The following comes from a breakout session presentation at a missions conference in Fort Worth, Texas on September 17, 2023. The slides are available to download as a PDF at the bottom of this page.
My husband and I have spent 15 years church planting in North Africa and then transitioning stateside to expand our work not only among Muslims, but to the unreached peoples of the world through business, media and leadership development. For the past 20 years, I’ve been loving Muslims and sharing Jesus with them and so it is from this experience that I share with you today.
The opportunity:
I don’t need to tell you that the nations have come to you! Current studies show that the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex is tracking as the fifth fastest-growing large metro area in the country by 2028. Every day, 500 people move to the area. 70% of those daily newcomers are foreign born. They arrive as refugees, international students and others who have migrated from their indigenous homeland for a better life and education for their children. Of these foreign born, there are 420 diaspora people groups, many of which represent the 3 billion unreached/unengaged people groups of the world. 23% of these of these unreached people groups are Muslims! In fact, Texas is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States with Houston being the largest, followed by Dallas with the second largest Muslim populated city with over 150,000 Muslims residing in the DFW area.
They worship in one of the 62 mosques and many of their kids learn at one of dozens of highly accredited K-12 schools, like Bright Horizons Academy in Richardson, which is the largest Islamic school in Texas and the southern United States, with the goal to serve the increasingly diverse Muslim community of Dallas and the neighboring cities. They shop at hundreds of halal stores and eat at the many halal restaurants. According to AbdelRahman Murphy, a Chicago-born, Irving-based Islamic teacher and Muslim community leader, other U.S.-based Muslims now refer to Dallas as the “Medina of America.” Medina, an Arabic name, can be translated as the “city of the prophet” and is commonly referred to as the city in Saudi Arabia, where the Prophet Muhammed began his work to establish Islam and where his body is entombed. Islam came to Dallas in the 1950s, through the efforts of Elijah Muhammad and his son Wallace Deen Muhammad with the founding of Dallas Masjid Al-Islam, the first mosque and later the first Islamic school. These efforts are what paved the way for the thriving Islamic community all over the DFW area.
It will be challenging for you to not know a Muslim in the DFW area. They are your neighbors, co-workers and classmates. So what do we do with this opportunity?
I’d like to present 4 responses to this opportunity and provide some practical next steps.
- Confront our own bias
- Connect relationally
- Connect culturally
- Connect spiritually
Pause for reflection. Ask God to give you his bias and heart towards Muslims…
Replace lies with truth:
- Muslims are created in God’s image - imago Dei.
- God loves them and will go to the ends of the earth in pursuit of them.
- You are his witness and have the authority of Jesus Christ and he is sending you. You are his witness for such a time as this and are called to extend love in action and word to every tribe and nation. You have not been given the spirit of fear or timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline (2 Tim 1:17), and as his witness, as his chosen son or daughter, holy and dearly loved, you are to clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Col 3:1).
And as you confront your own biases, confess them to Jesus and believe the truth about how Jesus sees Muslims, your heart will be in a ripe posture to pray and engage the Muslims that are in your life or that will be in your life.
Connect relationally
Your first filter for engaging Muslims is to connect relationally.
- Not a project or an, “end to a means.” Muslims are people. They have feelings, dreams, educational and financial goals. They laugh and make jokes. They love sports and have political opinions. They grieve, celebrate, and age.
- Discover your own common ground. Some of my best friends are Muslims because we connect on things of life, like cooking, shopping, child rearing, home decorating, leisure activities, media related work, English education and all things “life.”
- Be a friend and let them be a friend to you. A true friendship is not one-sided.
Connect culturally: Listen and observe
As Westerners, we can find it hard to listen, truly listen. We are used to constant noise, busyness, productivity, and talking about ourselves. Sometimes we get nervous and want to “relate” so when someone does share something interesting about themselves, we quickly try and connect by saying, “Oh, I’ve been there…my mom…my story.” When you listen, you are giving someone a gift. The gift of being heard. And they have a story. We can become better listeners by asking questions. Stay curious and keep the attention on the other person. Try reflective listening. When your Muslim friend begins to tell you something interesting about themselves or their culture, resist the temptation to try and relate a past experience but rather, stay curious and keep asking more questions.
Connect culturally: Listen & Observe
“Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” —James 1:19-20, ESV
“The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.” —Proverbs 20:5
Study the Woman at the Well (John 4:1-42).
Connect culturally: Adapt & Prefer
Connect culturally: Adapt & Prefer - What does this practically look like?
Clothing - Ladies, it means that you will choose to wear long pants or skirts and shirts that cover your bum with sleeves that come to your mid-arm…because you are preferring others over your own “rights” and preferences.
Ramadan - It may mean that you leave your water bottle in the car when it’s Ramadan and choose not to drink or eat from sunup to sundown during the month when your with your Muslim friends.
Hospitality -
- When you go to your Muslim friend's house or meet them for coffee, you take a small gift because you’ve observed the high value of gift giving in their cultural exchanges. Hospitality is a big deal for most Muslims.
- It may mean that instead of inviting them to your home, drop a hint of how it would be so nice for our families or friends to get together and how you’d love to taste some of their food. Don’t worry, you’ll get an invite and no, you are not being rude. It is truly their honor.
- It may mean that you are cautious about foods that contain pork or non-halal meats.
Greetings - It means that you learn what is appropriate. How many times do they kiss? What do the men do when they see each other? Mimic all cultural greetings. The majority of Muslims come from collective or communal societies, unlike the West, where we are highly independent and self-reliant. They will talk about their families and ask often about yours, typically in the first few sentences of the greeting routine.
Connect culturally: Be intentional and learn
Once you’ve begun building a relationship with your new Muslim friend, you have the opportunity to go deeper in your understanding of their culture and worldview. You can do this with them and also independently. Do a Google search about their home country and learn about their country’s history, political and/or social situation, follow a recommended news source or Instagram account that will give you direct insight to their country, read a book about an Muslim-born believer (MBB) from their region, find a recipe and cook a meal native to their country. This will most likely force you to go to an international supermarket, which is a delightful experience. Learn a few words in their language! The more you learn, the more questions you can ask, the more common ground you are creating together. They are not expecting you to become an Indian, or Malay, or Moroccan, but showing genuine care and interest about their homeland, will speak volumes of love to your Muslim friend and in doing so, you will be changed too as your love and empathy grows.
Connect Spiritually
Three types of Muslims:
- Cultural Muslims - most of their information is traditional. They were born in a Muslim family and didn’t have a choice to convert. They are nominal, peace-loving, and typically don’t perform all five pillars.
- Converted Muslims - often come from Western or Eastern backgrounds.
- Committed Muslims - devout, extreme or militant. This is the smaller percentage of any Muslim population and varies in degrees by a myriad of factors.
When we connect with our Muslims friends, we need to understand they are coming to the table with some misconceptions. Three common misconceptions are:
- That our Bible has been changed
- That we worship three gods
- That we are an immoral people (perpetually immoral, non-repentant)
Both Islam and Christianity claim to be revealed religions and depend on the sacred texts to wherein God discloses himself and his will to mankind. We don’t have to spend a time attacking the Quran, rather our focus should be on helping our Muslim friends accept the Bible as a revelation from God and therefore, believe its message. The Quran itself gives a Muslim ample reason to accept the Bible. Here are three Quranic verses that can create a bridge for your Muslim friends regarding the divine revelation of the Bible (Torah, Psalms, and Gospels).
It is also important to note that according to Islam tradition (hadiths), the Quran was only given because the immans have said the Bible has been were corrupted but that can’t be proven, it is just something Muslims are taught.
This first verse addresses the pagan unbelievers who didn’t believe God had spoken. The proof brought forward by the Islamic teachers in the Quran was not the Quran itself but rather the “book which Moses brought - a light and guidance to man.” In other words, the first five books of the Bible are presented to Muslims as reliable proof to pagans and Muslims of God sending down divine revelation.
Notice the last quote in Surah 5:47 that the people of the gospel are told to judge all things by what is put in the gospels. 600 years after Christ, the Quran records that even the prophet Mohammed understood and taught the Gospels were reliable to arrive at the truth.
Surah 10:94 reads, “Now, if you are in doubt concerning what We have revealed to you, then ask those who have been reading the Book before you. It is the truth that has come to you from your Lord, so do never become one of those who doubt.” This is a Quranic admission that the Bible is sufficient for matters of faith, namely the first 5 books of the Bible, the Psalms and the Gospels.
And just in case that wasn’t enough to establish the Bible’s reliability as revelation from God, throughout the Quran, Muslims are taught, “there are nothing that can alter the words of God.” According to the Quran, God promises to watch over the revelation and guard it from corruption.” As Christians, we know these words were first rooted in our scriptures. “Your word, O Lord is eternal and stands firm in the heavens” (Psalms 119:89). “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail” (Luke 16:17).
“If Muslims are consistent with their own teachings, they must accept the Torah, Psalms and Gospels as uncorrupted revelations from God.” —Fouad Masari. Use the Quran to remind them that the Book and the people of the book are trustworthy.
From the beginning of creation in Genesis to the end of times in Revelation, God refers to Himself as “us” or “our” and thus describes the doctrine of the Trinity. The word trinity comes from “tri” meaning three and “unity” meaning one.
God is three distinct individuals - God the Father, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit - in one true God.
What do Muslims believe about Jesus?
- Jesus is the son of God. Issa, ben al Miriam - Issa - (probably from the Greek - Issos) son of Mary. Normally, you call a son by the Father’s name and their response is that Jesus had no earthly Father. They believe, like us, that he was virgin born. We can agree on the sonship of Jesus.
- 93 times Jesus is mentioned in the Quran - 4x more than Mohammed
- Christ will be an intercessor on Judgment Day.
- They believe he is a healer.
- They believe Jesus is the Word of God. “Allah gives you the good news of John, as a confirmer of a Word from God, eminent and chaste, a prophet, among the righteous” (3:39). Jesus is the Word of God.
Take what they know about Jesus and build a bridge.
Christians are Immoral People - (Christians are Repentant People)
There are a few reasons why Muslims believe Christians are immoral. Muslims observe Christians who drink or drink in excess, eat pork, engage in sexual immorality or dress immodestly. They have TV/social media to help with this perception.
Original sin vs. accumulative sin
Muslims do not believe in original sin nor do they believe man is responsible for Adam’s sin (Romans 5:12). They believe everyone starts off like a white sheet - sinless - and then when someone sins, they begin accumulating them. They believe everyone has sinned except Jesus as he is the sinless prophet, while in the Quran, it is recorded that God forgives the sins of Mohammed three times.
Works vs Faith (Religion vs. relationship)
It is sobering to think about the hopelessness Islam offers when it comes to forgiveness of sins. They can pray 5x a day, observe Ramadan, give alms to the poor, and yet at the end of their life, it is Allah who will determine their eternal destiny. We have a different understanding of redemption and forgiveness of sins. We live by grace and God’s loving kindness leads us to repentance through the work of the Holy Spirit. They do good deeds, live by the pillars of Islam and hope that their good deeds will outweigh their bad ones.
Practical next steps
- Share your testimony!
- Pray. There is no greater pathway than to ask Jesus to give you his heart for Muslims and for open doors to connect or reconnect with Muslims. They take prayer very seriously and modeling prayer is one of the easiest ways to connect with your Muslim friends.
- Build bridges by telling Jesus stories. As it is helpful, build off what the Quran tells them about the Bible. You may not need to build this bridge and can simply refer to the Prophet Jesus, beginning a story like, “The Prophet Jesus told this parable…”
- Read or listen to stories of Muslim-born believers.
- Talk about your prejudices and relational opportunities with your home group or community group.
- Plan a visit to a local mosque with your home group or community group.
- Online class: Encountering the World of Islam
- Connect x3: Relationally, Culturally and Spirtually
Love your Muslim neighbors, friends, colleagues, and classmates! There are 99 names for God in Islam; not one of them is love. God wants to use you to show them His love through you in word and deed.
Be gentle and respectful: “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15). Remember Jesus was and is patient with you in your understanding and the Holy Spirit will guide your friends to truth. You are responsible to speak the truth in love... with gentleness and respect.
Speak of Jesus often, being confident that when God’s word goes out, “it will not return unto Him empty and will accomplish all he desires and achieve the purpose for which he sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).
Download the slides above in PDF format:
Reaching Muslims Presentation 2023 - PDF