Where the Gospel is Unwelcome
MARCH 20, 2023 | 3.5 MINUTE READ
DR. DAN SCHAFER, PRESIDENT
On an unremarkable street in a quiet part of a Greater Middle Eastern city sits a four-story villa. The villa is normally quiet, but occasionally, it fills with Christian leaders from around the region who use it for conferences, trainings, and fellowship.
I attended one of these training meetings a while ago, helping teach sessions on leadership. At the end of our time together, I was privileged to ordain a Muslim-background believer into Christian ministry.
This new pastor’s story is atypical in that region.
He’s been a believer for about fifteen years, longer than most in this location where it’s difficult to be a Christian. Many are forced to flee or live in solitude to avoid persecution.
Because there’s no well-built foundation of Christian tradition—no repository to draw from—young believers struggle to handle real-life situations: What does a Christian marriage look like? How does a Christian deal with a cancer diagnosis? How does a Christian withstand persecution?
That’s what makes these training sessions at the villa so important.
These believers are building a solid faith foundation by studying the Bible in a like-minded community.
And I’ve learned that this is a crucial difference between Islam and Christianity. Often, when a Muslim digs into the study of the Quran and Islam, their faith crumbles. It’s a story I’ve heard over and over again: “I was determined to be the best Muslim I could be. But the more I learned, the more I questioned.”
That’s how Farah’s journey began.
Farah read the Quran repeatedly, hoping to stockpile goodwill from Allah. “We don’t read for comprehension,” she told me. “We read for credits.”
But the more Farah read the Quran, the more confused, lonely, and scared she felt. The advice from her imam—a Muslim religious leader—was to read even more, but her troubled spirit persisted.
Farah was studying to be a lawyer, and around that time, she met a fellow law student named Abdul. Though Farah didn’t realize it immediately, Abdul was a Christian. “He kept talking about love and peace,” Farah said. “These were not things we Muslims usually talked about. One day Abdul said something like ‘God loves me.’” This shocked Farah. She recalled thinking, “I knew that I loved Allah, but there was absolutely no way that Allah loved me. That’s not who Allah is.”
Farah eventually worked up the courage to ask Abdul if he was a Christian.
He confessed without hesitation and asked Farah if she wanted to become a Christian, too. Abdul told Farah how much Jesus loves her and what He did on the cross. “Allah didn’t love me, but Jesus did,” Farah said. “So I made the decision to accept Jesus as my personal savior.”
Abdul himself started his journey toward Christianity years earlier when he found a book in his brother’s room. The book questioned Islam, and, having grown up in a home where the religion was undisputed, Abdul snuck into his brother’s room to read this book whenever he had the chance.
One day, Abdul’s brother approached him and said, “I have something shocking to tell you. Islam isn’t the truth.”
“I know,” said Abdul. He confessed to having read the book, and thus began a lifelong quest to make Jesus famous. Farah and Abdul are now married, and Abdul is the one we ordained for ministry at the villa that day.
Each time I interact with followers like these, I’m struck by how powerfully God is working in places of darkness. I met a man named Omar, who became a believer after he stumbled upon a Christian website on a public library computer. I met a woman they call “Mama,” who opened her home to Omar after his father kicked him out of the house due to his conversion.
Mama has a vision of reaching 3,000 people for Christ in her country.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit and the faithfulness of the saints, Mama’s vision can become reality.
On the day of Abdul’s ordination, we experienced the incredible joy of a holy celebration when two individuals who had been reached through the network of underground churches that Abdul leads came forward to proclaim their faith in Jesus through baptism!
The shades that had been pulled down to protect us from being seen by people from outside the villa were lifted to reveal a kiddy pool on the back patio, holding about eighteen inches of water. I was shocked and thrilled beyond measure when I was asked to perform the baptisms. It was in that shallow water that two new members of God’s family openly declared that they are no longer Muslims but are now followers of Jesus.
Growing out of that villa—out of house churches and covert worship services all over the region—is a movement that cannot be held by walls.
It will spread throughout the city, nation, and world. The fields are ripe with the harvest: how do we respond?
Action Steps:
Pray: Please pray for believers like Farah, Abdul, Omar, and Mama. Pray for strength in the face of opposition. Ask the Spirit to give them wisdom and favor in spreading the Gospel. Ask for open doors that give opportunities beyond what they can imagine.
Go: One-third of the world still doesn’t have access to the Gospel. Many of them live in a place like Dan visited, where the story of Jesus is unwelcome. Is God calling you to go to an unreached people group? We’d love to help you get there. Begin your journey here!
Author Bio: Dr. Dan Schafer is the president of WGM. He served as a local church pastor for twelve years. For more than thirty years, he has been a missionary and missions leader. A graduate of Ohio Christian University, Dan has an MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University and a Doctorate in Business Administration from Anderson University. He and his wife, Pam, have two children and six grandchildren.