Over the centuries there has been a shortage of Christians putting effort into bringing Christ to the Muslim world. One recent statistic stated that although Muslims make up 1/4 of the worlds population, only 4% of all Christian missionaries worldwide were working among them. Of course there were luminaries like Ramon Lull and Francis of Assisi, and in modern times the likes of Samuel Zwemer and thousands of lesser known servants of Christ ministering to Muslims around the world, but they were consoled mainly by the concept that they were planting and watering– No harvest was to be seen.
When David Garrison finished his book “A Wind in the House of Islam” in 2014, he had documented the beginnings of what was to become a huge movement throughout the Muslim world. It is good he published his book then, because he never would have been able to keep up with reporting what God has been doing through his Holy Spirit among Muslims since! In the meantime, there are groups of baptized Christians in every Muslim majority country in the world. Communio Messianica, the network establishing fellowship among all of these new believers in Christ from a Muslim background, has knowledge of more than 1 million MBBs (Muslim background believers) worldwide. The groups of MBBs are growing so fast that it may well be 2 Millions already. Dissatisfaction and even repulsion over how Islam has expressed itself in such radical forms like IS and other Salafist and Jihadist movements in recent years, the enormous pressure exerted by these movements on the muslim community and the ready availability of the liberating Gospel of Jesus Christ in the modern media have combined to cause dam breaks in the Muslim world. The pressure has been building up for so long, now the dams are breaking and muslims are turning to Christ in floods of converts.
We feel it is now time to acknowledge what God is doing in Missions in the muslim world with an international day of prayer for Muslim background believers.
First of all we need to thank God for bringing so many people out of darkness into the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Second we need to praise God for his mercy and greatness in pouring out his Spirit in our times.
Then we need to lift up our new brothers and sisters with a Muslim background in prayer. Many of them face intense pressure and persecution from their families, social contacts and society in general. Many are criminalized by the state and suffer at the hand of the law.
Thank you for joining us on the MBB global prayer day on November 18!
God bless you,
Rev. Dr. Paul Murdoch
Academic Dean, CM