Just six percent of current evangelical missionaries are focused on Muslims, but there are signs of a breakthrough, reports Christianity Today (Sept. 9).
The magazine conducted interview with some 20 well-informed sources. “Most were guarded in what information they would share”, due to risks involved, according to Stan Guthrie, author of the article. While one might wonder if there is wishful thinking involved in those optimistic evaluations, the article provides specific data.
There are “hard” areas: in the Horn of Africa, only one person per church-based evangelical agency becomes a Christian every year, according to an anonymous missionary. In some Muslim countries, missionaries used to work for years without a single convert. Things can change, however. In Mauritania, where there was no known convert in 1979, there were about 100 in 1999.
In Morocco and Tunisia, the has also been an increase, although the total number in each country can only be counted in hundreds, not in thousands. In Algeria the growth seems more significant: there were said to be 12,000 believers in 1999, mostly from the Berber minority. Those trends have been reported by the secular media as well, according to an older report from the news agency Infosud (Feb. 22), which explained that they are a consequence of both disappointment with the current state of Islam in the country and of evangelical radio broadcasting.
Similarly, according to Operation World, the number of Iranian evangelicals has grown from 500 worldwide at the time of the Iranian Revolution to 30,000 today, including 15,000 in Iran. Countries such as Bangladesh and Indonesia are reported to experience a growth in the percentage of evangelicals higher than population growth. Charisma magazine reports that Turkey is likewise experiencing evangelical growth to an extent that the secularist government has unleashed new restrictions against Christians.
There are now 50 charismatic and evangelical churches in Turkey– a changed situation from 15 years ago when there were only a few congregations. Church leaders see the country as a key to evangelizing other Muslim nations. Because of the Western style and connections of evangelical churches, they come in for the harshest treatment from the government, writes Tomas Dixon.
(Christianity Today, 465 Gundersen Drive, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188)
— This report was written with Jean-François Mayer
