Entire Mosques Coming to Christ

Entire Mosques Coming to Christ
in Sub-Saharan Africa
By Michelle A. Vu , Christian Post Reporter
March 26, 2012|4:19 pm – Found on http://www.christianpost.com

The idea of more than 200,000 former Muslims coming to faith in Sub-Saharan Africa within a few short years is mind-boggling. But entire mosques in Sub-Saharan Africa coming to faith? That news is even harder to wrap one’s mind around, but it is in fact what is happening.

In the new book Miraculous Movements, Jerry Trousdale opens up a new world to Western readers, taking them into the heart of the miraculous movement of God in Africa that is transforming the hearts of Muslims.

Trousdale writes that “unprecedented” events are happening including: Multiple cases of entire mosques coming to faith

Thousands of ordinary men and women being used by God to achieve seemingly impossible outcomes.

Tens of thousands of Muslim background Christians becoming dedicated intercessors who fast and pray for the gospel to penetrate the next community Muslim people groups that never had even one church among them now have more than fifty church planted, and in some cases more than one hundred churches – within two years of engagement

Former sheikhs, imams and militant Islamists making up 20 percent or more of the new Christian leaders in Muslim regions

“We had seven years now in Africa. And of the people in Africa, 81 different people groups that have at least 50 percent Muslim have now significant movements among them. We are talking about fairly extreme areas of Islamic influence. These are people who have been Islamic for well over a hundred years, some hundreds of years.”

“This is just good news that God is in the same business as He was in the book of Acts,” said the missions leader. “Disciples are multiplying greatly and even priests, imams and sheikhs are becoming obedience to the faith. So I no longer doubt that we can finish the task in this generation.”

Although there are many poignant stories in this book, one narrative about a blind former businessman is particularly hard to forget. Zamil (names are changed for security reason) was a successful businessman and a respected leader at his mosque. One night he dreamed that Jesus the Messiah appeared to him and said that Jesus was the light of the world. After that dream, Zamil could no longer see.

Zamil’s family, including his wife, abandoned him as soon as they found out he had become a Christian. He was blind, homeless and lost all his possessions after he became a Christian.

Under Mama Nadirah’s care, Zamil attended Discovery Bible Studies and learned to be an obedient disciple of Jesus and that Jesus commanded his follower to go out and lead others to him. Despite being blind, Zamil told Mama Nadirah he intended to go to
another village and become a disciple-maker for Jesus. Everyone told him that he couldn’t go because he was blind. But Zamil got into a taxi and went to a Muslim community nearby. A few days later, he called Mama Nadirah and told her where he was, and within a month he called to announce that a church had now been planted in the community and he was coming home before setting off for his next community.

While Trousdale first and foremost credits God for the unexplainable phenomenon occurring among Muslims in Africa, he also points to a new disciple making program.

The Disciple Making Movement approach consists of the following strategies:

• Go slow at first in order to go fast later – Jesus chose disciple making as his
  strategy to prepare people to launch a global movement
• Focus on a few to win many – Jesus spent almost all his attention on intentionally
  discipling just 12 men, focusing especially on four of them
• Engage an entire family or group, not just the individual – the New Testament
  records whole families coming to faith
• Share only when and where people are ready to hear – only invest time in
  people God has already prepared to bridge the gospel into their oikos, or family or
  community
• Start with creation, not with Christ – Muslims need to start in Genesis to see
  similarities and differences how the Quran and Bible describe God
• It’s about discovering and obeying, not teaching and knowledge
• Disciple people to conversion, not vice versa – Jesus chose ordinary men and
  allowed them to walk with him as he revealed truths of God, then they came to a
  point where they decided to become a follower of Jesus. This discipleship model
  begins with discipleship and moves toward conversion. For Eve, it was knowledge
  instead of obedience that led to her fall into sin
• Coach lost people from the beginning to discover and obey biblical truth
• Prepare to spend a long time making strong disciples, but anticipate
  miraculous accelerations
• Expect the hardest places to yield the greatest resultsHe continues, ” Muslims in scores of different people groups are submitting their lives to
  Jesus at rates that are much faster than most church growth in North America. And it is
  happening, not by making the gospel journey somehow easier to traverse, but by focusing
  from the first day on making obedient disciples who are daily seeking to follow Jesus and
  obey his will. That is the pathway over which hundreds of thousands of Muslims have
  come to Jesus.”