The Apostolic Mission in the Muslim World
Greg Livingstone
Greg Livingstone is General Director of Frontiers, Inc., a mission agency focusing on pioneer church-
planting in the Muslim world.
Acknowledging a variety of ministries within the Body of Christ, the author nevertheless calls for the global Church to yield new consecration and creativity to the apostolic mission of pioneer evangelism among the world’s Muslim peoples.
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phesians 4:11 is a reminder that there are at least six different types of mission in God s agenda for His
church. He means them to be complementary, with one calling never set against another to justify its
existence. The six missions are: 1) the Apostolic Mission; 2) the Prophetic Mission; 3) the Evangelistic Mission; 4)
the Pastoral Mission; 5) the Teaching Ministry; and 6) the Priestly Ministry (worship and intercession).
All too often, progress in any or all of these six missions is impeded by believers who make the mistake of ’ ’
seeing their particular gifts and calling as God s priority. This is understandable, since individually God s ’ ’ ’
priority should always be that which He s asked us to do. However, we re not to judge another man s
servant but be a faithful steward of our own assignments. ’
This article addresses only one of God s missions—the Apostolic Mission, and within a particular sphere of
humanity at that. THE APOSTOLIC MISSION TO THE MUSLIMS
I understand the Apostolic Mission to mean pioneer church-planting among Muslims who are not within
range of a viable church concentrating to win them.
This might be in an area:
1) where no Christian churches exist at all.
2) where Christian churches exist but employ a medium (language) or worship that is not the same as the
target Muslim people.
3) where Christian churches of the same language exist, but, for whatever reason, do not sense a mandate
from God to seriously focus on or give priority to these Muslims. Therefore, where a Muslim area or people group is not the target or focus of an existing viable national church or of an evangelical mission
society (with available resources), an effort to engage such a Muslim area or
people group is considered apostolic church-planting ministry. ’
Furthermore, I would like to focus here on those Muslims who live in limited-access countries. I m “ ”
differentiating between closed countries , where no Christian workers can enter under any circumstances
(this might include Albania), and limited-access countries, where only certain nationalities are not welcome
or where visas are not granted to professional missionaries who want to work among Muslims. For
example, Syria is not issuing missionary visas and is reticent to encourage Americans of any kind to take up residence in the country. But a Swiss, Mexican, or Egyptian could become a resident, providing he had
a professional skill acceptable to the Syrian government. ’ “ ”
I ve purposely avoided the term tentmaking because it is not sufficiently specific. To some, tentmaking “ ” “
means any Christian who holds a secular job in a particular place. For others it means a missionary who ‘ ’ ”
is posing as a student or an English teacher as a cover for his missionary activities. The first might be
self-supporting; the second might be entirely supported by churches in his home country.
THE IMPERATIVE OF THE APOSTOLIC MISSION
Nowhere in the scriptures does the Lord teach that we are to go and make disciples of all nations: 1) only if those nations or their leaders are friendly.
2) only if the governmental leaders of the messenger and of the recipient Muslim people have diplomatic
relations.
3) only if it is not dangerous to the messenger.
4) only if the host government gives you permission to preach the Gospel. Can we imagine the Lord Jesus “
Christ saying before His ascension, Go and make disciples of all nations except in closed countries or ’ ””
where they won t give you a missionary visa ?
5) only if church leaders who are citizens of the same country as the target Muslims agree. ’
6) only if it s certain your ministry will not adversely affect existing Christians. It can be easily argued Biblically that it was and is the intent of God that Christians from somewhere carry
out the Apostolic Mission to every tribe, tongue, nation, and socio-economic religious group regardless of
opposition.
Our tendency is to oppose pioneer church-planting in Muslim countries because, from our perspective, poor
judgment was exercised by someone in the past. Let us instead argue from Scripture. It is perfectly
understandable, for example, that some Christian leaders in Egypt, Pakistan, or Indonesia would want to
protect their congregations from harassment or violence from the Muslim community that might be
provoked by evangelism among Muslims. It is understandable, but it is not a Biblical justification for being
disobedient to the Great Commission. What can be justifiably protested is non-Biblical evangelism. Evangelism that is insensitive to human
dignity and culture and that is unnecessarily provocative is not Biblical evangelism. The New Testament is “ ”
full of injunctions to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, a Jew to a Jew (a Muslim to a
Muslim? a Kuwaiti to the Kuwaiti?), and therefore there is always room for upgrading our evangelism to
make it increasingly effective. This is not an argument, however, for limiting evangelism to presence as
opposed to proclamation and persuasion. The Bible clearly calls us to all three.
CROSS-CULTURAL DISCIPLEMAKERS If we start with the premise, then, that the Apostolic Mission is disciple-making and church-planting among
those who are not being ministered to by a church, then we are most likely meaning cross-cultural disciple-
making. Therefore, what is needed is a foreign missionary. The missionary may carry the same passport as
the Muslim he is seeking to reach but come from another segment of society (usually another ethnic group)
and possibly a different socio-economic level. Therefore, he must find a way to cross cultural barriers and “ ”
become a trusted significant other —an insider—one from whom the Muslim can receive truth.
When we think about it, every place in the world today where the Christian church exists was at one point
the recipient of a foreign or cross-cultural proclaimer of the Gospel. So nothing has changed. The peoples ’
of the world without a church still need first, apostles—someone who s going to start the church where it ’
doesn t exist (1 Cor. 12:28).
Most Christians are not called to Apostolic Ministry. In fact, maybe only one percent of the
church—whether in Kenya, Cairo, or Calcutta—has this assignment. However, every expression of the
church should be praying that the Lord of the harvest will send forth apostolic laborers into His harvest
where no one is working. Christians everywhere will want to get behind these pioneers, certainly not slow
them down. God must be pleased when local churches from every continent are moved with compassion to “ ” ’
set apart apostolic missionaries to start sister churches among Muslims who still don t have a community “ ”
of believers made up of their kind of people. MINISTRY IN LIMITED-ACCESS COUNTRIES
It is safe to say that the vast majority of the predominantly Muslim cities and/or people groups exist under
the watchful eye of governments which are in various degrees hostile to the Gospel. They see no reason to
encourage defection from Dar al Islam. Some governments, wanting to appease the orthodox Muslim
segments, will take very definite steps to prevent Muslims from becoming Christians. Many Muslim
countries are seeking to integrate sharia law to some extent into their legal code—if not adopt it altogether. “ ”
Thus, the law of apostasy may be in effect in varying degrees. Apostolic Mission in such places in risky business, but it is still Biblical business. Andrew van der Bijl “ ’
may be correct when he suggests that There are no closed countries as long as you re willing to not come ”
back out. Was not prison a normal New Testament experience? Van der Bijl may be right again when he ’
says that he doesn t believe that Muslims are going to take Christians seriously until missionaries are quite
willing to go to prison for the Gospel. After all, the Muslim Brotherhood has many members who are
willing to go to prison in obedience to Islamic ways as they perceive them. How can Christians become
credible as proclaimers of the Way, the Truth, and the Life if we are not content to go to prison if such
action will indeed lead to the progress of the Gospel among a certain Muslim people group (Phil. 1:12)? This is not to say that it is usually necessary to go to prison or to hold a martyr mentality. Nearly every
Muslim state accepts foreigners for some functions. Numerous Christians in Muslim countries are effective
in friendship evangelism. Surely our Creator can make us creative enough to find ways to place or
encourage appropriately-gifted national ambassadors for Christ in Muslim countries where they can make
disciples. Some of these people will hold down full-time jobs which make a meaningful contribution to the
country. Others will have part-time jobs which still make sense to the target people and allow them to be
perceived as good, helpful people. A few will be given an open door through a God-provided sponsor to
openly utilize almost all their time for Christian ministry, having a visa arranged by a Muslim friend. A ’
few may be led to work without a resident visa. Let s remember that God will continue to raise up men like Jeremiah who will preach in obedience to the call of God, despite the disapproval of Muslim or “ ’ ”
Christian. Who are you to judge another man s servant? , Romans 14:4 reminds us.
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GOD S NORM: A TEAM MINISTRY
I would suggest, both from Scripture and from experience, that no one man or woman has all the ministry
gifts necessary to do pioneer church-planting among Muslims. Everyone who would do such a work has
the apostolic calling but still needs to be led by someone who has the gift of an apostle—a leader who can
motivate and help others to break new ground, persevering until national brethren will take responsibility
for the church-planting effort. I call this person the team leader. Besides the team leader, the team must have disciple-makers. Not all disciple-makers, however, will have
the same ministry functions.
1) Friend-Makers. Some are more gifted to be friend-makers, able to reach out to strangers and begin
significant relationships.
2) Hospitality. Others are gifted to create a warm atmosphere, preparing food and drink, which is
necessary in most Muslim cultures, in the process of becoming a bearer of truth who will be heard. “ ”
3) Evangelists. By evangelist I mean that person who is gifted by the Spirit of God to help a Muslim see
and feel his sin and need for a Savior. Such a gift is not in abundance but is vitally necessary. Without this gift on the team, we may do all friendship but very little evangelism. We need that person who can
motivate a non-Christian to open his heart to the Lord for salvation.
4) Pastoral Care. Praying with someone to receive Christ and His forgiveness is just the beginning. Since
the evangelist tends to quickly move on to find someone else to evangelize, a very important part of the
church-planting team is the person with pastoral gifts who can help the new believer to feed himself from
the Scriptures, fellowship with God in prayer, and learn to relate to other believers. Most Muslims are
extremely paranoid at their time of conversion and want to flee the area. The disciple-maker with pastoral
gifts can help the new believer relate to his family effectively. He may even serve as a mediator until the “ ”
shock of betrayal has passed. 5) Teachers. The teacher can help new Muslim believers to understand, for example, the difference
between the Islamic concept of God and the Biblical teaching about God. The convert may need help with
church history and many other vital areas of understanding. When the Muslim believer doubts, he will
need the apologetics provided by the teacher.
6) Facilitators. Beside the team leader and the disciple-makers, a church-planting team needs facilitators.
A team may go to Damascus, Jakarta, or Delhi as a relief agency, a business enterprise, or some other
project. The company or project leader probably will need to be somebody who can concentrate on that
visible, desired service the team brings. Therefore, the project leader should be someone different from the
team leader. He may have professional qualifications which provide an entry for the entire team. He may be able to make a substantial amount of money to help support other team members who may not be able to
generate much income, either from their job or from supporting churches. Another kind a facilitator on the
New Testament church-planting team is a person like Dr. Luke or John Mark who may help the effort by
looking after the needs of the team members themselver. He might be a teacher of the children or simply
one to take care of practical problems (subh as banking, shopping, interaction with government officials, or
office work) to free others for ministry.
CONCLUSION God gives different gifts and callings to the members of His church, and this diversity should be gratefully acknowledged and strategically employed. While relatively few Christians are called to Apostolic Mission to unreached peoples, and even fewer to Apostolic Mission among Muslims, all believers should lend their enthusiastic support to this “front line” of the Gospel. Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and obedience to the Great Commission demand no less.
Author’s address: 1605 Elizabeth St., Pasadena, CA 91104, USA.