Addressing MBB misconceptions about Christianity
When a Muslim begins to follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, his or her discipler will often encounter difficulties because the MBB has misconceptions about Christianity. The solution seems simple – teach them the truth about Christianity. While that is the solution, the issue for the MBB is that their whole way of doing things has shifted from trying to be good enough to know God and get to heaven to trying to relate to Him — but they know little of Him. They are often very disoriented.
The disorientation comes partly from not knowing how to live because the Quran prescribed so much of their life. Without it, they have to completely re-orient their lives. For instance, the Quran and Hadith describe how far up the arm one must wash before prayer. The Bible does not. It is silent about pre-prayer washing. MBBs have asked me if they needed to wash before prayer, and to what extent. It was troubling them — they wanted to do things correctly. I showed them scripture about the importance of having a clean heart, and that God’s focus was on the inside rather than the outside.
I thought that the conversation might end there, but was surprised when it ended hours later. We covered topics such as righteousness, salvation and justification by faith, peace with God, submission to God, Christ in us, mercy, grace, God’s nearness and many other topics. Christianity is multi-layered and its concepts are often built on each other, so small things may lead to the need for much explanation.
Disciplers may not have time to fully explain topics to MBBs. MBBs also often have critical questions about things that they need to know very quickly. The MBB often cannot seek advice from a discipler at the moment they need the answers. When an MBB consults the Bible, their misconceptions often prevent them from proper understanding, leading to improper actions.
I was an MBB and have interviewed hundreds of MBBs about their salvation experiences and life after salvation. My book, Discipling Muslim Background Believers, is a useful resource for correcting MBB misconceptions because its handbook format and cross-referencing allow an MBB to quickly reference important topics. The biblically -based topics are written with sensitivity to MBBs. A discipler or an MBB can quickly find answer to the MBB’s questions, removing both disorientation and misconception.
Keywords: MBB discipleship, misconceptions, disorientation
A Muslim background believer testimony
When Christians reach out to Muslims in the love of Christ, wonderful things can happen. One example is a former Muslim/animist who has now been used by God to lead many to Christ and start hundreds of small groups and churches. His story is in Discipling Muslim Background Believers. He is MBB3, and his salvation story, in his own words, is below.
“I come from a family where my father was a very devoted Muslim. My mother came from an animist background, but became devoted through my father’s devotion. My mother was infertile, and my parents tried for years to have a baby. They did all the Muslim prayers and nothing was happening. My mother opted to go to the traditional way of seeking a solution. That took my mother to a fertility shrine. They consulted a fertility god and my mother became pregnant. My father would make me to remain loyal to Allah and my mother was making me go every year to the shrine. I was loyal there too. I grew up and I was confused about Allah and the gods. I thought about breaking my religions to the gods, but I was told that there were spirits attached to them and if you separate yourself from them the spirits will destroy you. Islam teaching on the other hand that consulting the gods was against Allah. There was confusion in my life. My Muslim teachers didn’t have a solution for me when I asked what I could do to protect myself from the spirits if I stopped going there. They just didn’t have an answer to that. I saw that truly speaking they didn’t have answers to that because the same items the use in Muslim sacrifice here are the same items they use in the shrine. They both use rams. I was beginning to think Islam doesn’t have the power to save me from this shrine. Where do I go? I was confused. A couple shared stories about a man called Jesus that has power over everything God has created.
One question that was in my heart was the question of assurance. What’s the proof that this Jesus is going to save me from the destructive powers of evil? The stories were told about Jesus driving demons out of a demon possessed man and raising the dead and He himself rising up from the dead and declaring that He is the good shepherd for humanity. Those were things that really answered question in my heart.”
Keywords: MBB, Muslim salvation story, Christian, Christian love, discipleship, Muslim ministry
How well are we loving?
Two things about love — it is active and it is intentional.
While Christians are called to love everyone, we are not called to relate to everyone. This truth brings up some key questions. Are we relating to the ones we are supposed to be relating to? Do we need to add or subtract people? Even entire people groups? Both adding and subtracting need to be done with wisdom and in a biblical way.
Another set of questions surround how we love the people in our lives. Are we intentional? Do they experience our love, and to the extent that we should love them? Is our intention only an intention, or are concrete, meaningful (to the recipient) actions involved?
A further set of questions surrounds how we measure our love. Are we giving to get? In other words, is it only worth it if you are receiving what you expect to receive? Or are you loving the way Jesus loved, wanting the best for those you love and laying down your life for those you love? Are you giving freely and without setting conditions?
The best way to know if you are loving well is to study love in the Bible, as well as those who loved well. The goal is to learn the ways of love rather than creating a perfect standard for behavior.
As you learn these ways, ask God to enable you to improve the way you love. He is love, and wants to love others well through each of us. As we continue to go to Him in humility and ask to be transformed in the way we love, He will answer our prayers in His way and time.
Keywords: loving well, love assessment
Imagine what would happen if Christians loved Muslims biblically
Some estimates say that there are about 1.8 billion Muslims in the world. While some of them are decidedly against outsiders, most of them are loving, hospitable people, even to outsiders. Yet, they are mainly unreached by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Being devoted to Christ (see previous post) means doing what He says and becoming more like Him. Part of that means loving those whom He loves. There are more than 2 billion Christians in the world, but only about 4,200 missionaries to the entire Muslim world. Thanks to their sacrificial efforts, there are currently about 10 million Muslim background believers in the world. That means that less than 1% of Muslims have become Christians. As stunning as that number is, consider that surveys estimate that 80% of Muslims do not even know a Christian.
I have heard many reasons given for not reaching out to Muslims. Among them are that Muslims are strangers or that they are considered enemies. For Christians, those are not really excuses because we are called to love the stranger and our enemies.
I write these things not to bring up guilt or shame. Those are poor motivations to reach out to people. Christians have the privilege of responding to the love of God that moves out of their spirits and reaches out to invite others to know the blessings that we have received. We get to invite others into the blessing that we know every day.
Some people feel the tug of the Holy Spirit to reach out to Muslims, but do not know what to do. They may even feel unprepared, especially when they consider that missionaries usually prepare for 2 to 4 years before entering the Muslim world. Many could not spend that long to prepare even if they wanted to.
The task involves at least two things: 1) equipping Muslim background believers to grow in faith so that they can extend God’s kingdom; and 2) evangelizing Muslims. Among the many problems encountered while trying to complete this task is the Muslim community’s reaction to a Muslim becoming a Muslim background believer (“MBB”) – it isolates and persecutes the MBB. MBBs need easily accessible biblical teaching in a format that can show them how to progressively grow in their new faith.
My books give MBBs the opportunity to progressively grow in their faith even in isolation. The books also help Christians accomplish the task described above by giving insights into Islam and Muslims. They further provide practical steps for reaching Muslims and then discipling them.
To disciple an MBB, Christians can use Discipling Muslim Background Believers. It’s in an handbook format and contains a discipleship reading path that guides the reader through various short sections that will: help an MBB grow in faith; correct misconceptions about God; help an MBB deal with spiritual and physical problems that MBBs commonly face; and help them start and grow small groups and even churches.
The discipleship pathway also deals with evangelizing Muslims, another part of reaching out in Christian love to the Muslim world. The Muslim seeker pathway helps a Christian understand how to reach out to a Muslim and provides several ways that I have found useful in reaching out to Muslims.
There are Bible studies that correspond to the discipleship and seeker pathways, providing those reaching out to the Muslim world readily available materials for starting small groups.
You don’t have to be a missionary to use my books, though they would be useful for missionaries. The books neither follow nor prevent the use of any specific outreach methodology because the handbook, to which the other four relate, is a reference book. It can be used effectively in a variety of ways. The handbook can be useful to Christians who are just beginning to minister to Muslims and to those who have been ministering to Muslims successfully for decades. Christian ministers that have looked at them have remarked that they are clear, easy to use, and don’t require lots of reading in order to be useful.
My books can help equip Christians to effectively reach out to Muslims and disciple Muslim background believers.
Salvation and church growth are God’s work, and He invites Christians to join with Him in that work. He is calling some of us to reach out to Muslims. If you feel that tug in your heart, respond to God’s call and get yourself equipped for the work. The extent of Muslim response, in some ways, depends on how Christians respond to that call of the Holy Spirit.
Imagine what would happen if even a slightly larger portion of 2 billion Christians would effectively reach out to the Muslim world with God’s invitation to join His family and to grow in discipleship.
Keywords: Christian, evangelism, gospel, MBB, MBB discipleship, Discipling Muslim Background Believers
The hallmark of a Christian is love
Christians don’t need to compete to find their value. So what should they be about? A Christian knows the love of God, and loves back in response. The relationship produces a simple and pure devotion to Christ, characterized by loving God and people. Love is the hallmark of a Christian – a result of being loved.
Keywords: God loves you, relationship, value, competition, simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ