English Intercede

Muslims face unique challenges as they are being increasingly immersed in the trends of the twenty-first century through the social media and internet platforms flooding the world today. Islam is an inherently prescriptive faith, based on medieval sources, that affects every aspect of a Muslim’s daily life and practices. Islam stands at a crossroads where three main views are commonly held to define its place in the world today: Traditionalism, Islamism, and Modernism.

In 1982, leaders from Assemblies of God World Missions met to discuss the lack of focus and evangelism among the world’s 700 million Muslims. A task force was commissioned to develop a strategy for mobilizing and training workers among Muslim peoples. The result was a new entity aptly named the Center for Ministry to Muslims (CMM).

All cultures incorporate funeral rites as a societal structure to enable people to process the trauma caused by death. These rites provide an avenue for mourning and processing grief and sorrow. Generally speaking, Islam practices the following funerary rites. If at all possible, the body is buried the same day of death, but certainly within 24 hours. They carefully observe an elaborate washing and preparation process of the deceased person’s body.

Islam is growing fastest in the United States among African Americans, most of whom at one time described themselves as Christians. Along with Southeast Asians and those from the Middle East, African Americans comprise one of the three largest ethnic groups of American Muslims and make up about 20 percent of the total U.S. Muslim population.

In late 1968, a French teenage girl, a recent attendee of Evangel Temple in Dakar, Senegal, stood at our front door. “Hello, Pastor” she said. Then, pointing to the Lebanese young man with her, she said, “This is my friend Faouzi. He would like to talk with you a bit. Is that okay?”

Just as the Law attracted many sojourners to the Israelite community during Old Testament times because of its superiority, many today are drawn to nations whose systems stand on its shoulders. The Law of Moses speaks to humankind’s desire for security, shalom, and selfhood. As people come to the West from all over the world, they are drawn to systems indebted to an ethic born of the Holy Scripture.

In the traditional way of evangelism, it is often perceived that we preach a gospel message, give an altar call, and ask people to express their desire to follow Jesus by an uplifted hand. We then ask them to repeat the sinner’s prayer. If they have prayed after us, we presume that they have become Christians. This traditional approach does not work with Muslims.

One of the great blessings of our ministry at Global Initiative is the opportunity to regularly interface with Christians from a Muslim background. It is amazing to note the variety of factors that influenced them to follow Jesus.

We must be willing to employ a full-court press and use every media tool available in order to deliver the Good News of Jesus to every Muslim. This article will highlight the roles of traditional and social media being employed by missionaries in fulfilling the Great Commission to preach the gospel to the world’s 1.9 billion Muslims.

April 2022 marks the 25th year for an intensive training program that began in Asia and has equipped over 1,000 students and impacted more than 50 nations. The Institute for Islamic Studies (IIS) was the first of a growing number of intensive training programs that reach around the world. This article will highlight its strategic beginnings and global impact.

Afghan women reacted swiftly after the Taliban suddenly took control of Kabul on August 15, 2021. In a flurry of interviews and news articles, journalists wanted to hear their stories. Prominent Afghan women, teachers, students, and rights activists expressed their fears that Afghanistan would revert back to the time when the Taliban controlled the country from 1996-2001.

Afghanistan is a diverse country consisting of more than 70 different ethnic groups and a total population of 38 million. Many of the ethnic groups come from the surrounding countries, like Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The three largest ethnic groups are the Pashtuns, the Tajiks, and the Hazaras; the Pashtuns are by far the largest (42%).