What do you do when an opportunity falls on you that reminds you of your past negligence or disobedience?
What do you do if something you refused to do
appears in an apparently post-dated mode?
Let me get to the point
How many have ever been involved in Muslim
evangelism? How many have made a Muslim friend with the singular purpose of
sharing the Gospel with them?
How many are scared of Muslims? How many equate
all of them to terrorists?
How many have longed to reach out to Muslims
but pulled back because they do not know how to do so?
How many have tried to reach out to them but
pulled back when their target became unruly or even violent?
How many made enemies of all Muslims around
them because they tried to share the Gospel with one?
Now where does all this leave you?
Many times, one is left feeling guilty of
having failed to do something Christ commanded us to be doing, making future
attempts scarier.
Now suppose with me that someone comes to you
and proclaims to you that they have become a Christian needing your assistance
because they have been disowned by their family, had all their property grabbed
from them and are running for their life.
All that guilt will find a release, a very easy
one. And it will be like it happens with a tube with so much pressure when it
is punctured.
Very few, if any, will even want to establish
how that conversion happened or even whether it actually happened.
Most will have no qualms paying exorbitantly
for anything the ‘convert’ needs. Many would not have any issue with denying
themselves essentials to make the ‘convert’ comfortable. They will even rope in
their friends and churches so that the new ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ is
comfortable.
The sad part is that very few will dare to question
the convert even when there are very clear instances of abuse or dishonesty.
It is when they become completely exhausted or
insulted that they find it prudent to seek for assistance, not exactly as
assistance but extra people to share the burden with.
I have been there. And I have been approached
severally to help in similar situations.
Interestingly, there are very few instances
that I have pursued that I found a genuine conversion.
How can I say this? I know someone is asking.
I simply decided to do what Christ commands us
to do for the new believer and the ‘convert’ fled.
What do I mean? I know someone is asking.
I will raise a team and resources to go the
whole hog.
What does a new believer require? What does a
new born in the faith need.
Nurture is the thing a child needs more than
anything else. The greatest desire of a new believer is growth in the faith.
Paying a lodging is a secondary requirement
that many times compromises the primary need since there is very little follow
up and discipleship you can do in a lodging house.
Since discipleship is long term, a house must
be got for the new believer in a safe place close to the disciplers and
sustenance for the whole duration of the discipleship (at least six months).
Among the team that I raise will include a
former Muslim (if possible) and ministers involved in Muslim outreach and
discipleship as their primary call.
The sad truth is that all those people who were
referred to me by churches and that I used that strategy run off once they
established that they could not access easy money. In fact, one literally disappeared
when he discovered I was on the way to see him at his ‘place’ since he had
supposedly lost his wife.
The truth is that nobody can disciple at arm’s
length. Nobody can disciple through remote. Nobody can disciple through text
messages and sending money.
It is even worse if the convert has converted
from a different religion since the conversion will confront everything they
had believed and practiced; their whole world view.
It is therefore folly to think that taking care
of their temporal needs on their terms has any spiritual impact on their
spiritual growth.
Does it mean that we cannot effectively
minister to converts form other religions whose conversions endanger their
lives? I know someone is asking.
Of course, we can and should. We MUST.
But we must be intentional in the way we do it.
We must be wholistic in the way we do it.
Otherwise, we could be pouring God’s resources
into bottomless pits of perceived need because we fear long term engagement. We
could be playing the con games the ‘converts’ are playing using our lack of
evangelism as their bait. And we will be inviting more and more conmen to raid
our resources.
I have had serious disagreements with churches
when I insisted that they must think beyond the temporal to rope me into their
interventions.
Without fail, they discarded my recommendations
only to later encounter what I had warned them against.
The truth is that I have every right to
determining how my support is utilised. And that is what past guilt fears to
enforce.
Let me give my recommendations to anyone who
encounters such an issue.
Lay down the ground rules of the kind of
assistance you will be offering and its conditions. For example, I will not
continue supporting you if you are not growing in discipleship. I will stop
supporting you if you do not regularly attend the church I attend or recommend.
Get them a house that your team can afford and
plan to pay for it until the new believer has some way to do it. I suggest for
at least six months. Insist that it is very close to where you stay so that you
can be monitoring and protecting them as you are discipling them. The land lord
knows that it is your house anyway so it is part of your responsibility.
Budget for their food for them and all the
other needs and purchase them yourself (I am talking about your team). You can then
give them an allowance of sorts for their miscellaneous expenditure.
Then establish a program where your team has
adequate and regular times to walk with them through their new faith. Have them
join and be involved in the church you are part of.
Get your families involved in their lives and
make them welcome to your homes.
Of course, you must have first prayerful raised
your team and walked together through what you intend to do.
Then as a team you have had adequate time with
the convert to go through his testimony to be able to establish his needs and
ascertain his conversion credentials. You can even invite a former Muslim or
minister involved with Muslims to help you in this.
Let me give what I think is the best
recommendation though it may be costlier in many ways.
Host the convert(s) in your home and grow with
them. Then your team will not have much of a problem supporting and discipling
them.
In summary, I want to insist that if you are
not ready for long term involvement, especially discipleship, please look for
someone with that long term capacity and support them.
Giving them handouts to soothe your conscience
is not only ineffectual in their journey of faith, it could actually be sin and
rebellion since it opens doors to be swindled or at best offering support to
someone without caring whether they are growing in their faith or not.
Compare it with stocking a toddler’s house with
food and leaving them all alone to figure out how to grow up and take care of
itself.
You neglect spiritual growth and any other
support you give is inconsequential.
Jesus taught before feeding. He healed in the
process of His teaching.
And of course, He did not send us to feed and
clothe in the Great Commission. He sent us to teach, to disciple.
Feeding is an aside, an accessory to the
teaching role.
Yet very few of those so called converts really
care for spiritual nurture.
That is not to say that there are none.
I know dear brothers and sisters who converted
and grew to the point that they are now ministers of the Gospel.
They were able to get there because the people
who took them in adopted the whole person and not just their ‘stomach’.
I hope this message will be of some help to
someone out there.
