that, the attraction stuck to me like glue for a year before it cracked and dissipated. Today I couldn’t muster those feelings for that woman if I tried. I am in love with my own wife, still serving God. I am a survivor.

Then I was called to be pastor of Careforce Church (formerly Mount Evelyn Christian Fellowship). Founded in 1947, it was a small, white-painted, wooden chapel designed to serve about 50 people. In the late 1970s, the charismatic renewal touched this church and it grew to 350. They purchased eight acres, planned a new worship center, and sensed God moving when their minister fell in adultery. For nearly a year, the elders guided the church without a pastor until, in late 1982, they called me to join them.

I realized that the very year I’d been going through my terrible experience of attraction was the same time that the man whose ministry I would take was in adultery, destroying his own marriage and ministry.

Sexual Discipleship

Developing and maintaining a healthy sexuality is a challenge for every man. We live in a highly provocative and eroticized world, thus the potential for men to develop distortions in their sexuality is great. Learning to handle the pressure of male sexuality is one of the skills a man must acquire if he is to be successful in his personal life, in his home life, and in his spiritual calling.

In 1992 my wife and I founded a new ministry, delivering pastoral care and discipleship to wounded people using a small-group model and structured teaching process. It quickly became a potent tool for evangelism and church health. Deciding to address the issue of men’s sexual discipleship was not difficult.

The first time we offered a “For Men Only” support group, 13 men showed up. Listening to these men share their despair over sexual passions convinced me the need was real. One man drove nearly 500 miles every Thursday night just to be in that group.

Eventually the ministry became known as “Valiant Man,” a 10-session program for the sexual discipleship of men. It involves a teaching session followed by small-group processing and personal application. It also includes 65 days of morning and evening devotions focusing on rebuilding and restoring moral and spiritual purity.

I was moved by 1 Thessalonians 5:14, in which, in a list of some 17 elements of a healthy church environment, Paul says to “help the weak.” The word used is astheneia, which denotes weakness of all kinds, including “moral weakness” of such magnitude as to render a person disabled or powerless. What an apt word to describe the pain-filled struggle of the addict, impotent or strengthless, disabled to the point of being powerless.

There are some in the church who would deny that any believer in Christ could ever be considered powerless. Yet Paul knew it was a reality, at least in Thessalonica, and something should be done about it. And he did not want them discarded or ignored.

Paul advises that they receive strength. One definition of the word he uses adds that Paul’s word connotes “to aid,” “to care,” “to hold to,” and “to hold fast.” Thus, as Christians, we bear the burdens of the weak by joining with them in an intensely accountable, face-to-face, continuing relationship of caring support, until such time as they find the strength to stand.

This is sexual discipleship. Those falling to sexual passions, thoughts, emotions, and biochemistry often have no strength to stand alone. Paul suggests that people in this condition should not be left to handle their crisis in isolation. It could be said of this situation “it is not good that man should be alone.”

Thus the ones with strength must set themselves alongside the needy. They must courageously make a decision to firmly stick to the task, pay close attention to the needy individual, aiding, caring, and holding fast.

This is nothing less than a prescription for a healthy accountability group: a level of love and service from the strong, willing to form a relationship that stays close, holds on, and is not easily discouraged by failure or slowness to respond.

As 1 Thessalonians 5:14 concludes, “Be patient with everyone.” The process may not be rapid for those involved. Restoration for sexual addiction is not likely to be instantaneous or attainable through a single act of repentance, prayer, teaching, or spiritual ministry of some kind.

My experience is that a teaching process, supported by a small-group experience focusing on the needs of participants, in an atmosphere of support and accountability, fulfills the counsel of the apostle Paul admirably.

So we’ve expanded the “Valiant Man” program. In October 2004, 122 men from all walks of life, some Christians, some not, filled a room at Careforce Church for the first session of Valiant Man and then broke up into 13 small groups led by 26 facilitators, all of whom had participated in an earlier program. For the next ten weeks men listened, shared, journaled, cried, prayed together, and pursued the restoration of their moral and spiritual purity.

How did it go? We’ve posted a detailed assessment, with pre-test and post-test statistics, on the Careforce Lifekeys website. From the very first night, the facilitators reported men exhibiting astounding levels of transparency and honesty. Some weeks into the program, a woman came up to me at church, took me by the hand with tears in her eyes and simply said, “Thank you,” and walked away. Marriages were being redeemed.

After the program was over, one of the facilitators came to see me. He told me, with voice trembling, that God had met with him in prayer and showed him how masturbation commencing at the age of 11 had contributed to his drug addiction commencing at the age of 15. The revelation and the healing that followed for him that day were profound.

The stories of healing and restored dignity are prolific. Men have fallen in love with their wives all over again, destructive habits have been broken, and men have found a closer walk with Jesus.

Allan Meyer is senior minister of Careforce Church, in Melbourne, Australia.

The Ten Sessions of “Valiant Man”:

A Vision for Manhood. An introduction to the four faces of manhood: Ox, Lion, Eagle, and Human Being. A call to sexual purity.
The Arena of Healing. Eight attitudes a man must embrace if he is to see his moral and spiritual purity restored and fortified.
The Sexual Man. The unique physical/biochemical construction of the male brain and hormonal engine. The liberating of manhood from feelings of shame over sexual passion.
The Origin, Power, and Purpose of Sex. When men understand where sex came from and what it is intended to accomplish in their lives, it unmasks the ways men so easily misuse sex.
The Cycle of Addiction. The drivers of sexually addictive behaviors: boredom, emptiness, unfulfilled needs, shame, self-pity, childhood abuse—and what to do about them.
The Understanding Man. A woman’s sexuality is more complex than a man’s. Understanding a woman’s perspective on sex is vital if a man is to be an understanding man.
Retraining Your Brain. Confronting the big three issues for men: fantasy, pornography, and masturbation. It’s not simply about praying more and reading your Bible more. Tools for brain training.
Taking a Stand. Continuing the theme of retraining the brain, breaking habit patterns, and strengthening the will.
Guarding Your Heart. Every man wants to be a Valiant Man, a good man, a decent man. This session helps men uncover their most noble motivations.
Realistic Expectations. Four issues a man must understand in order to maintain his freedom, even after the program has drawn to a close.

For a one-hour introductory DVD “Becoming A Valiant Man” and the entire 10-session Valiant Man program on DVD with accompanying leaders’ and participants’ guides, visit http://www.careforcelifekeys.org/ or email: lifekeys@careforce.org

- More from Allan Meyer

News

Niebuhr Wasn’t a Politician

Sarah Pulliam

Intellectuals and religious figures who invoke Niebuhr can’t separate him from his religion.

Reinhold Niebuhr may not be Bono, but he might come close. Ever since President Bush declared a war on terror in 2001, intellectuals and religious leaders have invoked Niebuhr’s politics, Atlantic Monthly reporter Justine Isola writes in her piece “Everybody Loves Reinhold.”

“[B]y now a well-turned Niebuhr reference is the speechwriter’s equivalent of a photo op with Bono,” she quotes Paul Elie.

Niebuhr thus came to be associated in many people’s minds as much with the politics of power as with the tenets of Christianity, Isola writes.

But those who invoke Niebuhr tend to ignore his religion and focus on his political concerns, Isola writes after interviewing Paul Elie, author of November Atlantic piece “A Man for All Reasons.”

Niebuhr’s conclusions, Elie reminds us, were thoroughly informed by what Elie calls a ?biblical perspective’ – a long sense of human history as reflected in the stories and lessons of the Bible – and by his view of human nature as ?rooted in human sinfulness.’

For Elie, the brushing aside of Niebuhr’s Christian dimensions is symptomatic of a greater problem: our intellectual and political leaders have largely lost touch with the biblical perspective that once guided our country’s founders and continues to profoundly influence the lives of most people living in the world today. In an age in which intellectual discourse in this country is increasingly secularized, and religion tends to inform our national politics in only a superficial way, Niebuhr stands out as a man whose Christian beliefs provided a deep well of insight.

Isola asks Elie: What, in your view, are the implications of having politicians in power who lack a biblical perspective?

As Niebuhr characterized it, the biblical tradition brought to America a sense of a long history which our relatively young country lacked, Elie answers.

If you take that biblical sense of history away on both sides, you’re left with a fairly ahistorical secular liberalism and a fairly ahistorical religious conservatism, and that’s a recipe for shallowness in our political life.

The Atlantic Monthly‘s piece is a compelling read. Also, consider dipping into New York Times‘ archives for its 2005 piece “Forgetting Reinhold Niebuhr“:

“In the midst of this religious commotion, the name of the most influential American theologian of the 20th century rarely appears – Reinhold Niebuhr.”

Perhaps we should examine Niebuhr’s theology more closely if it truly has this impact.

Related Elsewhere:

What’s Law Got to Do with It? | Recovering a lost heritage.

The Prophet and the Evangelist | The public “conversation” of Reinhold Niebuhr and Billy Graham.

Obama’s faith, his pastor, and his foreign policy | The NYT explores the Senator’s faith and his pastor, while David Brooks deciphers how it might affect his foreign policy.

- More from Sarah Pulliam

News

Taking Bible Stories Literally

Stan Guthrie

Most Americans don’t have a problem with key narratives.

According to a new poll conducted by the Barna Group, a substantial majority of Americans believes in the literal truth of six key Bible stories. For those of us worried about how to communicate biblical truth in our increasingly postmodern and pluralistic culture, the findings indicate that many folks continue to accept the Word of God at face value.

Here are the overall results among adults to the question of whether they thought a specific story in the Bible was “literally true, meaning it happened exactly as described in the Bible”:

Christ’s crucifixion, burial, and resurrection (75%);

Daniel in the Lion’s Den (65%);

Moses parting the Red Sea (64%);

David and Goliath (63%);

Peter walking on water (60%);

God creating the universe in six days (60%).

When you break down the numbers, it gets even more interesting. Several factors are correlated with less belief in a literal resurrection: high education, mainline vs. non-mainline Protestantism, Catholicism vs. Protestantism, and white vs. black. So, statistically speaking, a highly educated white Catholic or mainline professor from the Northeast would likely be more skeptical than a blue-collar African-American Protestant from the Midwest or South.

Further, the more skeptical you are about the Bible, the more likely it is that you are a political liberal. On the flip side, the more you take these narratives literally, the more likely you are to be a conservative:

There were very consistent patterns related to people’s political inclinations. Of the six stories examined, just one story (the resurrection of Christ) was considered to be literally true by at least half of all liberals. In contrast, among conservatives, only one of those stories was taken literally by less than 80% (the 76% who embraced the six day creation as absolute truth.) Similarly, the data showed that Republicans were more likely than either Democrats or Independents to accept each of the stories as literally accurate. For all six narratives, Independents were the voting group least likely to hold a literal interpretation, an average of twenty percentage points lower than the norm among Republicans.

This hints, to me at least, that the national Democrats, despite their recent rediscovery of people of faith, have an uphill climb ahead in winning their trust – and their votes. Certainly they have done so with African Americans. It remains to be seen if they will be able to get the much larger numbers of white Protestants to also believe in them.

- More from Stan Guthrie

News

Quotation Marks

Compiled by Ted Olsen

Comments on e-church, Mother Teresa, and other subjects.

“I think God would be pleased with this. I don’t think that God would want us to try to evangelize like Jesus did 2,000 years ago.”Grainger Browning Jr., pastor of the 10,000-member Ebenezer AME Church in Fort Washington, Maryland., on increasing technology in worship services. (Source: The Washington Post)

***

“I think her example … says, if you have doubts, keep quiet, don’t use them to question dogma, challenge authority, open yourself up to new ways of thinking. Just keep kissing the rod.”Nation columnist Katha Politt, on Mother Teresa’s dark night of the soul. (Source: The Nation)

***

“Other noble religious traditions promise serenity, detachment from striving and release from the suffering of the world. Christianity, in contrast, teaches that grace is found in the worst of that suffering, and through a figure who despairs of God’s presence in his parting words.”Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson, on Mother Teresa’s dark night of the soul. (Source: The Washington Post)

***

“I just am loving it. It’s in newspapers around the world and every article starts with ‘Emmy winner Kathy Griffin’ and then the letters all just blur after that.”Kathy Griffin, whose Emmy Award acceptance speech, which mocked actors who thank Jesus, drew numerous protests. (Source: Larry King Live)

***

“[More Amish] are realizing that the Great Commission is about going into the world and preaching the gospel and not just having your little community rules and regulations.”Steve Lapp, recently excommunicated by the Old Order Amish church for practicing a healing ministry. Amish leaders have reportedly banned large-group prayer meetings and Bible readings to limit evangelical influence. (Source: Religion News Service)

Related Elsewhere:

Earlier Quotation Marks columns are available from the October 2007, September 2007, August 2007, July 2007, June 2007, May 2007, April 2007, March 2007, February 2007, January 2007, December 2006, and earlier issues of Christianity Today.

- More from Ted Olsen

Why Muslims Follow Jesus

J. Dudley Woodberry, Russell G. Shubin, and G. Marks

The results of a recent survey of converts from Islam.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” Charles Dickens said about the time leading up to the French Revolution in A Tale of Two Cities. The same could be said today of Christian witness to Muslims, who belong to a bitterly divided community undergoing a revolution.

The anti-Christian part of the Islamic resurgence certainly qualifies as the “worst of times.” It burst onto the world scene with the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and into everyone’s living room on September 11, 2001, leaving victims and sometimes churches in its wake.

In the eyes of those who long for Muslims to know Jesus as they do, the unprecedented trickles—and in a few cases, floods—of Muslims who have chosen to follow Christ in previously evangelistically arid lands undoubtedly constitute the “best of times.” In the late 1960s, there was a major turning to Christ among the Javanese in Indonesia, following a conflict between Muslims and communists. We have seen similar movements in North Africa and South Asia, along with smaller ones elsewhere.

In fact, and perhaps counterintuitively, the number of new Christians each year outstrips the number of new Muslims, even though the annual growth rate is higher for Muslims (1.81 percent) than for Christians (1.23 percent). Over the last century, Christians have grown at a slower rate than have Muslims, with Muslims increasing from 12 percent to 21 percent of the global population during that time. But this is hardly surprising. Christianity has more total followers than Islam. More people need to become Christians annually simply to remain at roughly a third of the world population. Muslims are increasing in sub-Saharan Africa and among African Americans by conversion, but elsewhere the growth is mostly by birth or immigration. The major growth for Protestants, especially evangelicals and Pentecostals, has been by conversion.

So what attracts Muslims to follow Jesus? Between 1991 and 2007, about 750 Muslims who have decided to follow Christ filled out an extensive questionnaire on that basic question. The respondents—from 30 countries and 50 ethnic groups—represent every major region of the Muslim world. (Copies of the questionnaire are available from dudley@fuller.edu.) The participants ranked the relative importance of different influences and whether they occurred before, at the time of, or after their decision to follow Christ. While the survey, prepared at Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of Intercultural Studies, does not claim scientific precision, it provides a glimpse into some of the key means the Spirit of God is using to open Muslim hearts to the gospel.

Seeing a lived faith

First, we can look at the experiences that most influenced Muslims. For example, respondents ranked the lifestyle of Christians as the most important influence in their decision to follow Christ. A North African former Sufi mystic noted with approval that there was no gap between the moral profession and the practice of Christians he saw. An Egyptian contrasted the love of a Christian group at an American university with the unloving treatment of Muslim students and faculty he encountered at a university in Medina. An Omani woman explained that Christians treat women as equals. Others noted loving Christian marriages. Some poor people said the expatriate Christian workers they knew had adopted, contrary to their expectations, a simple lifestyle, wearing local clothes and observing local customs of not eating pork, drinking alcohol, or touching those of the opposite sex. A Moroccan was even welcomed by his former Christian in-laws after he underwent a difficult divorce.

Many Muslims who faced violence at the hands of other Muslims did not see it in the Christians they knew (regrettably, of course, Christians have been guilty of interethnic strife elsewhere). Muslim-on-Muslim violence has led to considerable disillusionment for many Muslims, from those who survived the 1971 war between the Bengalis of East Pakistan and the Pathans, Sindis, and Punjabis of West Pakistan, to Arab and Berber tensions in North Africa, and to Arab herdsmen fighting black African farmers in Darfur.

The next most important influence was the power of God in answered prayers and healing. Like most of the factors that former Muslims list, experiences of God’s supernatural intervention often increase after Muslims decide to follow Christ.

In North Africa, Muslim neighbors asked Christians to pray for a very sick daughter who then was healed. In Senegal, a Muslim marabout (spiritual leader) referred a patient to Christians when he was not able to bring healing. In Pakistan, after a pilgrimage to Mecca did not cure a disabled Shiite girl, she was healed following Christian prayer.

Closely related was the finding that some noted deliverance from demonic power as another reason they were attracted to Jesus. After all, he is the healing prophet in the Qur’an and has power over demons in the Gospels. In northern Nigeria, a malam (what some might call a witchdoctor) used sorcery against a man who was considering following Jesus. The seeker became insane, and his extended family left him. But then he prayed that Christ would free him, and he was healed.

It helps to note that a third of the 750-person sample were folk Muslims, with a characteristic concern for power and blessings. It is also worth noting that the Jesus portrayed in the Qur’an is a prophet who heals lepers and the blind and raises the dead. Not surprisingly, many Muslims find him attractive. Of course, power and blessings do not constitute the final word for Muslims. The Bible also offers a theology of suffering, and many Muslims who follow Christ find that their faith is strengthened through trials.

The third biggest influence listed by respondents was dissatisfaction with the type of Islam they had experienced. They expressed unhappiness with the Qur’an, which they perceive as emphasizing God’s punishment more than his love (although the Qur’an says he loves those who love him [3:31]). As for Islam’s requirement that liturgical prayer should be in Arabic, a Javanese man asked, “Doesn’t an all-knowing God know Indonesian?” Others criticized folk Islam’s use of amulets and praying at the graves of dead saints.

Some respondents decried Islamic militancy and the imposition of Islamic law, which they said is not able to transform hearts and society. This disillusionment is broad in the Muslim world. Many Iranians became interested in the gospel after the Khomeini revolution of 1979 brought in rule by clergy. Pakistanis became more receptive after President Zia ul-Haq (1977-1988) tried to implement Islamic law. And Afghans became more open after Islamist Taliban conquest and rule (1994-2001).

As with Paul and Cornelius in Acts, visions and dreams played a role in the conversion of many. More than one in four respondents, 27 percent, noted dreams and visions before their decision for Christ, 40 percent at the time of conversion, and 45 percent afterward.

Many Muslims view dreams as links between the seen and unseen worlds, and pre-conversion visions and dreams often lead Muslims to consult a Christian or the Bible. Frequently a person in the vision, understood to be Jesus, radiates light or wears white (one respondent, though, said Jesus appeared in green, a color sometimes associated with Islamic holy persons). An Algerian woman had a vision that her Muslim grandmother came into her room and said, “Jesus is not dead; he is here.” In Israel, an Arab dreamed that his deceased father said, “Follow the pastor. He will show you the right way.” Other dreams and visions occurred later and provided encouragement during persecution. A Turkish woman in jail because of her conversion had a vision that she would be released, and she was. A vision of thousands of believers in the streets proclaiming their faith encouraged a young man in North Africa to persevere.

The message is the medium

The gospel message, especially its assurance of salvation and forgiveness, is also a significant attraction to Muslims. The Qur’an states that “those who repent and believe, and work righteousness … will enter paradise” (19:60). Yet it also states that God forgives whom he wills and punishes whom he wills (2:284), so Muslims do not have certainty of salvation. One Indonesian woman spoke of her fear, based on a tradition attributed to Muhammad, that the bridge over hell to paradise is as thin as a hair. An Egyptian said he was attracted to Christian faith because it preaches that people can be sure of their acceptance by God.

Next in attraction for Muslims is the spiritual truth in the Bible. The Qur’an attests that the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel (commonly understood as the New Testament) are from God. Even though Muslims are generally taught that these writings became corrupted, they often find them compelling reading and discover truth that they conclude must be from God. The Bible helped one Egyptian understand “the true character of God.” The Sermon on the Mount helped convince a Lebanese Muslim that he should follow the one who taught and exemplified these values.

Respondents were also attracted by the Bible’s teaching about the love of God. In the Qur’an, although God loves those who love him, his love is conditional. He does not love those who reject faith (3:31-32). There is nothing in the Qur’an like, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10), or, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

A West African was surprised by God’s love for all people, even enemies. Likewise, although the Qur’an denies that God is a father (37:152), many Muslims find this a comforting concept.

Particularly attractive to Muslims is the love expressed through the life and teachings of Jesus. The Qur’an already calls him faultless (19:19). Many Muslims are attracted to him by his depiction in the Qur’an and then go to the Gospels to find out more. A Saudi was first drawn to him at a Christmas Eve service in Germany—even before he knew German. Like many, an Iranian Shiite was attracted to Christ before he was attracted to Christianity. A North African Sufi found Jesus’ portrayal as the Good Shepherd particularly meaningful. When Christ’s love transforms committed Christians into a loving community, many Muslims listed a desire to join such a fellowship as next in importance.

Subconscious influences

For the most part, respondents did not say that political or economic circumstances influenced their decisions. But it’s hard not to notice that Iranians, Pakistanis, Afghans, Bangladeshis, and Algerians became more responsive after enduring Muslim political turmoil or attempts to impose Islamic law. Christian relief and development agencies try hard to guard against spiritually misusing their position as providers of desperately needed goods and services. But natural disasters in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Sahel region inevitably put Muslims in contact with Christians trying to follow Jesus. It is no surprise that some of these Muslims also choose to follow Christ.

Yet while it is the “best of times” for Christian witness to Muslims, it remains also the “worst of times.” In many places, apostasy is tantamount to rejecting family, religion, culture, ethnicity, and nationality. Thus, many Muslim converts face persecution from family, police, or militants. Two friends were unable to fill out the questionnaire—one because he was apparently poisoned by his own family, the other because the government imprisoned him and later his tongue was cut out by a warlord so that he could no longer say the name of Jesus.

But Muslim converts to Christ know that such persecution can, in a mysterious way, be part of the best of times. Jesus, in fact, said it was a blessing. That’s because with or without persecution, Muslims are discovering an experiential truth unknown to them before. As a Zambian Muslim exclaimed, “God loves me just as I am.”

J. Dudley Woodberry is professor of Islamic studies at the School of Intercultural Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California, and served in the Muslim world for many years. Russell G. Shubin is deputy director of national news and publications for Salem Communications in Camarillo, California. G. Marks has ministered in Malawi.

Related Elsewhere:

Dudley Woodberry wrote “Can We Dialogue with Islam?” for Christianity Today.

Other Christianity Today articles on Islam and evangelism to Muslims include:

Love Your Muslim as Yourself | We remain woefully ignorant about the world’s second-largest religion. A Christianity Today editorial. (March 16, 2007)

Waging Peace on Islam | A missionary veteran of Asia proposes one way to defuse Muslim anger about the Crusades. (June 1, 2005)

Letter from a Muslim Seeker | Christians aren’t the only ones asking ‘Why?’ after September’s tragedy. (Dec. 5, 2001)

Is the God of Muhammad the Father of Jesus? | The answer to this question reveals the heart of our faith. (Feb. 1, 2002)

Is Islam a Religion of Peace? | The controversy reveals a struggle for the soul of Islam. (Dec. 28, 2000)

A Many Splintered Thing | Though Muslims shared allegiance to Muhammad and to the Qur’an, Islam faced division as soon as the prophet died. (Dec. 28, 2000)

Answering Islam has a page of essays and articles on “The Christian Witness to the Muslim.”

Other Christian sites discussing Muslim beliefs about Jesus and Christianity are available at The Muslim-Christian Debate and FarsiNet.

Al-Sunnah and Islam 101 are a couple of the sites that give Muslim perspectives on Jesus and Christianity.

Adherents.com has statistics related to the adherents of many religions.

- More from J. Dudley Woodberry, Russell G. Shubin, and G. Marks

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Sexual Discipleship

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Seeing a lived faith

The message is the medium

Subconscious influences

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