Source: Lausanne Global Analysis, January 19, 2017
Over the last year or so, Christians across the UK have been confronted with a sudden escalation of media accounts of the actions of extremist Muslims, with stories of terrible atrocities and bloodshed in Iraq and Syria. What has shocked them even more is that British Muslims by the hundreds have gone out to these war zones to give their support to ISIS and other extremist groups. Many Christians have focused on the effects of Islamization and on the persecuted church, responding with fear and alienating themselves from face-to-face interaction with their Muslim neighbors.
In this context, a new phenomenon networking both agencies and churches has proved to be a catalyst to unity and prayer. This prayer-based relational network is called Mahabba (“love” in Arabic); and it has flourished over the last four years, mainly because of the unprecedented opportunity in the UK. Its emphasis is on motivating and mobilizing “ordinary” Christians rather than just “specialists” to reach their Muslim neighbors. The model is a prayer-based relational network which equips local churches with mentoring and training materials, and which helps church leaders to train ordinary members of their churches to relate to Muslims in love and be able to explain the gospel clearly.
» Read full article and see also the rest of the January issue of Lausanne Global Analysis.