Equipping for Ministry to Muslims

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Equipping for Ministry to Muslims

Posted by Justin Long ⋅ January 1, 2007 ⋅

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Islam is the greatest challenge to the church in the 21st Century. The challenge does not stem from Muslim rejection of the gospel, but from the increasing fear and mistrust of all Muslims that many Christians have. In fact, Islamic terrorism is causing some Christians to hate Muslims.

It is true that some Muslims will always hate us and much of the Islamic world is still resistant to the gospel, but since there is today a major response to the gospel, now is the time to reach them.

The Zwemer Center for Muslim Studies is doing everything it can to equip Great Commission Christians for this task: In 2007 we’re offering two, one-week courses/seminars in January, and four in July. “Courses” are for credit when pursuing a degree and “seminars” for non-credit.

The classes for 2007 are as follows:
- Islam in the 21st Century- January 8-12, 2007
- Church Planting among Resistant Peoples- January 15-19, 2007
- Islam through Muslim and Christian Eyes- July 2-6, 2007
- The Spirit World of Islam- July 9-13, 2007
- Interacting with Muslim Women- July 23-27, 2007
- Approaches to Muslims- July 16-20, 2007.

From these courses/seminars, participants will learn about the character of Muhammad and the violence espoused in the Qur’an, but they will also realize that most Muslims are not suicide bombers. They will learn apologetic methods on how to articulate and defend Christianity when talking to Muslims, but they will understand that the greatest apologetic is love and forgiveness.

Participants will be encouraged to look behind the anger and agenda of militants and see that Muslims have not always acted in such an extreme manner. In fact, at times they have treated people of other faiths better than Christians have. Muslims lived peacefully among Jews and Christians in Spain during the middle ages, and they lived in relative harmony for an extended period of time with people of other religions in India. Today, however, there is a level of animosity and resentment among some Muslims that is without parallel in the past. Attendees will discover why this is so.